Influence of cooling systems on the behaviour of dairy cows housed in cubicle barn

ABSTRACT During summer 2009 and winter 2010 experimental trials were conducted on order to verify the behaviour of dairy cows in a farm located in Po Plain (Italy). The barn was equiped with an air-water cooling system, based on the use of fans and sprinklers placed in the feeding alley only. Two different trials were carried out. The first experiment targeted the verification of cubicle use by cows in relation to the availability of the cooling system in feeding area. The second trial aimed at testing the effectiveness of zone cooling systems placed in the front of the cubicles. For this purpose three cubicles in the barn were provided with cooling systems, based on the input of high velocity conditioned air streams. The results clearly demonstrated that the behaviour of the animals was greatly influenced by the environmental conditions. With high temperatures the use of the cubicles is deeply reduced and the animals prefer to stay in feeding area, thus benefiting from the cooling effect of water sprinkled by the showers and the air streams created by the fans. With air temperatures increasing from 21° to 33°C the cows reduce time spent in the cubicles, which went down from 52.0 to 29.2% (r2 = 0.8471). With regards to the efficacy of zone cooling systems in the cubicles, the results are not particularly encouraging. The cows continue using the cubicles without changing the behaviour in relation to the presence of conditioned air flow.