Keeping dairy cows cool

Gulf News

Al Rawabi dairy farm in Dubai provides coolers and shower system to mitigate heat stress and increase milk production of cows. See more at: http://gulfnews.com/gntv

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00:00While summer temperatures in Dubai can easily reach past the 50 degree Celsius mark, the

00:1211,000 cows at the Al Rawabi dairy farm are keeping their cool.

00:16Alterations to the cow sheds are ensuring that animals stay comfortable and avoid heat

00:20stress.

00:21The changes have also led to a significant increase in the farm's milk production.

00:24We are here now in the calf house.

00:26The calf house is basically the house of the baby calves or the new births.

00:32We keep them with their mother one day, I mean by mother the cholesterol to get immunity

00:37and then after that they all come here whether they were males or females.

00:41The males stay here two weeks and then they are sold.

00:45The females stay here on milk replacer and on solid foods up to two to three months of

00:51age where they are weaned and after weaning they go to another area which is called hardening

00:58area.

00:59They stay there until they are 14 months of age which is the age for breeding and during

01:04which these 12 months they go on different types of rations of food and then we breed

01:11them.

01:12After that we wait for nine months pregnancy and after that they become mothers and they

01:18join the milking herd.

01:20Previously, only 10% of the sheds were cooled which caused many cows to suffer from the

01:24summer heat when their body temperatures would rise above the optimal 13 degrees Celsius.

01:29At 40 degrees, internal heat stress can be fatal.

01:32To address these issues, Al Rawabi installed 600 coolers and built nine new sheds which

01:38can accommodate around 3,000 animals.

01:40We arranged these passages to be fully comfortable for the animals.

01:45So we made the floor of concrete, the rubber mat which is basically the cow dry manure,

01:50a roof, a very wide passage to get the animals in and out faster.

01:55We added water drinkers everywhere and showers.

01:58You can see the showers now, this is the most important thing we did in the farm.

02:03They are a motion sensor, when the cow is soaked with cold water it will take all the

02:08heat away and makes the cow very comfortable.

02:11You see them, all the mouths are closed, they don't need to gasp for air because they are

02:17not on heat stress.

02:18They go back happy to the house, the house is cool, so when they are relaxed and they

02:22are not in heat stress they will fully eat and that will end up with normal milk production.

02:28We managed to get the same production in the summer as in the winter which was before a

02:35dream to happen.

02:37A new milking parlor was also built, while two existing parlors were renovated and equipped

02:41with the latest technology.

02:43Each cow was also fitted with a monitoring chip and the entire farm was computerized,

02:47from the feeding system to the milking.

02:49Adding a touch of technology and regular showers has left the El Rewabi dairy farm with some

02:53very cool cows.

02:55Nadia El Demirdesh, Gulf News.

03:07For more information visit www.fema.gov

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