Adjusting Dairy Housing in Hot Climates to Meet Animal Welfare Requirements
Small dairy farms in hot climates are encountering several problems caused by the design flaws of the implemented housing designs. Consequently, heat stress increase and milk yield dramatically decreases, which leads to economic deficiency of the farm. One key issue is to develop simple means to rectify the design flaws with minimum costs. In order to develop feasible means, design flaws were detected on-site in 14 small dairy farms in Egypt to exemplify the flaws of housing designs in arid and semi-arid zones. A package of interconnected solutions is suggested to rectify the design flaws. Subsequently, the maximum temperature, dry-bulb temperature, black-globe temperature, dew point, relative humidity, shaded area, and air velocity were measured inside the rectified vs. non-rectified cowsheds and compared after conducting the statistical analysis. On the other hand, the Temperature-Humidity Index (THI) and Black Globe Humidity Index (BGHI) were calculated to find out the level of heat stress affecting the dairy cows. Furthermore, the milk yield, respiration rate, skin temperature, feed intake were recorded and compared. Moreover, the costs of the developed means were calculated and a feasibility study was carried out. The results show that the developed means are effective and feasible, where the heat stress decreased (THI decreased from 94.6 to 83.7; dry-bulb temperature decreased from 42.7 to 33.6 oC) and the average milk production increased from 18 to 26 kg/day.cow. Consequently, the costs were minimized and the revenues were maximized, which achieve economic efficiency for the farm where the profit increased by about 427 $/cow.year. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Assistant Professor, Agricultural Engineering Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Gammaa Street, 12613 Giza, Egypt * Corresponding Author, Email: samer@cu.edu.eg Please Cite This Article As : M. Samer. 2010. Adjusting Dairy Housing in Hot Climates to Meet Animal Welfare Requirements. J. Exp. Sci. 1(3): 14-18.
Mathematical modeling and spark mapping of shade structures for corral systems in hot climates.
ABSTRACT : A tool is developed in order to assist in designing and planning dairy farms in hot climates. The tool is developed by integrating a mathematical model into an electronic spark map. The spark map (decision tree) assists the designer in making decisions to select the roof material and the roof type suitable for the selected corral system. Subsequently, the roof and the structure dimensions will be calculated automatically. Furthermore, it calculates the capital investment and the fixed, variable, and total costs of the shade structure and the roof material. However, the mathematical model of the spark map requires some input data. According to the inserted input data, the designer will be advised to implement one of the available roof types and roof materials. Afterwards, the spark map using the mathematical model will make the calculations which guide the designer to compare the output data of the different roof types and roof materials, and then to make the right decision.
Facies and microfacies of slope deposits
Abstract This paper reviews the facies and microfacies of the main types of slope deposits. Lamination and sorting, when preserved, are good evidence for overland flow. Features due to deformation (folds, boudins, coatings and tails due to the rotation of clasts) are associated with the early stages of deformation in earth slides. Other mass-movements such as debris flows, rock avalanches, earth flows, and to a certain extent, dry grain flows may be characterised by similar microscopic facies, typically a poorly sorted, porphyric material. Porosity gives evidence for both liquefaction (debris flows) and frost-induced mass-movement (solifluction). However, this criterion is thought to be irrelevant for fossil deposits owing to the rapidity and scale of post-depositional changes (wetting and drying, freezing and thawing, bioturbation). At present, only a detailed analysis of both the macro- and micromorphological characteristics of the deposits allows an accurate identification of past slope dynamics.