Technical and Economical Analysis of Manure Management in Loose Housing Systems for Dairy Cows

The main aim of the research was to improve housing systems and manure management in dairy farms in order to favor better conditions of welfare and hygiene of cows, to reduce costs of dairy farms and to produce solid manure. Most dairy farms in Emilia-Romagna need to produce solid and liquid manure instead of semi-solid manure for agronomic and environmental reasons. Hygienic conditions of milking cows were monitored in eleven reference dairy farms. Costs of building, equipment, labor, electric usage, machines and litter were calculated and compared for nine standard cowsheds with different lying areas and manure management. Cows’ skin dirtiness is higher in cowsheds with deep bedded and sloped bedded lying areas than in cubicle cowsheds even if the consumption of bedding is higher. In cubicle cowsheds acceptable hygienic conditions for cows cannot be achieved avoiding the use of bedding or synthetic mattresses. Cubicles with litter and cleaning with automatic scrapers or tractor mounted scraper show low costs for manure management and low cows’ dirtiness scores. Cubicles with small use of litter, gravity flushing system and mechanical separator can be advisable for large herds.