Knowledge, Innovation and Technology in Scientific Research Vol. 3

Climate change challenges dairy sustainability through interacting biological, infrastructural and socioeconomic pathways rather than through heat stress alone. This critical narrative review evaluates how climatic hazards propagate from feed and water resources through dairy animals, milk collection, processing, refrigeration, distribution and waste, and assesses the evidence for adaptation and resilience strategies across these connected stages. Literature published primarily from 1 January 2008 to 10 July 2026 was identified through multidisciplinary scholarly sources, supplemented by citation chaining and authoritative bibliographic verification. Evidence was appraised for design strength, exposure measurement, external validity, treatment of uncertainty and capacity to address cross-stage consequences. The strongest and most consistent evidence concerns heat stress in dairy cattle, including reduced milk yield, altered metabolism, impaired reproduction and welfare, and effects that may extend from late gestation into offspring performance. Evidence for climate effects on forage quality, water demand, microbial safety, logistics and cold-chain performance is important but more heterogeneous and frequently model-based. Farm-level cooling can substantially reduce thermal load, yet its effectiveness and sustainability depend on water, electricity, housing, capital and local climate. Nutritional and genetic strategies can complement environmental modification, although genetic definitions of thermotolerance must avoid selecting narrowly for production persistence at the expense of survival, fertility or recovery. Beyond the farm gate, resilience depends on reliable cooling, energy and water flexibility, route and supplier diversification, monitoring, coordination, finance and governance, but these measures have been evaluated less rigorously in dairy-specific climate studies. Mitigation and adaptation can be synergistic, but cooling energy, water use, resource redundancy and emissions-intensity objectives can also create trade-offs. The review argues for whole-chain, multi-objective resilience assessment that combines biological tolerance with infrastructure robustness, recovery capacity and equitable adaptation. Priority research should connect farm and post-farm datasets, evaluate interventions under real climate extremes, incorporate uncertainty and distributional effects, and measure continuity of safe milk supply alongside conventional environmental metrics.