Published in Scientific Papers. Series D. Animal Science, Vol. LXVII, Issue 1
Written by Volodymyr SHABLIA, Victoria KUNETS, Tetiana DANILOVA, Petro SHABLIA
The influence of weather conditions during the cold period of year on microclimate parameters of cowsheds and on the milk productivity of cows kept in traditional tethered conditions in typical brick cowsheds with natural ventilation was determined. It was established that in the conditions of Ukraine the temperature in cowsheds during the cold period of the year significantly depends on: the number of cows in them (r = 0.509; p = 0.018); the number of livestock per unit volume of the cowshed (r = 0.68; p = 0.001); the area of ventilation holes (r = 0.745; p<0.001). The humidity inside the cowsheds is most dependent on the outdoors air humidity (r = 0.514; p = 0.017), as well as on the number of cows per unit volume of the cowshed (r = 0.533; p = 0.013). In the cold period of the year the most problematic from the point of view of comfort for animals are periods of severe frosts. When cows were kept on a tether in typical brick cowsheds with natural ventilation and walking areas, the correlation coefficients between gross milk yield and: the average temperature outdoors were in the range of r = 0.625...0.636 (p<0.001); atmospheric pressure – r = –0.237...–0.276 (p≤0.001). A significant synchronicity of fluctuations in time of outdoor air temperature indicators and average milk yield per cow was established at periods of severe frosts: the decrease in daily milk yield due to frost reached 0.8 ... 2.2 kg per day (up to 21%). Cluster analysis established that for the synchronous distribution of days of the cold period into groups (clusters) based on the average outdoors night air temperature (tv) and gross milk yield (valmol), it is expedient to distribute the sample into 3 gradations.
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