Indoor climatic status during winter conditions in dairy herds in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

The aim of this cross-sectional field study was to describe climatic status in dairy barns during winter conditions both in lowland and in mountainous regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina. While all the mountain herds had tie-stall systems (MT), eight of the lowland herds had group housing systems (LG) and the remaining 30 herds had tie-stall systems (LT). The mean indoor air temperature (Ti) was around 10 °C across types of barns and in all herds Ti was above 0 °C. The mean relative air humidity (RH) was actually highest in the LT-group, but within the recommended level for both LG, LT and MT barns. At the 15 % of the MT barns, 17 % of the LT barns and 38 % of the LG barns the air velocity was > 0.2 m/s. The level of NH3 was quite low in all groups of barns, although somewhat higher in LT-barns. In none of the barns the level of NH3 exceeded 3 ppm. Only in one barn (a MT-barn) the level of CO2 exceeded 3000 ppm. We conclude that the climatic status in most dairy barns in Bosnia and Herzegovina during winter seem to be acceptable.

Keywords

• cattle
• dairy cows
• housing
• climatic status
• air velocity
• carbon dioxide