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- Title
Az árnyékolás lehetőségei és hatása a borjakban hazai tejelő tehenészetekben.
- Authors
Mikolt, Bakony; Viktor, Jurkovich
- Abstract
Background and objectives: Heat stress abatement in preweaning calves is an overlooked area on most dairy farms. The Authors studied the efficiency of thermal protection methods in hutches of dairy calves under hot weather condition. Materials and methods: Calf hutches without treatment, covered with heat reflective foil, placed under net shading or a thermally insulated roof were compared in terms of the temperature difference between inside and outside the hutch. Ambient and black globe temperatures were measured hourly inside one empty hutch of each group and in the open-air area in the hottest hours of the day (11:00-17:00), five times during the summer of 2019. The respiratory rate and behaviour of calves housed in the differently treated hutches (n = 10, respectively) were also recorded parallelly. Results and discussion: Average ambient temperatures were 2.5 °C higher inside the untreated hutches. They were on average 1--2 °C lower inside the treated hutches compared to the open-air area. Black globe temperatures were lower inside the hutches than the open-air area with an average of 1.4, 4.8, 5.5 and 9.4 °C, in case of untreated, foil-covered, net shaded, and thermally insulated roof shaded hutches, respectively. Average respiratory rates were elevated in all treatment groups, being highest in calves housed in untreated hutches (116 breaths/ min). Calves housed in hutches covered with reflective foil, net shading or thermally insulated roof shading had 14, 15 and 27 breaths/min lower respiratory rates on average, respectively than calves in untreated hutches. Behaviour observations showed that calves under the thermally insulated roof and net shaded hutches tended to spend less time inside the hutch than others. The authors concluded that despite the highest cost, the thermally insulated roof is considered to be the most effective in terms of heat stress abatement in dairy calves.
- Subjects
HOT weather conditions; DAIRY farms; LOW temperatures; CALVES; THERMAL efficiency
- Publication
Magyar Állatorvosok Lapja, 2021, Vol 143, Issue 1, p3
- ISSN
0025-004X
- Publication type
Article