Housing Systems in Dairy Production

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From the course by University of Pennsylvania

Feeding the World

56 ratings

University of Pennsylvania

Feeding the World

56 ratings

This course will explore the concepts driving current food production science (population growth, urbanization, emerging affluence, resource constraints, and underlying biological limits) with the main focus on livestock production. Each of the major food animal species (dairy, swine, beef, and poultry) will be covered in terms of their universal life cycles, constraints to production and emerging societal issues. Throughout the course, we will tackle some difficult and important questions: What are the major health benefits and potential concerns regarding the production and consumption of animal products? How does animal production affect the efficient use of resources and impact our environment? Can cost of production be reduced to meet growing demand for animal products around the globe while maintaining health and safety for both animals and consumers? What are the different types of animal food production systems? Myths and misconceptions surrounding the animal food systems will be discussed. We’ll also look closely at some of the global issues, problems, and challenges in these food systems which scientists, farmers, and veterinarians, are attempting to solve through collaboration. Lectures will be delivered by several experts from the University of Pennsylvania, School of Veterinary Medicine who are intimately involved in the study and advancement of animal production systems. The course is geared towards learners who seek a greater understanding of animal food systems as well as those who might have never visited an animal farm, but have a desire to learn more about where some of our food comes from and issues surrounding sustainability.

From the lesson

Dairy Production

Welcome to the first week of the course which explores a particular animal production sector. The focus for this module will be dairy. The life cycle of a dairy cow as well as the environmental impact of dairy production will be covered. We'll also explore housing systems, milking technologies, trends and animal welfare issues in the dairy production system. Finally we will address public health concerns in dairy production including hormone use, antibiotic use, and milk safety in the U.S.

Housing Systems in Dairy Production11:29

Hand Milking to Robotics9:54

Industry Trends in Dairy Production10:44

Meet the Instructors

Dr. David Galligan
Professor of Animal Health Economics
School of Veterinary Medicine
James Ferguson
Professor of Nutrition
School of Veterinary Medicine

I'd like to talk about some of the housing systems that we typically use and

see in dairy production medicine.

So some of the objectives for this talk are to demonstrate housing options that we

see in dairy production medicine.

And this ranges from the single cow to commercial dairy farms.

And then compare and contrast some of the differences and

then some of the associated opportunities and

challenges that we see in these different housing systems.

So there are four main options that I'm going to talk about today and

that would be freestall housing, tiestall housing, loose housing, and

then pasture grazing or grazing type systems.

What's key to remember when we talk about these different types of housings is that

there are options available for all different sizes of operations.

And that these different types of options can really be utilized whether you

have one cow, five cows, or 10,000 cows.

It's lots of options and

lots of variations on the themes that we're going to talk about today.

But this will present a good ground work and frame work moving forward.

First thing I'd like to talk about is utilizing free stalls designs.

So a free stall type design utilizes stalls and

the cows are free to move around in and out of the stalls as they please and

then free to move to the feed bank.

This is the most common type of housing that we see in the United States and

commercial dairies that are being installed globally because it's the most

economical and

there are many many different design options that can be utilized.

This is really important when we look at different climates where commercial

dairies are being expanded into.

And then, this is also the design that's utilized by most new structures.

Some of the opportunities that freestall type housing

allows us to look into is it creates more freedoms for the animals.

So, they have the freedom to move around, they have the freedom to move and

eat when they feel like it's time to eat and for feeding.

And then it allows some interaction between the animals.

When we use freestall housing, it also gives us as producers and

veterinarians the opportunity to group different animals by their age or

by their production level, so we can feed them differently and more economical.

So it gives us some options for feeding strategies.

Next, freestalls type-structures are very labor-efficient.

We can have large numbers of cows under one roof and one environment,

and it creates a more, smaller amount of labor that's needed.

We can have more cows per worker.

It becomes much more efficient, and

also allows us to be a little more economical for future expansions.

Usually you can just generally add onto the barn and

not have to change where we milk the cows or

make any additions to milking parlors where we milk them which is very costly.

Some of the challenges with freestall type designs is the stalls need to be

comfortable and they need to be accessible.

The cows need to be able to move in and out of them easily,

the bedding needs to be soft and clean for the cow.

And then the walkways in the areas with the cows move,

need to have really good footing, so they can move freely and not be afraid to slip.

If they are afraid to move and worried about falling, they won't move to the feed

bunk and they won't eat, which decreases milk production.

Also when we look at free stall structures, if we need a cow,

she needs to be sorted from the rest of the group.

So we need to have some type of sort system at the milk parlor or

we actually need physically go get the cow, so

that if she needs some type of individual treatment.

And then there are some climate influences when we see these types of structures.

When it gets very cold, then manure freezes and we have to deal with that.

And when it gets very hot it also increases our costs as we work with fans

and other different cooling strategies that keep the cows cool.

Next, I'd like to talk about tiestall designs and

that's exactly what it sounds like.

It utilizes stalls and cows spend part of or all of their day tied into that stall.

So think of a dog with a collar on, we can utilize the same type of structure for

a cow and she's actually tied in an individual stall.

And it really varies from dairy to dairy,

some dairy farmers will let their cows out to a pasture or grace for a little bit and

then bring them in, others keep them in these stalls all day long.

So what happens on this tiestall herds is their daily activities

occur in this stall.

So the feeding, their availability to water and

the milking all occurs in this stalls.

So some opportunities we have when we use this tietall type structures,

is it allows you for individual cow observation.

That same cow is usually in the same spot every day, so

if something appears to be wrong with her, it gives you an easy way to observe her.

There's minimal animal movement.

So, it really brings down if there's any chance for

injury, or anything that comes from animal movement.

It really decreases on that.

And then it gives us the ability to feed individual animals differently.

And we see this on some of our smaller dairies.

Since the animal is tied in one spot and the feed is brought to her,

that gives us the ability to feed her a little bit differently.

Some of the challenges with this are, it's very labor intensive.

Each individual stall needs to be cleaned, feed needs to be delivered to each and

every cow individually.

Also when we milk the cow, we have to bring the milker and carry it to the cow.

It's very labor intensive.

There's a lot of up and down and also the cost becomes more because we have to buy

individual milking units that we move to these animals.

Another challenge is how our feed intakes vary.

So one cow here will eat different than this cow.

When that happens it leads to varied intakes and

we have to clean up that feed if she doesn't eat at all.

So that's very labor intensive.

And then since these cows are tied in one spot rather than having one community

water tank or water trough for all the cows,

they each have an individual water station.

So there's labor and

maintenance associated with maintaining all those drinking stations.

And then the initial cost and the expansion cost for

tiestall operations is more than what freestall operation.

Next we'll look at a loose housing type design.

So this doesn't have no stalls or no restraints.

So the animals are free to move around in a bedded pack type situation.

So there's a large open resting area.

And it's typically bedded with some type of sawdust or very fine wood shavings.

When we to decide erect a loose housing type of barn,

the site selection is extremely critical, because we need good air movement and

good ventilation to keep the bedding pack as clean, because the same place where

the cows lie down is also the same place where the manure is deposited.

So some opportunities that exist with loose housing is

it can provide excellent cow comfort.

The cow has as much room as she needs to lay down, stand up, and

she's free to come and go as she pleases.

Really, they are low on maintenance.

So we don't have any stalls to keep in repair and

the footing is generally easily to maintain, because it's a bedded pack.

And then there's an ease of manure handling.

We don't have to scrape and remove the manure like we do in freestall barns or

in tiestall barns.

Some of the challenges are maintaining a bedding volume and a clean, dry place for

the cows to lay.

Like I said previously, where they deposit the manure is also where they lay down, so

that it needs to be dry, it needs to be turned, so it can aerate and create heat.

And that's how the manure breaks down, creating a clean space for

the cows to lie.

Takes a lot of bedding in this type of housing.

Also extreme weather variations.

If it goes from being quite cold to being warm and humid,

that also affects our bedded pack, it makes it wet.

And it's just another added responsibility to the dairy farmer to keep that dry for

his cows.

And then different type of health events that occur when we have these

weather shifts.

If we have a cold bedded pack, that's not the best for the health of our animals.

So we could have some health events that occur when we

have these different changes in the cow environment.

The last system I'd like to cover is grazing type systems.

These were extremely popular back in the 1950s, at least in the United States, and

it still is globally and they had a resurgence in the 1980s.

In these types of grazing strategies were enveloped because

what it did is essentially decrease the input costs of the diary.

So feed costs and housing was made cheaper.

The ability to graze really determines on your geographic location,

because that determines the season which you can graze.

So for example, in the Midwest or the Northeast United States,

you can really graze your animals six to seven month out of the year.

What that does is it also means you have five, six, seven months, where you

have to house your animals inside because they can't be outside grazing,

because there's lack of feed, and because of the weather.

It requires a high quality pasture to support milk production, and

then the farmer also has to be trained in the management of those pastures.

So we can support the maintenance level of the cow, and

then milk production above that.

Some opportunities when you go to a grazing type system,

it's very similar to loose housing.

Cow comfort can be improved if the pasture' is nice.

Now, if it's full of rocks or is really uneven,

the cows won't move around the pasture as much.

But they do have this freedom of movement.

And then the manure handling, when they're outside moving around,

the cows essentially haul their own manure.

So the diary farmer is not responsible for removing that.

And there's an economic benefit.

If you could maintain good production and use a grazing type system,

you've decreased your feed cost and decreased your building cost.

So there's an economic benefit to doing some grazing.

Some challenges is it still requires, when you go to a grazing system, some type of

housing for those animals in the winter, late fall winter and the spring months.

You still have to have some type of adequate, acceptable housing for

these animals.

There are feeding challenges when you go to a grazing type system.

So if you have poor grass quality, or the cows just simply don't want to

eat the type of grass that you have, you're going to have to supplement that.

So that can increase your feed cost essentially negating on the benefits

that you gain from going to a grazing type system.

And then a lot of times what we have when we graze is the cows move a lot.

So they are going to lose weight and you have as a dairy farm,

you have to be more in tuned to watching for those body condition changes and

supplementing some of those cows when they need it.

When later in the growing season the grass quality declines, you have to pick up

on that and then start supplementing them with some type of other feed.

And when you move to a grazing design, there is a period of adjustment for

the producer as they learn how to manage grass fields and pastures, and

also for the cow if they haven't been used to being in a type of grazing system.

So just as a summary, what we've talked about in differing housing designs, we've

looked at freestall barns, tiestall barns, loose housing, and grazing type systems.

There's many different variations, and there's even mixtures of these systems.

You can have a freestall barn where the cow goes out and

grazes during part of the day.

So there's many different variations on these types of housing.

The type of housing we use is really determined by the producer, the cows,

what their goals are, the geographic location, and

the economics of the housing structure we're going to use.

And as our last summary bullet point these types of housing designs can be

utilized whether you have 1 cow or 10,000 cows.

They can be adapted to really globally in any type of size dairy herd that we have.

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