The Rural Voice, 2003-04, Page 29Ventilation an evolving
topic in dairy barns
Even though natural ventilation
has been the big story in dairy
barns in Ontario for some years
now, some producers are turning to
additional ventilation using high
volume, low speed fans, says
Harold House, beef and dairy
structures and equipment specialist
with the Ontario Ministry of
Agriculture and Food.
House, who is based in Clinton,
has just returned from a series of
cross -province seminars on free -
stall barns which was surprisingly
well attended, he says. There had
been some doubts that with quota
prices so high fewer barns might
be being built but many of those
attending were looking a year or so
down the road.
The big news, and we do mean
big, was the appearance in Ontario
of huge ceiling fans for barns, up
to 20-24 feet in diameter. The first
of these were installed last summer
in Ontario. They've been used in
Wisconsin and California for a
couple of years now. The slow-
moving fans are quieter and use
less energy than basket fans that
some producers have been adding
to their barns to try to get
additional ventilation into the barn
to keep their cows cool.
House said he talked to a couple
of people who have also been
using the big fans in the winter to
help mix the air within the closed
barn.
Cow comfort continues to be an
area of interest, he adds. Newest
addition is a redesigned stall
partition which slopes down at the
back. In regular stall partitions
when a cow tries to exit it can't
turn until it has backed completely
out of the stall. With the new
design, the lower part at the back
of the partition allows the cow to
begin to turn as she backs up and
exit in a more natural way.
Meanwhile there aren't a lot of
new developments on the beef side
of House's portfolio. He speculates
that people are waiting to see how
the Nutrient Management Act
might affect the industry before
committing to investing money.0
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