I’m feeling absolutely good here
Quiet and efficient supplying of cattle barns with cool air and feel-good climate
Cows feel comfortable at low temperatures – this is a well-known fact. Increasingly extreme summers are placing farmers under greater pressure to resolve the issue of overheating. There are consequently several different approaches to climate control management in dairy cattle barns. Ziehl-Abegg offers a quiet and energy-optimized cooling system with a special fan unit that’s easy to install. Two farmers from Germany (Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg) discuss their experience with the systems.
Peter Maurus’ dairy cattle barn in the Allgäu region was built in 2008. Since both longitudinal sides of the 50-metre-long structure are open, there should actually be no need for any ventilation. “But that didn’t work on hot days,” he says. He doesn’t want large ceiling fans that move the air in a vertical direction: “These ‘helicopters’ dry out the barn floor,” he says. This effect wasn’t evident with fans that blow air horizontally.
Four fans of ZIEHL-ABEGG for 100 cows
So, at the beginning of 2020, he decided to install four fans from Ziehl-Abegg for his 100 cows. These blow air from the north side, lengthways through the barn, not only providing air circulation but also cool, fresh air from outside
Always the perfectly attuned air flow in the barn
The air flow not only benefits the animals. Maurus knows from his own experience how hot it’s been during the summer months in previous years: “During the insemination procedure, I found the heat in the barn unbearable” he recalls. He also saw how the animals were no longer lying still, instead they were breathing. So he sought a solution – and that’s what he was offered by Haka-Lüftungstechnik (ventilation technology) fitted with Ziehl-Abegg equipment.
It was the same with Dieter Bosch in Baden-Württemberg where the summer temperatures soared. In the old cattle barn the farmer had chimneys on the roof. “But they simply didn’t cool the building properly” he says. Now the ventilation for his new building (70 x 30 meters) is supplied in a horizontal direction. To this end, five ZAplus units from Ziehl-Abegg were suspended at an angle from the ceiling using wire ropes.
Bionic fan – robust, silent and energy-saving
An additional fan blows fresh air from the outside into the stable for the 120 dairy cows. The advantage: ZAplus is a robust unit that includes motor, fan and guide vane. The optimized biomimetic design of the blades reduces noise and lowers energy consumption.
No longer stress for animals, neither because of too intense heat, nor because of annoying flies, for example in the milking parlors
For both Maurus and Bosch, the milking parlour remained a critical issue. “Both the ‘robotic equipment’ and the udders were surrounded by flies”, explains Dieter Bosch. The animals had been very restless in the fully automated milking parlour. Peter Maurus had looked at how other farmers provided ventilation in their milking parlours. He concluded that “metal fans make a squealing sound”. Due to the low ceiling height, he needed two small fans but they still provide safe cooling and a noticeable airflow. “The two small axial fans from Ziehl-Abegg are very quiet and deliver the necessary performance,” says Peter Maurus. Dieter Bosch also praises the calm that now prevails in his milking parlour: “That’s because flies don’t like a draught.”.
Simple installation, simple cleaning of ZIEHL-ABEGG fans for agriculture
AC units are in use in the two barns at both Peter Maurus’s and Dieter Bosch’s farms. “AC fans are cheaper than modern EC units and can be regulated extremely well using a central Fcontrol control unit,” says Stephan Weixler from Haka. The frequency inverter was also manufactured by Ziehl-Abegg.