Improving Water and Energy Efficiency in California's Dairy Industry
Two Novel Cow Cooling Approaches that Reduce Water and Energy Consumption
Regents of the University of California, Davis
Recipient
Davis, CA
Recipient Location
3rd
Senate District
4th
Assembly District
$999,866
Amount Spent
Completed
Project Status
Project Result
This project is completed; final report is published on CEC website in April 2023.
The Issue
Milk is the most valued agricultural commodity in California. Approximately one of five dairy cows resides in California. Heat stress remains a major cause of diminished milk production and increased disease among lactating dairy cows, with annual losses directly related to heat stress exceeding $800 million. Current methods of reducing thermal stress require significant amounts of energy and water. Evaporative cooling is typically used with water sprayed on the cows using feed line soakers. These approaches require large amounts of energy to pump water and move air in sufficient quantities to reduce heat stress. The resulting hot, moist environment promotes bacterial growth.
Project Innovation
This project evaluates the viability and effectiveness of new cooling technologies for dairy cattle. Cow cooling is critical to livestock health and milk production. Conventional livestock cooling methods, such as fans and sprinkling cows with water, require significant amounts of electricity and water. The new technology developed under this project combines conduction and convection cooling methods, and it has the potential to reduce water consumption by up to 86 percent and electricity consumption by up to 38 percent. The novel cattle cooling approach developed during the initial stage of this project is currently being demonstrated at a dairy in Tulare, California.
Project Benefits
This project advances management strategies for reducing thermal stress in dairy cows while also reducing energy and water use. There are two methods of reducing thermal stress in cows: (i) lowering the cow's heat exposure and (ii) increasing the cow's ability to get rid of excess body heat. Current practice includes use of evaporative cooling with water sprayed on the cows using feed-line soakers, and cooling is enhanced by convective heat transfer via large overhead fans. This project will test and demonstrate an innovative approach that seeks to optimize the cow's ability to remove excess body heat by utilizing more efficient cooling technologies, which have the potential to significantly change the way dairy cows are cooled.
Affordability
By optimizing cow cooling operations this project could reduce water use by up to 86 percent and energy use up to 38 percent. The conduction cooling approach has the potential to reduce water consumption by 73 percent and electricity consumption by 38 percent compared to the baseline. The targeted convection cooling approach has the potential to reduce water consumption by 86 percent and electricity consumption by 28 percent compared to the baseline.
Environmental Sustainability
This technology could reduce energy and water use over traditional cow cooling methods and thus reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with avoided capacity needed at the generation and associated with the embedded energy in water. In addition to saving electricity, this technology has the potential to increase milk production due to reduced heat stress as well as reducing disease among lactating cows.
Key Project Members
Theresa Pistochini
Subrecipients
Integrated Comfort
Diversitech Marketing LLC
Match Partners
Regents of the University of California, Davis
