Infrastructure

Dairy yard

Case Study: Dairy yard sprinkler system

Farmer’s name: Lindsay

Facts about this sprinkler system:

Designed by: Lindsay Installed by:
Lindsay and farm staff
Lifespan: Set up 10 years ago and to date nothing has needed to be replaced

Other cooling infrastructure on this farm:

Spray curtain at dairy platform entrance
Large fan in dairy

Background

Lindsay is convinced of the benefit of sprinkling cows in hot weather and has been doing it for more than 30 years as part of his summer routine.

The current system was installed in 2000 and includes ‘wobbler’ sprinklers set up over the dairy yard and a spray curtain installed on the roof line at the entry onto the platform.

The infrastructure is well designed and allows cows to stand in the yard in comfort even in high temperature conditions – a factor in motivating cows to travel to the dairy.

‘Wobbler’ sprinklers running across the yard,

suspended by steel cables and support posts.

On 30°C days sprinklers are used before milking. On days over 35°C the herd is brought into the yard from the paddock and sprinkled with water for at least 2 hours before the afternoon milking. In the November 2009 heatwave (during which the max. daily THI exceeded 80 for 10 consecutive days) the farm only lost 1 L/day with cows on concrete under sprinklers for 6-8 hours/day.

Lindsay’s dairy yard is 50 m long and 18 m wide and holds up to 500 cows. The system has these specifications:

Four rows of wobblers each with three sprinklers across the yard at spacing of 4.5 m. Each row about 7 m apart.
Height of sprinklers above cows is 3 m at side of yard and 2.8 m in the middle.
Use existing dairy pump 70 psi.
No filter used.
25 mm diameter pipe.
Constant use of sprinklers, no on/off cycle is used.
Channel or bore water for dairy yard, yard drains to effluent pond, then utilised through irrigation system. No water leaves the farm.

Wobbler sprinkler.

Steel posts that supports the water pipelines and

allow the individual cables to be tensioned.

What would you change?

Knowing what you know now...

Lindsay would put support posts into concrete to provide stronger support to cables and sprinkler lines, as some posts have bent.

Comments from the experts

This property’s dairy yard sprinklers are effectively spaced and elevated so that all the dairy yard can be wetted when operated and are not located within reach of the cows. They apply large droplets that effectively wet the cows’ hair and skin.

The sprinklers are not operated based on a set on/off cycle to conserve water. However, the wobbler sprinklers appear to have a lower flow rate, as compared to the oscillating garden variety sprinklers.