Livestock Farming

Sprinklers and Foggers In Dairy Farm – A Beginners Guide

By: Jagdish Reddy
Published on

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The need for Sprinklers and Foggers in dairy farm

The following information is about Sprinklers and Foggers In Dairy farms.

Introduction

Temperature is a critical problem for dairy farming in India because it causes health problems in dairy cattle and leads to low milk yield during the summer months. The most economical and easy way to keep the animals cool is to bathe them in a pond or a lake and leave them there for about 4 hours a day. The above-mentioned possibility is not available at all dairy farms due to the unavailability of a nearby pond or a lake. The next best solution is to install Foggers and Sprinklers within the dairy farm so as to keep the area cool and facilitate lower temperatures for the animals. The higher temperatures cause heat stress in the cattle due to which the respiration rate increases and the rate of reproduction and milk production decreases. Therefore, to control this problem of heat stress in animals the arrangement of Foggers and Sprinklers over the feed line is designed.

Sprinklers

The main idea of installing a sprinkler system within the farm is to keep the wetting the cattle’s back but avoid moisture accumulation on the udder. The cattle experience evaporative cooling mechanism by the evaporation of moisture through natural and mechanical ventilation. The system utilizes the following components:

  • Timer
  • Thermostat
  • Solenoid valve
  • Pressure reducer
  • Piping
  • Sprinkler nozzles

The use of the thermostat is to turn the sprinkler on when the air temperature exceeds 70-75˚F. The system needs an on-off timer set at 15-30 minutes such that the sprinkler is on for 3 minutes and off for 12 minutes. The pressure control is required to limit the pressure of the sprinkler line, i.e. 20-40 pounds per sq inch at the inlet and 5 pounds per sq inch throughout the distribution pipeline.

The water application rate or wetting rate as a general recommendation is 0.03 gallons per sq ft of wetted surface area per sprinkler of the cycle. The area that is wet around the feed line is about 6 to 8 ft. It is advisable to use 6 sq ft per foot of the feeding space. Similarly, the pipeline should also have proper size (estimated that 1½ inch pipe can carry 27 gallons per minute for 400 ft). The size of the nozzle should typically have a rating near 0.5 gallons per minute or 30 gallons per hour.

Read this: Dairy Farming FAQ.

Foggers

Fine droplets of water that resemble fog or mist are produced from small nozzles called Foggers and are generally termed as a mist or a fog system in a dairy farm area. Such small droplets evaporate even before they reach the ground surface, thereby reducing the farm or shed temperature. These misters are installed below the roof of the shed. The mist system is a pipeline made of 20 mm PVC pipe that is 2.5 mm thick. The Foggers are fixed to these pipelines and each fogger should be placed at a distance of 8 to 10 ft.

The components of the system are:

  • Solar modules
  • DC motor
  • Fogging nozzles
  • Pressure generating machine

The Foggers introduced for the dairy farm are solar-powered and are simple structures that take a mixture of water and fresh air as input and release the same through nozzles at a certain pressure. The main purpose of a Fogger on the farm is to maintain the humidity and temperature of the closed environment. Finally, this arrangement helps in increased output from the farm.

Conclusion of Sprinklers and Foggers In Dairy Farm

Farmers can plan for different types of shade arrangements to protect the animals from the heat during summer, but sometimes these measures become inadequate and do not provide sufficient comfort to the animals. It has been clearly noticed that dark-skinned animals, dairy cattle, and young animals are at higher risk of heat stress and need extra facilities for overcoming the problem. Therefore, to boost the productivity of the animal husbandry sector, these types of solutions, i.e. Sprinklers and Foggers are greatly required. The recommended solar-powered Foggers overcome the problem of high maintenance and running cost of diesel pumps and grid electricity. It is to be noted that this system of Foggers and Sprinklers is a sort of permanent solution for temperature control within a dairy farm and it should be adopted by the farmers to overcome problems in the long run.

Read this: Dairy Cow Farming Project Report.

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