The present invention discloses means and methods for integration of a revolutionary cooling
system in a bam using a cow
management system comprising eating cells where the cow is free to move, and where the operative units are brought to the cow. In communication with the eating cells is provision for means for cooling the animal comprising chilled air and / or cool water, the cooling means aimable directly on specific areas of the cow's body, where cooling is needed and / or where heat is more efficiently conducted from a cow's body. The
system can determine how much to cool the cow and also knows how to gently hint to a cow in the stall that it is time to vacate the
cell. The present invention also discloses means and methods for integration of a revolutionary cooling
system in a bam using a cow
management system comprising eating cells where the cow is free to move, and where the operative units are brought to the cow. In communication with the eating cells is provision for means for cooling the animal comprising chilled air and / or cool water, the cooling means aimable directly on specific areas of the cow's body, where cooling is needed and / or where heat is more efficiently conducted from a cow's body. The system can determine how much to cool the cow and also knows how to gently hint to a cow in the stall that it is time to vacate the
cell. The present invention discloses means and methods for integrating an efficient and revolutionary cooling system in a bam that comprises an FDR or the current commercially available "Meadow Sense" TM by Dairycs LTD (IL).
Heatstroke in a dairy cow is a critical factor for the health of the cow and its continuously produce milk. Therefore, it is important to increase dissipation of excess body heat from a cow to the environment, especially on days when the environment is
hot and humid. In existing dairy farms where there are
milking parlors with waiting yards or dairy farms with static
milking robots where the cow is routed to a
milking area and arrives to be milked, the customary method of cooling the cows is by running fans over them while spraying water on them, thus removing
excess heat from the cows, especially those cows that come into contact with the sprayed water. In order to ensure that as many cows as possible are cooled, the entire milking shed is cooled, for varying periods of time, by the spraying of the water, thus providing cooling for the entire shed in a partially controlled manner. However, the cooling is general, not specific to any cow and therefore cannot determine what a specific cow actually receives, nor can it provide what a specific cow actually needs. Many dairy farmers cool their cows by the method of moving the cows several times a day from the milking shed to a small, closed
yard, where the cows are typically fairly densely packed. In the shed, the cows are subjected to massive ventilation and
heavy water spraying, for example, half an hour, without any individual element or any control of the specific condition of any specific cow. Cows on the edge of a densely-packed group are likely to be overcooled and may therefore catch a cold, while cows in the center of a densely-packed group are likely to be undercooled and are therefore more likely to experience
heat stress. Another method involves cooling the animals while they are in a
food distribution line, where they are cooled. Cooling in the feeding line is more efficient than cooling in a cooling
yard or shed and detectors can be used to detect whether or not there are cows in the feeding line so that these systems provide a solution which, although more efficient than the cooling
yard or shed, is far from being economical and efficient. The system cools the cows but creates new problems, such as a waste of the water that does not impinge on a cow and the
electricity used to drive the pumps and / or cool the water; the creation of a
sludge of
manure and water; inefficient cooling because the cooling is not fully controlled, occurring as it does only during waiting, the duration of which is ill- controlled; and does not provide individualized cooling during the times (feeding, lactating) when it is most likely to be needed. The present invention takes
advantage of the fact that, in the revolutionary commercially-available Meadow Sense system, the cow is completely free to he down, to move around and to eat whenever it wants, without any limitations on standing up or moving. In systems like the Meadow Sense system or the system of the present invention, the manger line comprises eating cells, with each
cell configured to hold one cow. Cells of this size are adequate for feeding the cows, since they are free to enter an empty stall at any time they desire. A cow will spend a total of between four and five hours in such a cell while eating, having about 7 to 12 meals a day with each
meal having an
average duration of thirty minutes. In addition, the manger line of the Meadow Sense system comprises a number of eating cells, where, typically, each cell can feed four or five cows, with the cows being free to come to an empty stall in a cell at any time it sees fit during the day. Therefore, the cow can receive localized, targeted and controlled cooling without a general flood of water and without unfocused general ventilation; and chilled air can be directed to specific areas of the cow's body so that the heat conduction of the cow is created in an effective way while the cow enjoys eating, without any need to force the cow in any way whatsoever. Moreover, cows are highly intelligent animals that understand very quickly what is good and pleasant for them so that a significant motive is created for the cow to come to a feeding stall not only to eat but also to enjoy a pleasant and effective cooling. The Meadow Sense system can also know how much to cool the cow and how to gently hint to a cow in a stall that it has been sufficiently cooled so that it is time for it to vacate the cell and to go elsewhere, such as to a lounging area. Literature reveals that, on average, about 70L of water is used per cow per day to wash the farm yard, milking
parlour and milking equipment. Therefore, on average, a dairy farm with c. 400 cows uses about 28,000 L of water per day to wash the yard, milking
parlour and milking equipment. Over a typical 270-day milking season, this amounts to more than 7,500,000 L of water for the average farm. Dairy
wastewater (also referred to as dairy farm
effluent, dairy soiled water, and dairy dirty water) is
effluent produced from the washing down of milking parlours and holding areas, and consists of a dilute mixture of milk,
urine,
livestock faeces, detergents and
sediment. It is hence an object of the invention to discloses methods and systems for
sewage and
wastewater saving when cooling farm animals, comprising at least one means for cooling the confined environment of an individual farm animal by either or both direct and indirect timely administration of temperature- and
humidity- conditioned fluids by applying said fluids solely towards a member of a group consisting of at least one upper portion of at least one individual farm animal, at least one portion of a confined environment comprising the at least one individual farm animal, or any combination thereof.