Previous studies have documented the negative effects of heat stress during the dry period (DP) on dairy cow performance during the next lactation. Analysis of 6 different studies (n = 144 cows) was performed to summarize the correlations of rectal temperature (RT), respiration rate (RR) during the DP and milk production during the first 8 wks of lactation (MILK) with calf weight (CW), body weight at calving (BW), gestation length (GL) and DMI pre and postpartum. Studies were conducted in Florida during the summer and dry cows were assigned into 2 treatments. Heat stressed cows (HT; n = 75) were kept under shade but cooled cows (CL; n = 69) had shade with soakers and fans. Average RT and RR of HT increased (P < 0.01) vs CL (39.4 ± 0.05 vs 39.1 ± 0.05°C and 77 ± 1.8 vs 51 ± 1.9 bpm, respectively). In addition, CL produced more milk during the first 8 wks of the subsequent lactation relative to HT (36.6 ± 0.9 vs 31.4 ± 0.9 kg; P < 0.01). Correlation analysis indicated that RR of HT were negatively correlated with MILK (R = −033; P < 0.01) and GL (R = −0.33; P = 0.01). In HT, RT was also negatively correlated with MILK (R = −0.25; P = 0.03) and GL (R = −0.48; P < 0.01) and tended to be negatively correlated with CW (R = −0.20; P = 0.09). In addition to being negatively correlated with RT and RR, HT MILK was positively correlated with CW (R = 0.36; P < 0.01), GL (R = 0.28; P = 0.04) and DMI postpartum (R = 0.32; P = 0.01). In CL, no correlations were observed for RR, but RT was positively correlated with BW (R = 0.25; P = 0.03) and MILK was positively correlated with DMI postpartum (R = 0.33; P = 0.01) and tended to be positively correlated with GL (R = 0.24; P = 0.08).Moreover, the overall RT was 39.1 ± 0.48°Cand 61 ± 19.5 bpm, which indicates that RR over 61 bpm is an indicator of heat stress in cows during the dry period. In summary, the more heat load a cow carries in the dry period, the greater are the negative effects on subsequent milk, which may suggest a threshold for the effects of heat stress. And, variation among cows within the HT group indicates that cows with longer gestation length have heavier calves, eat more postpartum, and produce more milk, but not as much as CL.