CATTLE BARN: THE IMPORTANCE OF COWSHED DESIGN FOR COW WELFARE

LUOGO, DATA E ORA: Consorzio Agrario di Cremona – filiale di Capralba (CR), 18 november 2019, at 17.30.

Last November 18, a meeting was held at the Consorzio Agrario di Cremona in Capralba on the importance of the design of dairy barns, which saw a large and active participation by professionals and above all breeders.
The meeting, organized by the Consorzio Agrario and the University of Milan, was introduced by Mauro Berticelli, vice president of the Consortium, which highlighted the strategic importance of the design of dairy barn for a vital sector of the economy of the territory. Also present for the Consorzio Agrario di Cremona were the president Paolo Voltini, the director Franco Vertini, the deputy director Sandro Berti and the manager of the machine service Attilio Marenghi.
The occasion of the event was the information activity of the Lastaben project (Analysis and improvement interventions of the structural and managerial aspects of the barns for the welfare of dairy cows) financed by the Lombardy Region through measure 1.2.01 of the PSR (Demonstrations and information actions).
The project, illustrated by prof. Giorgio Provolo of the Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences of the University of Milan, aimed at demonstrating in specific cases how a targeted collection of information from a barn can highlight the main aspects on which to focus attention to identify improvements.
The central intervention of the afternoon held by dr. Giambattista Merigo, agronomist, of the Agriter Studio of Crema has addressed some aspects of the design of the cowsheds, starting from the analysis of the farm situation on the basis of the availability of land and the constraints imposed by the surrounding territorial situation. Furthermore, the urban aspects to be considered and in particular the distances from other activities and the areas of respect were highlighted. Some examples of the realization of barns were then shown, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses with an in-depth look at the cowshed that foresee the use of milking robots. After the interesting report by dr. Merigo has been demonstrated the app “Lastaben”, downloadable for Android phones, which allows to enter the data of a barn in order to obtain an assessment of the adequacy of the structures and equipment and provide information on possible interventions.
At the end of the reports an interesting debate began on some aspects that emerged during the presentations. The discussion then continued during a pleasant convivial moment.

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Figure: The meeting of the “Lastaben” project has aroused much interest among technicians and breeders.

REFERENCE TO WEB SITE OR LINK: More information at the link: costruzionirurali.unimi.it/lastaben.