How exactly should you design a proper cow flow system in your barn? Well, the answer will depend on who you ask. Your herd manager will have a different answer than your veterinarian, and your calf care team’s answer will differ from your milkers. However, most will agree that a correct cow flow system should allow cows to simply be cows.

Ron Dehli of Nedap is true expert on how to design sorting and routing systems to keep cows moving and shares his experience with us.

When building a dairy barn, it seems there are a never-ending number of options to consider. Will my cows be more comfortable in freestalls or a bedded pack? What type of ventilation and lighting strategy will I need? What’s the proper amount of space I should allot per head? Should I build now or wait and see what costs are in the future? This is where working with a cow comfort expert is crucial!

Join Henry Collins, Asia-Pacific Sales Manager for VES-Artex as he reviews considerations you should have when building a barn and gives you the tools to make the best decision for your herd.

There are strong seasonal and daily patterns to milk yield and composition. Although the rhythms are rather robust, lighting and feeding times have an impact on these rhythms and provide an opportunity to increase milk component yields. Dr. Kevin Harvatine of Penn State University joins us to discuss what we know about these rhythms and highlight opportunities to better manage them.

Join Kristy Campbell of DeLaval for our latest episode!

Successful improvements in milk quality take a systems approach. Historically, we’ve focused in the front of the barn to make improvements. While that area is important, significant efforts should be made in the back of the barn as well. Cow comfort, bedding management, ventilation, heat/cold stress and employee protocols all play a role in milk quality. The impacts of these factors are amplified in robotic facilities. Not approaching milk quality from a systems point of view leads to missed opportunities for improvement.

To study something, we must be able to classify it and categorize it. You may have heard that dairy barns are like snowflakes – there are no two alike. Join Dr. Mario Mondaca of VES-Artex on his journey to try and parametrize barns into the most important facility parameters and how they affect ventilation design.

Smart dairy farming systems generate a large amount of data that can help farmers monitor barn environmental conditions, milk production, feeding, and reproduction cycles of cows. There is also growing interest in the individual-level monitoring of cow behavior in group housed cattle.

Dr. Borbala Foris of the University of British Columbia’s Animal Welfare Program chats with us on some of the latest research on promising new data streams such as social and grooming behavior that can provide insights into the experiences of individual cows living in a herd and how this impacts their welfare and productivity.

Join VES-Artex’s Key Account Manager, Joel Hornby, to learn tangible tips for building a better barn and solutions for avoiding ventilation KPI killers. Sometimes the key to success is knowing what not to do and then determining the best solution. In providing an animal-centered environment for your dairy, specific considerations need to be given to the effects of weather, building structure and facility layout and of course, the cows themselves. Whether you are building a new facility or retrofitting an existing facility, plan to begin with the end in mind and do it the right way the first time.

Please join Peter Manneke, Territory Sales Manager for Europe, Middle East & Africa for VES-Artex for a webinar on the basics of heat stress.

Simply put, if your cows are experiencing heat stress, your production, reproduction, cow flow, and in turn bottom line, are going to suffer. This presentation will focus on how heat stress occurs in a barn, how to monitor your cows’ behavior when the temperature is rising and tangible heat abatement strategies to put in place to keep your herd cool and comfortable, before it is too late.

Join VES-Artex’s Key Account Manager, Joel Hornby, for our first webinar of 2023. Joel will provide solutions for avoiding ventilation KPI killers. Sometimes the key to success is knowing what not to do and then determining the best solution. In providing an animal-centered environment for your dairy, specific considerations need to be given to the effects of weather, building structure and facility layout and of course, the cows themselves. Whether you are building a new facility or retrofitting an existing facility, plan to begin with the end in mind and do it the right way the first time.

Dr. Huw McConochie of Zinpro joins us for a conversation on hoof health. The cow evolved to occupy an environment very different to the one which we provide her. This environment challenges her physiology. Although big improvements have been made to enhance the cow’s environment, there are still improvements that can be made on most dairies to alleviate many of these challenges without impacting the efficiency of work routines. In fact, an environment that has a positive effect of health and welfare can even enhance operational efficiency. Problem cows often consume extra resources in terms of employee time and the occupation of a barn slot that would. Through changes to design and management we can meet some important sustainability goals – Barn slots occupied with healthy, productive and long-lived cows.

Please join Huw McConochie of Zinpro for our next webinar. The cow evolved to occupy an environment very different to the one which we provide her. This environment challenges her physiology. Although big improvements have been made to enhance the cow’s environment, there are still improvements that can be made on most dairies to alleviate many of these challenges without impacting the efficiency of work routines. In fact, an environment that has a positive effect of health and welfare can even enhance operational efficiency. Problem cows often consume extra resources in terms of employee time and the occupation of a barn slot that would. Through changes to design and management we can meet some important sustainability goals – Barn slots occupied with healthy, productive and long-lived cows.

VES-Artex expert, Charlie Hoffman, will explore how you can use climate and operational data to fine-tune your heat abatement strategy. Our goal? To help you prevent the costly side effects of heat stress before they affect your bottom line.

The back of the barn is where your herd eats, lies, drinks, walks and lives the majority of their lives – make sure it’s as comfortable as possible! Dr. Mike Wolf, consulting veterinarian for VES-Artex, will walk us through the freestall barn and provide tangible suggestions to improve the comfort of your cows for both the short and long term.