Abstract

BARTOLOME, D.J. et al. Dairy cattle farm electricity consumption in Castilla y León. Arch. zootec. [online]. 2013, vol.62, n.239, pp.447-455. ISSN 1885-4494.  https://dx.doi.org/10.4321/S0004-05922013000300013.

Eighty energy audits were carried out to 80 dairy cattle farms in Castilla y León, in order to determine electricity consumption and its distribution. Data regarding their characteristics, equipment (milking, cooling, cleaning, hot water, ventilation and other devices), usage times and electricity bills were collected. From these data, average electricity annual consumption and utilization rates per cow and per litre of produced milk were calculated. Vacuum pump (8948 kWh/ year) and the cooling tank (6030 kWh/year) were the most consumptive equipments, followed by cleaning systems (5244 kWh/year). Herringbone milking parlours showed lower consumption (7 kWh) than milking robots (24 kWh) and rotary milking parlours (26 kWh). Average electricity consumption stands at 516 kWh per productive cow and year or 51 kWh per 1000 kg of milk produced per year. The optimization of power consumption in the dairy cattle farms is possible, but passes through the evaluation of actual consumption produced in each team and exploitation process.

Keywords : Energy efficiency; Milking; Saving; Sustainability.

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