Target Convection Cooling of Cows
California is ranked first in the nation in the production of milk, butter, ice cream, non-fat dairy milk and whey protein concentrate. The majority of the State's dairy farms are located in the Central Valley, where summers are very hot and dry. Their milk cows need to be cooled both for health and productivity reasons. California dairy farmers rely mainly on various forms of forced convection and evaporative cooling systems such as large circulation fans and high-water-volume feed lane soaking systems. These systems work by enhancing convective heat transfer and reducing the ambient air temperature through the evaporation of water. Current systems require significant amounts of water and electricity.
Targeted convection coolers use fabric ducting to direct cool air on the cows. The air will be cooled using a high-efficiency direct evaporative cooler.
How Does It Work
The majority of California’s dairy farms are located in the Central Valley, where summers are very hot and dry. Their milk cows need to be cooled both for health and productivity reasons.
California dairy farmers rely mainly on various forms of forced convection and evaporative cooling systems such as large circulation fans and high-water-volume feed lane soaking systems. This requires significant amounts of water and electricity.
Targeted Convection Cooling uses a high-efficiency direct evaporative cooler to efficiently cool cows.
Benefits for Tulare
Drought Resilience
The proposed Targeted Convection Cooling approach reduces the amount of water needed to cool California's 1.78 million milk cows and has the potential to reduce water consumption by 86% compared to current soaking systems. An implementation in 10% of dairies equates to 4990 acre-feet of water savings per year.
Reduces Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Production of “Integrated Distributed Energy Resources” (IDER: energy efficiency, demand reduction, distributed renewable energy production) all reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing electric use and electric demand reduces the production and/or purchase of marginal electric resources, much of which is produced by natural gas.
Supports Electric Reliability
Targeted Convection Cooling has the potential to reduce electricity use by 28%. An implementation in 10% of dairies equates to approximately 7.5 million kWh of electricity savings.
Reduces Ratepayer Costs
IDER reduces costs and risks to electric reliability, reducing electric costs for all ratepayers
Current Status
This cooling technique is part of UC Davis' four-year, $1 million grant from the California Energy Commission to improve water and energy efficiency in California's dairy industry. The project consists of two phases. In Phase I, to be performed in the UC Davis dairy, the Targeted Convection Cooling approach is demonstrated in a comparative study with the Conduction Cooling approach. (Details for the CC approach are contained in a different profile). In Phase II, to be performed in a commercial dairy in Tulare, the best performing approach from Phase I will be installed and monitored over two 6-month summer periods.