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Maximizing Dairy Herd Reproductive Health: Understanding the Impact of Heat Stress and Investing in Cooling Solution.
Are your summer electricity bills causing you to shudder? Maybe your barn fans are one of the biggest culprits.
Why is it important to clean your fans before summer? Are dirty fans costing you time, money and energy?
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Efficient Dairy Cow Cooling with Low-Pressure, Low-Volume Evaporative SystemsHeat stress becomes a significant challenge for dairy farmers as temperatures rise, impacting cow health, milk production, and overall farm efficiency. Traditional cooling methods, like high-pressure soaker systems, use large amounts of water, raising concerns about water conservation and wastewater management. An effective alternative is the low-pressure, low-volume evaporative cooling system, which delivers the same cooling effect while using a fraction of the water. Understanding Evaporative Cooling Advantages of Low-Pressure, Low-Volume Systems
Water Efficiency: Studies, such as those conducted by Dr. John Bernard at the University of Georgia, show that low-pressure systems can reduce water usage by up to 50% compared to conventional systems. For instance, the Core Cool System, a low-pressure, low-volume system, uses less than 0.34 US gallons of water/hour/stall or 1.3 liters of water/stall/day compared to1.2 – 6.6 US Gallons of water/hour/cow or 4.5 - 25 liters of water/cow/hour used by traditional soaker systems, without compromising on cooling efficiency or cow comfort.
Reduced Manure Pit Volume: Excess water from traditional soaker systems often ends up in manure pits, increasing the volume of waste that needs to be managed. By using less water, low-pressure systems help reduce the volume of manure slurry, easing the burden on waste storage and disposal.
Improved Cow Comfort: These systems can be installed over critical areas such as free stalls and feed alleys, encouraging cows to spend more time in these areas, fostering natural grazing behaviors with 10 to 14 trips to the feed bunk a day, leading to improved feed consumption and enhancing cow comfort, leading to better lying times, which is correlated with increased milk production.
Numerous studies have validated the effectiveness of low-pressure evaporative cooling. Researchers from Auburn University and the Miner Institute observed significant reductions in water usage with no adverse effects on cow health or productivity. In humid climates, like the Southeastern U.S., these systems maintained cow body temperature and respiration rates effectively while using much less water.
Practical Implementation
Sources – https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022030218309780#bib6 Share: https://www.corecoolsystems.com/blog/Blog46/Efficient-Dairy-Cow-Cooling-with-Low-Pressure-Low-Volume-Evaporative-Systems Share Category "Cooling Cows": |