Ventilation and cooling in dairy farms
Conversation with Marcelo Wasser
Ventilation and cooling system to improve animal welfare and productivity
I’m Marcelo Wasser and I worked as manager of a dairy farm of 400 dairy cows and 270 calves, in Israel, from 1997 to date. I also work as a consultant on huge projects in South America, especially in Brazil: I’m a Cooperdia consultant in the “Leite Mas” project for the improvement of dairy production on the cooperative’s milk farms, which today has more than 1000 milk farms.
Yes, definitely. Ventilation and control of heat stress are one of the most important factors in dairy production. Many studies were carried out on this subject and there is much to talk about it, in general, cows enter a state of heat stress when the temperature exceeds 25 ° of temperature and increases in respiration to more than 60 per minute. Those aspects influence and affect animals in various aspects such as production, reproduction and food.
Yes, as I write above, they are essential systems and it is vitally important to become aware of this issue. Without good ventilation and a heat stress control system, the losses in milk production (10% or more of production) and in reproduction will be very large.
We can ensure that cows in a comfortable, air-conditioned environment, with beds or Free Stall (called hot bed in some countries) that are dry and well treated will be more productive, lower mastitis levels, with less consumption in the use of antibiotics, for this decrease expenses, and obtain better results.
After having worked for many years in different countries and with different ventilation systems, I can assure you that CMP systems give the best result, and with a very low cost of electricity, lower than other fans on the market. I, personally, on my farm have changed the ventilation system several years ago and we have lowered energy consumption by more than 35%.
