Cool cows producing milk steadily year round

Heat Stress Problem

The climate in the Prairies of Iowa is mild, but the air flow from the desert area in the south west region of the United States moves up into Iowa and can result in unusually hot, dry summer temperatures. The Van Ess family needed to find a way to avoid the dips in production, which happens when the cows experience heat stress.

Munters ventilation system

The family was introduced to the Munters ventilation system. The system allows the entire heard to be housed in a single enclosed building which saves on the construction costs and animal management. With the building being enclosed they are able to control inside temperatures and avoid heat stress, resulting in production loss. The Van Ess building houses over 5000 dairy cows in one enclosed building with enough space to house an additional 1000 cows. There are 120 VX 55”, 2HP fans which move over 4 million cubic feet of air every minute (CFM). The building is designed to exchange all the air in the building every minute. To cool the intake air we have over 115,832 cubic feet of CELdek pad and 960 feet of CT Series Evaporative Cooling.

Company spokesman Jeremy Van Ess states that the Munters Ventilation Systems performs even better than he expected. He is able to keep the cows at a comfortable temperature all year long, which has resulted in no dips in production through out the year. The family selected Munters because of the reputation of being the market leader and the knowledge of his Sales Representative. Dairy cow cooling has evolved over the years. A market innovation lead by Munters is the Cross Ventilated Building. A Cross Ventilation System uses VX exhaust fans, on one side of the building, with Express Cool Evaporative Cooling system on the opposite side. The exhaust fans draw the fresh outside air through the evaporative cooler, which can cool the outside air by 15-20 degrees F. The cool air coupled with the airspeed generated by the fans, cool the livestock, maximizing feed conversion and production output. The system is run with a computer controller leaving the system to run itself based on the programmed temperature settings.