Cattle Housing at the Registered Farms under Cattle Breeders‘ Association in Ödemiş, İzmir.

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine barning conditions of dairy farms registered to Cattle Breeders Association (CBA) Ödemiş district of İzmir. The 92 farms were selected among members of the CBA by proportional sampling method. The farms were divided into three groups according to the number of cattle: group 1 from 5 to 20, group 2 from 21 to 40 and group 3 with over 41 heads, respectively. The farms were divided into three groups according to the number of cattle: 5-20; 21-40 and over 41 heads, respectively. The research results indicated that 76.1% of the barns were shed type, 15.2% were corral, 8.7% were completely closed-up. The flooring types of these barns were a mixed of concrete and soil (73.9%), concrete (19.6%) and soil (6.5%). The stocking density for group 1, 2 and 3 were 22.2 m2, 19.5 m2 and 18.2 m2 per cow, respectively. The barns had a range of full cattle capacity from 12.5 m2 to 15 m2 per cow. But none of the farms surveyed did not use fully capacity of the barn. The present running capacity of farms were between 55% and 80%. It was observed that 19.6% of farms had a individual calf section, 82.6% had a night lighting at the barn, and 64.1% had a seperate concenrated feed store. All the farms were milked with milking machines. The percentage of farms with bucked milking machine was 47.8%, those with an air pipeline system was 37% and those with parlour system was 15.2%. None of farms had manure pit. Consequently, as herd size grow, the presence of free barn, calving pen, feed store and milk cooling tank increase. It can be concluded that improving the housing conditions is much more related with increasing the herd size per farm.