ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Animal Nutrition and Metabolism
Yellow light improves milk quality, antioxidant capacity, immunity, and reproductive ability in dairy cows by elevating endogenous melatonin
Provisionally accepted
Zixia ShenWeijia WangXuening LiuXiangao ShanHao WuGuangdong LiSongyang YaoYunjie LiuLaiqing YanPengyun JiBingyuan Wang
Guoshi Liu*- China Agricultural University, Beijing, China
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Background: Light is an important environmental factor influencing animal production. In livestock production, light management techniques are common. They can enhance production and reproductive performance. Aim: This study investigated the effects of light wavelength on dairy cows. It focused on production, immunity, antioxidant capacity, and reproduction. It emphasized yellow light. Methodology: In Experiment 1, 196 cows were divided into three groups and subjected to natural dark, red, and yellow light for 2 weeks. Results indicated yellow light was most effective. This prompted a second experiment. In Experiment 2, 80 postpartum cows received nocturnal yellow light until their next calving. Blood and milk samples were analyzed for immune, antioxidant, and reproductive markers. Results: The findings demonstrated that yellow light significantly enhanced milk yield (32.39 to 37.58 kg) and composition, including milk fat percentage, milk protein percentage, lactose percentage, milk urea nitrogen, and somatic cell count. It improved immune status (TNF-α: 181.10 to 174.90 pg/mL, IL-6: 117.30 to 113.90 pg/mL, IL-10: 31.18 to 32.86 pg/mL), antioxidant status (superoxide dismutase: 111.80 to 117.60 U/mL, total antioxidant capacity: 8.28 to 8.76 U/mL), and superior reproductive performance (the interval to first postpartum estrous cycle: 61.72 ± 1.27 to 56.91 ± 1.14 days, the pregnancy rate after first-insemination: 23.68 ± 4.42% to 38.15 ± 5.00%, the pregnancy days after first-insemination: 96.84 ± 4.88 to 82.95 ± 4.50 days).This was associated with enhanced melatonin levels in serum (36.30 to 59.48 pg/mL) and milk (20.49 to 29.22 pg/mL). Conclusion: Nocturnal yellow light exposure, by elevating endogenous melatonin, is a viable non-invasive strategy to improve overall productivity, health, and welfare in dairy farming.
Keywords: antioxidant, Cow, Immunity, Melatonin, production, reproductive, Yellow light
Received: 23 Oct 2025; Accepted: 16 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Shen, Wang, Liu, Shan, Wu, Li, Yao, Liu, Yan, Ji, Wang and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Guoshi Liu
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