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Precisely studying the biological consequences of heat stress (HS) in agriculturally relevant animals typically requires expensive climate-controlled facilities, infrastructure inaccessible to most researchers. Thus, study objectives were to explore the efficacy of an electric heat blanket (EHB) as an alternative method for evaluating HS and to determine whether EHB-induced hyperthermia affects production parameters similar to natural HS. Lactating Holstein cows (n = 8; 133 ± 3 d in milk; 709 ± 31 kg; 2.6 ± 0.3 parity) were housed in individual box stalls and allowed to acclimate for 3 d. After acclimation, the trial consisted of 2 experimental periods (P). During P1 (3 d), cows were housed in thermoneutral conditions for collecting baseline data. During P2 (7 d), cows were fitted with an EHB. During the entire experiment cows were fed ad libitum, and dry matter intake (DMI) was recorded daily. Cows were milked twice daily …