Cows Can Keep Udderly Cool
Thanks To Barn-Ventilation Advances
ITHACA, N.Y. For many dairy cows, summer
time living isn’t easy.
In the northeastern U.S., heat stress can make the
animals more susceptible to mastitis, laminitis, and
acidosis. It can also adversely affect the growth rates
of unborn calves and reduce a cow’s capacity to make
milk by as much as one-third.
But the days of heat stress in the dairy barn are
numbered.
Cornell University agricultural engineers have com
bined the latest technology in keeping cows cool in
commercial barns using three tools not previously
combined: a time-integrated variable (TIV) environ
ment controller, tunnel ventilation, and an evapora
tive cooling process.
Construction of a pilot barn in St. Lawrence
County, N.Y., is scheduled for completion in late July,
and milk production is slated to begin Aug. I. If the
cooling project is successful, dairy producers will be
able to install the technology in existing structures.
The strength of the system is that it is automatic,
said research engineer Curt A. Gooch, dairy facilities
specialist for Cornell’s PRO-Dairy Program with the
Department of Biological and Environmental Engi-
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neering. Gooch worked on the pilot project with Mi
chael B. Timmons, Cornell professor of Biological and
Environmental Engineering.
“This system assesses the barn environment and
runs the systems automatically,” said Gooch.
The brain behind the ventilation system is the TIV,
which commands both the ventilation and cooling sys
tems in the barn. Like a computerized thermostat, the
controller accounts for the barn’s air temperature and
the target temperature set by the barn manager.
Unlike a thermostat, the TIV assesses the barn’s
inside temperature for a 12-hour rolling temperature
average. It also calculates and maintains a running
record of the average temperature inside the barn for
the previous 24 hours. When controller sensors regis
ter cow heat stress at around 70 degrees Fahrenheit,
the TIV turns on a bank of large fans and, if necessary,
the barn’s evaporative-cooling equipment. The fan’s
tunnel-effect ventilation and the evaporative cooling
system remove the accumulated heat, thus cooling the
cows.
Inside a freestall barn that can house about 200
cows, the system moves the air quickly at about 500 to
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