Interview to Arianna Zanella

Strategies to implement welfare inside the barn

Arianna graduated in 2010 at Parma University with a degree in Veterinary Medicine. After graduation she did an internship at a veterinarian about cow’s medicine, surgery and gynecology. At the end of this experience she started her career as a technician for a company that produces feeds and supplements for dairy cattle. She improved her knowledge about cow’s nutrition, calves management and data collection for herds monitoring. Today as a freelance she deals with feeding and health of calves and animal welfare.

Arianna Zanella, Doctor Veterinary Medicine. arianna.zanella@cmp-impianti.com

Do you think that ventilation and cooling are two must-have products in order to improve the performance of livestock and to improve productivity and farm efficiency?

Absolutely. Dairy farms can’t refrain from installing a modern system to counteract negative effects of heat stress. Nowadays, animals in barns have very high production capability and, as a consequence, they need high standard of comfort in order to express their full potential.

In a modern dairy farm, a proper ventilation strategy is strictly required in order to improve the comfort, the milk production during the summer months and, generally, the barn environment?

Obviously the correct use of a ventilation system is essential to obtain the maximum benefit. The automatic activation of the systems, based on the surrounding THI, allows us to strictly follow a pre-determined protocol.

Constant air movement improves overall air quality, sweeps unpleasant odors out of the barn, disperses ammonia gas and gives the herd a cool breeze. Can we say that comfortable cows are productive cows?

The animal welfare is at the base of any other intervention aimed at the improvement of productive and reproductive performance. In other words, every action, that is carried out with lack of animal wellbeing, would bring partial or even insignificant results.

According to your experience, could you say that CMP fans are an effective and inexpensive way to reduce heat stress and to keep the herd healthy and productive?

By choosing a CMP system you guarantee an efficient and effective system to your farm. The decennial experience of CMP is reflected in practical and measurable outcomes.

How much is it important to combine cooling and ventilation?

Wetting is a crucial element against heat stress. The combination of cooling and high-speed ventilation is the most effective system that we have to help dairy cows to dissipate great amount of heat. By using nozzles with big drops, water reaches the animals’ skin maximizing its effect and the use of high-speed fans allows fast evaporation, tackling efficiently high temperature in summer.

During the last years, a topic increasingly discussed has been photoperiod. What are the possible advantages of this intervention?

Several studies have proved that the exposition of animals at light at a determined intensity and for a certain amount of hours a day, brings adavantages on production for dairy cows and on performance for the growth of young animals.

Interview to Arianna Zanella

Strategies to implement welfare inside the barn

Contact our expert: fill the form and ask for an advice.

Contact us

Address