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13 October 2024

Optimizing Dairy Farm: The Fabric Barn’s Effect on Milk Production

compost bedded pack barns for dairy cows

With regulatory concerns rising and the need for more effective, sustainable strategies necessary, dairy farming has become far more challenging. For dairy farmers to meet objectives and still meet profit margins, it is critical to look for strategies to reduce costs and improve operations. You cannot control market prices, but you can control what you do on dairy farms to increase productivity, production, and energy efficiency. Consider how fabric buildings directly contribute to these efforts. 

Agriculture Dairy Farming to Improve Milk Yields

One of the ways dairy farms can benefit from the use of fabric buildings is by supporting increased milk yield. How can a fabric building contribute to one of the ongoing concerns in dairy farming? 

Improved dairy farming practices reduced the carbon footprint of producing a gallon of milk by 19% between 2007 and 2017. Ongoing adoption of eco-friendly practices, such as using sustainable dairy barns, can provide additional environmental and sustainability gains. For example, utilizing an agricultural fabric structure eliminates the needs artificial lighting. Natural light can help to support production, while also reducing the overall costs to operating the structure. While spaces can also be fitted with LED lighting, which better mimics natural light, fabric buildings lend themselves to natural protection.

Fabric buildings also reduce energy consumption overall. As a more energy efficient structure, they enable better management of gases and emissions as well. For Ontario agriculture buildings, this can be a critical factor in creating a more sustainable space.

More so, when your cattle is producing more milk, you need fewer of them. That helps to reduce costs and sustainability efforts increase.

Improved Operational Efficiency in Agriculture Dairy Farming

fabric covered dairy barn for cattle

Depending on the building styles used, it is possible to see significant operational efficiency. For example, for agriculture dairy farming success, organizations need to spend less time on maintenance and upkeep of their structure. With more durable structures, like the options in fabric building industries like ours, we can provide you with decades of functionality that does not require substantial maintenance and upkeep. This reduces the cost investment necessary for most organizations.

 Cow Comfort Supported

Dairy cow shelter solutions like these can be exceptional at improving cow quality of life, which has been showing to directly contribute to the overall efficiencies in production. When you’re building your fabric dairy barn, space is critical to manage well. With the utilization of open interior structures and more space overall, cow social stress is minimized. This directly links to improvement in comfort.

Cows that are more comfortable and less stressed are more likely to lactate. In some situations, there has been evidence that cow comfort encourages early lactation performance. It can also directly lead to the production of more milk product without increasing the need for space. Because fabric buildings require fewer structural components and do not need interior columns for support, they enable dairy farms to have far more space for cows to move around.

Maximizing the Benefits of Fabric Barns in Dairy Farming

By working with a local fabric building contractor, it is possible for dairy farms to significantly increase their production of milk while also keeping costs down. There are several benefits to turning to Britespan for your agriculture dairy farming buildings.

Our energy-efficient barns for dairy farms are designed to provide exceptional benefits to dairy farmers including:

  • Column-free interior designs that makes the most use of space and adds functionality to the dairy farm. It allows dairy farms to use space wisely and more efficiently overall.
  • Ample natural light helps to support the health and happiness of cows, directly leading to improved production.
  • Improve airflow helps to reduce emissions and maintains a cleaner, healthier environment for cows and dairy farms overall.
  • Essential equipment and robotic milking components can easily be added and supported by our fabric agricultural buildings.
  • Features such as feed bunks, eaves and chimneys, retractable curtains, and doors can be custom-built and added to spaces to maximize overall efficiency and functionality.

Our dairy cow shelter solutions are also easy to maintain, faster to get put into place, and more reliable over the long term, including in cold and wet climates. They come with a 25-year warranty for Elite fabrics and a 20-year warranty on standard fabrics, providing decades of peace of mind for dairy farms. Utilizing of our dairy cow shelter solutions make sense for many of our clients. Consider our fabric covered beef barn solutions as well. 

Increase Cow Health, Happiness, and Milk Production with Fabric Building Structures for Dairy Farming

At Britespan, our clients work with us to create custom solutions that meet each one of their needs. To learn more about what we can do to help you increase milk yield at your dairy farm, contact our team today. We can offer custom solutions you can rely on. Contact our team today for a quote and consultation to discuss our dairy farming solutions.