To an extent, cows can handle cold environments if they are kept dry and if air speeds are not too strong. However, if barns begin to freeze, it can have a serious impact on the herd’s health and productivity. While freeze-related issues can be difficult to manage, ventilation can help alleviate them.

While the necessity of maintaining adequate ventilation during the extremes of summer and winter is well recognized, the transitional seasons of spring and fall present unique challenges that often are overlooked. This article explores the pitfalls associated with off-season ventilation and offers actionable strategies for dairy producers to address these issues.

The first six years after starting their dairy were action-packed for the Windemuller family as they purchased their property, economically grew their herd and converted existing buildings – including a turkey coop and a tiestall barn – into functional dairy facilities.

The early spring season is the ideal time to give your fans the attention they need so that they can run at 100% performance. This should become part of the farm’s routine maintenance plan.

Just buying fans and hanging them haphazardly around your barn is not going to be very helpful in your fight against the rising summer temperatures. There are a few key concepts that you need to consider to get it right.

For your horses and livestock, hang fans to keep mosquitoes out of your barns. You also can deploy proven mosquito prevention products to do all that you can to control them and the risks they can pose to your family and animals.

How do we make sense of all these options available to dairy producers, when fan manufacturers and sales reps are all sure that they are the only ones with the best possible fan to offer and everything else is inferior to their product?

When it comes to heat abatement, most dairy farmers are likely to focus on their lactating cows. At the 2023 Pennsylvania Dairy Summit, Dr. Geoffrey Dahl from the University of Florida shared why this may not actually be the best method.