The Edstrom Complete Solution To Beat The Heat

It doesn't have to be 110°F for heat stress to occur in dairy cows. Studies have found that dairy cows will begin to reduce heat intake and lose body weight at temperatures as low as 79°F. Milk production, reproductive performance and health are all affected. Heat stress affects performance even in seemingly cooler months, as cows struggle to rebound from complications such as rumen acidosis. High yielding cows are most susceptible to heat stress. All of this quickly impacts your profits!

The degree of heat stress suffered by the cow will depend on the combination of environmental conditions - air temperature, relative humidity, air movement, and radiation from the sun. Dairy farmers use shades, fans, and ample fresh drinking water to help herds beat the heat but often shade and ventilation are just not enough.

Cool Sense™ - Motion Cooling System

• Control the amount of water used by adjusting the shower time - Minimize wasted water.
• Easy and economical to install and operate Quick return on investment.
• Adapts to various lane widths and barn configurations
• Unidirectional or bidirectional options
• two-year factory warranty on controller

The Cool Sense™ motion cooling system is an effective and efficient wway of keeping dairy cattle cool when the temperature rises. Cooling is achieved by automatically showering dairy cows with a coarse droplet shower. Showering cows immediately after milking helps reduce heat stress, which in turn increases their feed and water consumption and milk production.

The Cool Sense controller activates a shower when the temperature probes detects an air temperature above the customer-configured actuation temperature and the dual motion sensors detect motion. The cows are then showered as they walk under the manifold nozzles. After a cow moves through the showering area, the water begins evaporating from the skin and pulls heat away from the animal, thus cooling it.

There are two types of showers on a Cool Sense system, unidirectional shower and bidirectional showering. Unidirectional showering consists of one manifold that disperses water in one direction, while bidirectional showering has two manifolds that disperses water in opposite directions.

The degree of heat stress suffered by the cow will depend on the combination of environmental conditions - air temperature, relative humidity, air movement, and radiation from the sun. Dairymen use shades, fans, and ample fresh drinking water to help herds beat the heat; but often shade and ventilation are just not enough. In southern states where the heat and humidity is more severe dairymen have also used sprinklers to provide added cooling effects. 

Research has shown that intermittent showering in combination with shade and forced air movement is a very effective method of cooling dairy cows, thereby reducing the production losses experienced during hot, humid weather conditions. By using a high capacity, coarse droplet shower nozzle, enough water can be applied to fully wet the cows hair and skin. The water is then allowed to evaporate, which pulls heat from the animal, just like sweating. Increased air movement across the wet skin provided by fans, makes this system most efficient.