Influence of Cooling Systems on the Behaviour of DairyCows Housed in Cubicle Barn

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to collect information about dairy cow’s behaviour connected to different environmental conditions. During summer 2009 and winter 2010 experimental trials were arranged to verify the behaviour of dairy cows in a farm located in Po Plain (Italy). The barn was provided with an air-water cooling system, based on the use of fans and sprinklers placed only in the feeding alley. Two different trials were carried out. The first experiment was targeted on verifying the use of the cubicles by the cows in relation to the availability of the cooling system only in feeding area. The second trial aimed at testing the effectiveness of zone cooling systems placed in the front of 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 remark that the behaviour of the animals is 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 of the air streams created by the fans. With air temperatures increasing from 21 °C to 33 °C the cows reduce the staying in the cubicles, which gets down from 54% to 32% (r2 = 0.2608). As regards the efficacy of zone cooling system in the cubicles, the results are not particularly encouraging. The cows continue to use the cubicles without changing the behaviour in relation to the presence of conditioned air flow.