Open AccessCool roofs with high solar reflectance for the welfare of dairy farming animals
Author(s) -
Giulia Santunione,
Antonio Libbra,
Alberto Muscio
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of physics. conference series
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.21
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1742-6596
pISSN - 1742-6588
DOI - 10.1088/1742-6596/796/1/012028
Subject(s) - overheating (electricity) , environmental science , relative humidity , humidity , sunlight , dairy cattle , heat stress , livestock , environmental engineering , roof , zoology , toxicology , meteorology , biology , ecology , geography , engineering , optics , physics , archaeology , electrical engineering
Ensuring livestock welfare in dairy farming promotes the production capacity of the animals in terms of both quantity and quality. In welfare conditions, the animals can produce at their full potential. For the dairy cattle the most debilitating period of the year is summer, when the stress arising from overheating induces physiological alterations that compromise the animals’ productivity. In this study, the summer discomfort of dairy animals is primarily quantified and the production loss is quantified versus the Temperature Humidity Index (THI), which correlates the values of temperature and relative humidity to the thermal stress. In order to reduce or eliminate such thermal stress, it is then proposed to coat the roof of the stables with a paint having high solar reflectance and thermal emittance, that is a cool roof product. This type of roofing solution can considerably limit the overheating of stables caused by solar radiation, thus providing a positive impact on the animals’ welfare and improving significantly their productivity in summer