Monitoring microclimate parameters in dairy farms

The use of precision tools on dairy farms gives the farmer or manager the opportunity to make essential decisions in real time, in accordance with the information received from the animal or shelter. There is a SMART Zoo Tech system for monitoring microclimate parameters for measuring, logging, and monitoring the temperature, humidity, dew point, carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration, ammonia (NH3) and dust particles (PM 2.5) 24/7. The information is stored in the database available to the farmer, and the exceedances are sent to the farmer by mobile phone in the form of an alert. It is found that there is a very close correlation between individual cow production and microclimate parameters. On a hot summer day when the average atmospheric temperature was 34oC, in the shelter the temperature varied between 23.45oC at 4:00 am and 31.04oC at 5:00 pm. There were also fluctuations in relative humidity and ammonia levels in the shelter after 4:00 pm. The farmer received phone alerts for every microclimate parameter every hour in the second half of the day. With regard to milk production, it is known that for the dairy cow the optimum temperature range is between 9 and 16oC. During the observed period there was a decrease in milk production, and on the reference day the milk production was 10% lower than two days prior.