engleski

Influence of microclimate in a barn on dairy cows’ welfare and production

Microclimate in the barn has a major influence on health, animal welfare and milk production. Extremes values in temperature and humidity of air can have a major impact on the dairy cow’s ambiance, especially for those in the barns. In the paper was investigated an influence of basic microclimate parameters on the modern dairy farm, located in the eastern region of Croatia. The period of investigation covered the summer season (01.06. - 31.08. 2013th year) divided into three time intervals (00:00h- 08:00h ; 08:00h-16:00h ; 16:00h-00:00h) during which the measured are: temperature (T), humidity (H) and temperature-humidity index (THI). The results showed that the values of T and THI were higher than the optimal recommended by the scientific literature. Differences between the daily interval T, V and THI were high statistically significant (p<0.0001). Also, is found a significant difference (p<0.0001 ; p<0.05) for all investigated parameters between the sixth and seventh, and sixth and eighth month. However, between the seventh and eighth months was no significant difference. Although, it was a modern farm, with additional cooling by fans, it was not completely sufficient to create an optimal microclimate environment for dairy cows. Because of that, it should be take an additional measures during the summer months (for example, installation of sprinklers with water) to reduce the air temperature and also the temperature-humidity index, with the aim of increasing the comfort of the cows and preventing the decreasing of milk production.

ambiance of cows ; dairy farm ; microclimate parameters

Rad je nastao kao dio istraživačkog VIP projekta financiran od strane Ministarstva poljoprivrede Republike Hrvatske pod nazivom "Mikroklimatski utjecaji na količinu i sastav mlijeka krava".