Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Cattle houses and equipment'

Master of Science
Department of Animal Sciences and Industry
J. Ernest Minton
Mitchell Ricketts
Cattle and other livestock have been identified as leading sources of injuries to workers in agriculture. Cattle handling injuries can be serious and often appear to be under-reported [superscript]3,[superscript]4. Many of these injuries involve predictable patterns of interactions among victims, animals, and fixed farmstead structures or gates. There has been some progress toward developing safer facility designs and work procedures, but continuing reports of injuries suggest further efforts are still needed. The present study focused on worker injuries that involved the interaction of three elements: (a) cattle, (b) cattle handlers, and (c) farm structures or equipment—including swinging gates and stationary barriers. The goal of the study was to identify opportunities for injury prevention. The source of injury cases was the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS)[superscript]29,[superscript]45. We believe this is the first report of cattle related injuries based on NEISS data. We selected the NEISS database for this investigation because it includes product codes for many farmstead barriers such as fences, walls, and doors. The database was also selected because it contains brief narratives that help to describe the circumstances of each incident. Predictable interactions between humans, animals, and farm structures led to many of the cattle handling injuries reported in the NEISS database. In almost 30% of cases, cattle pushed workers into structures such as fences, gates, posts, and walls. In another 16-19% of injuries, cattle struck gates and other objects, propelling them at the victims. These percentages are similar to findings reported in previous studies that drew on data from New York hospitals[superscript]10, news reports in the central United States[superscript]5, and workers compensation cases in Colorado[superscript]3,[superscript]4. In all, gates and other physical barriers contributed to about 45% of cattle handling injuries in the present study.

In this study the effects of blood sampling, transportation and slaughter on certain blood variables (sodium, potasium, chloride, glucose, lactates, lipids, proteins, colloidal osmotic pressure, cortisol, ACTH, T3, TSH, osmolality etc.) of cattle were investigated. The experimental animals, crossbreed (Brahman, Afrikander and Hereford) heifers and oxen obtained from Kanhym Estates, Middelburg, were unaccustomed to handling. One group of animals was subjected to the stress of sampling with restraint, a second group was sampled with restraint after transportation and a third group had blood taken after slaughter at the Kanhym abattoir at Balfour. Control blood samples were obtained from Friesland dairy cows accustomed to handling and blood sampling and from crossbreed oxen unaware of the sampling procedure. Both control and experiment groups were studied in the same season. (April and May, 1984). Results were analysed and compared statistically. The blood cortisol, ACTH, lactates and glucose were significantly higher in the experimental groups than in the control group. Cortisol and ACTH values were significantly higher, and the lactate and glucose values significantly lower in the group subjected to the stress of sampling with restraint than in the other two experimental groups. Therefore, if the variables measured are an assessment of stress and change because of stress, then the animals investigated experienced stress. In addition, cattle unaccustomed to handling perceive the slaughtering process as less stressful than blood sampling in a crush (based on cortisol and ACTH results).

Sound pressure level (SPL) is known to cause stress in cattle but is often overlooked as a potential source of fear for cattle when designing handling equipment. Current literature does not offer guidelines for the design of equipment with regard to SPL. It is, however, recommended that handling equipment should be designed to minimize the SPL during handling. The purpose of this experiment was to measure stress levels in a group of cattle which were subjected to a series of varying sounds in order to determine a design threshold limit for handling equipment. Treatments included two frequencies, 1 kHz and 8 kHz, and three intensities, 40, 80, and 120dB. These treatments were assigned to the cattle using a completely randomized two by three factorial design replicated three times for a total of 18 animals being tested. A computer generated noise at each level was played back to the animals once a week for 6 weeks. Stress levels were measured using both physiological (heart rate and eye temperature) and physical (sudden movement) measures. Experiments yielded mixed results and did not prove that any of the sound pressure levels tested had any great effect on the stress level of the cattle.

The effects of month on body weight, body condition scores, internal parasite prevalence and on nutritionally related blood metabolites were studied in Angus, Bonsmara and Nguni steers raised on sweet veld. Pre-slaughter stress was also determined using catecholamines, cortisol, dopamine, packed cell volume and serum creatinine levels. The blood chemical constituents evaluated included glucose, cholesterol, total protein, creatinine, urea, globulin, albumin, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, aspartate amino transferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and creatinine kinase (CK). The Nguni steers maintained their body condition throughout the study period whereas Angus steers had the least body condition scores. Parasite levels were high during the rainy season and low during the dry season. The predominant internal parasites were Haemonchus (39.3 percent), Trichostrongylus (37.8 percent), Cooperia pectinita (25.5 percent), Fasciola gigantica (16.3 percent) and Ostertagia ostertagi (11.2 percent). The Nguni had the least parasite infestation levels and had high PCV levels. Nguni had higher levels of cholesterol and glucose (2.86 and 4mmol/l, respectively) than the other two breeds. Nguni and Bonsmara steers had higher (P<0.05) mineral levels. There were significant breed and month differences for glucose, cholesterol, creatinine, calcium, albumin, phosphorus, albumin-globulin ratio and ALP levels. Bonsmara was more susceptible to transport and pre-slaughter stress as it had the highest (P<0.05) levels of adrenalin (10.8nmol/mol), noradrenalin (9.7nmol/mol) and dopamine (14.8nmol/mol) levels, whereas the Nguni had the least levels of adrenalin (6.5nmol/mol), noradrenalin (4.6nmol/mol) and dopamine (4nmol/mol) levels. In conclusion, Nguni steers were better adapted to the local environmental conditions

Agriculture is one of the most hazardous industries in the United States, with a fatality rate that consistently surpasses other industries. Livestock handling activities are often found to be the second or third leading cause of on-farm injuries, with machinery and falls being cited as other leading causes. Among all livestock, cattle are responsible for the most injuries and fatalities on farms, and cattle-related nonfatal injuries have been shown to be some of the most costly, and result in more time off work than other injuries. Despite the fact that research has improved our understanding of cattle behavior and sensory functions, developed low-stress handling practices, and determined how facilities can be safer for workers and livestock, injury rates remain high. This project identified the types of equipment commonly used on beef farms, evaluated relationships between injuries and farm characteristics (such as herd size and equipment used), and assessed farmer perceptions of safety and obstacles to implementing changes. Most farms cited that they utilized equipment like alleyways (82.69%), a manual headgate (75.51%), a sorting/diverter gate (53.06%), and a manual squeeze chute (51.02%). However, it was found that having certain types of equipment had no influence on the likelihood of injuries. Herd size, on the other hand, was shown to be influential in that farms with larger than average herd size were shown to have a higher rate of injury. A final finding of this study was that farmers cited the cost of equipment, lack of necessity (their setup worked well already), and lack of time as being the main reasons they have not implemented changes on their operations. This study supports the idea that safe equipment and facilities are being implemented and used on most farms already, which suggests that the focus of future research should shift towards evaluating the influence that factors such as human behavior, handling practices, degree of training received, and training methods used have on the risk of worker injury.

The main objective of the study was to determine the effect of farm to abattoir environmental conditions and their subsequent effects on behavioural and physiological responses, as well as the quality of meat from Nguni (NG) and non-descript (ND) beef steers reared extensively on natural pastures. The forty 16 – 19 months old steers (20 ND and 20 NG) used in the current study were grouped together, medically treated, allowed three weeks acclimatizing period and were used in this trial over a four-month period. The weather and periodical variations influence on time budgets and body weights of these steers were determined. Furthermore, the effects of on-farm successive handling on behavioural scores and physiological responses of the same steers were determined. Later in the trial, some pre-slaughter effects on response-behaviour, bleed-out times and selected blood physiological responses were determined. Finally, the effect of genotype, muscle type, lairage duration, slaughter order and stress responsiveness on pH24, temperature, colour (L*, a*, b*, C, HA), thawing (TL) and cooking (CL) losses and Warner Bratzler Shear Force (WBSF) of the meat harvested from the same steers were determined. The daily time budgets of steers in natural pastures changed with temperature, humidity, observation week and time of the day. The grazing behaviour was observed throughout the observation days (> 37 percent); though it was reduced (26.9±2.64 percent) on days with higher temperatures and low humidity. Higher proportions of drinking (1.5±1.04 percent) and standing (20.8±4.63 percent) behaviours prolonged in such weather conditions, which were mostly during midday. The avoidance-related behaviour of the steers during handling varies, with the steers showing more avoidance and aggression in other weeks than some. These variations could however be traced back to the events of that particular day/time of handling. Only Weighing Box (WBS) and stepping (SS) scores differed (P<0.05) with genotype; with more calm NG steers (> 40 percent) and not kicking than the ND steers that were more vocal (20–60 percent) and kicking (> 5 percent). In addition, the weekly behavioural responses were reflected (P<0.05) in the measured cortisol, glucose and lactate. However, regardless of the prominent negative behaviour seen over time, the levels of the measured blood constituents continued to drop. Furthermore, steers of different genotypes displayed similar (P>0.05) response to the identical pre-slaughter conditions they were exposed to. However, steers that were Transport Group 1 (TG1) showed more avoidance (63.2 percent) pre-slaughter than those in TG2 (23.9 percent). Furthermore, all the steers that were in slaughter Group 2 (SG2) showed less avoidance behaviour than those in other groups. Vocalization was observed only for ND steers (5 percent), in TG1 and SG2. Some connections between the observed pre-slaughter activities and some behavioural and physiological changes of these steers were established; with TG1 and SG1 steers showing higher cortisol (140±14.50 and 175.9±17.24 nmol/L, respectively) and lactate (12.4±0.83 and 13.5±1.12 mmolL) levels than the other groups. Lastly, the muscle type, genotype, lairage duration, slaughter order and stress responsiveness have an effect on some meat quality characteristics of the two genotypes; with the L. dorsi muscle having highest WBSF (38.0±1.35N) than the Superficial pectoral muscle (Brisket muscle) (30.7±1.35N). Additionally, steers lairaged for a shorter time produced a L. dorsi with higher WBSF (41.6±2.34N) and a Brisket with lower TL (2.7±0.24 percent). It can therefore be concluded that the conditions and activities at the farm, during transportation, lairaging and slaughter at the abattoir have an influence on some behavioural and physiological changes and the quality of beef harvested from the Nguni and non-descript steers that were extensively-reared in natural pastures. However, the relationship patterns between these different conditions are not clear.

The objective of this study was to determine time budgets, blood urea content, total protein and body condition score as adaptive responses to seasonal dynamics by breeding Nguni cows and heifers reared on a sweetveld. Twenty four clinically healthy Nguni cows and heifers were selected for the study. The animals were grouped according to their parities namely: Parity 1 (n=5), Parity 2 (n=5), Parity 3-6 (old cows) (n=9) and in-calf heifers (n=5). Two separate experiments were conducted and running concurrently. In the first experiment time budgets (time spent walking, grazing, lying down, drinking water and browsing) of the cows and heifers were monitored for two consecutive days once a month, while in the second experiment blood samples were collected from the coccygeal vein once a month during weighing. Body condition scores were also determined during weighing times. Heifers maintained significantly (p0.05) of both blood urea nitrogen (BUN) (7.5±0.39 mmol/l) and TP (80.7±1.19 g/l) in November. All the animals had the least BUN levels in January (1.93±0.18 mmol/l) while the highest total protein (TP) (82.1±1.08 g/l) was recorded in February. All the animals showed distinct (p0.05) in most behavioural attributes in the cool-wet season. Heifers spent significantly (p0.05) body condition scores, amount of time spent browsing and drinking water. On the other hand, heifers (14.7±1.50%) and first parity cows (13.9±1.50%) traded-off most (p<0,05) of their time walking during the cool-dry season. Similarly heifers spent more time browsing (6.4±0.62%) forage plants (p<0.05) than all the cows during the cool-wet season. Grazing (r = 0.17) and standing (r = -0.18) were correlated (p<0.05) with all the behavioural attributes measured in this environment. It was concluded that seasonal dynamics in trade-off behaviour through time budgeting, maintenance of BUN and TP were necessary for the Nguni cows and heifers to maintain their body condition scores within a narrow range throughout the four seasons.

Due to rising energy costs and concerns about global climate change, high performance buildings are more in demand than ever before. With roughly 20% of the total energy consumption in the United States being devoted to residential use, this sector represents a significant opportunity for future savings. There are many guidelines and standards for reducing building energy consumption. One of the most stringent is the Passive House Standard. The standard requires that that air infiltration is less than or equal to 0.6 air changes per hour at a 50 Pascal pressure difference (ACH 50), annual heating energy is less than or equal to 15kWh/m2, and total annual source energy is less than or equal to 120 kWh/m2. For comparison, the typical West coast US residence has an ACH50 of 5 and annually uses more than 174 kWh/m2 of source energy according to the 2009 Residential Energy Consumption Survey. With these challenging requirements, successful implementation of the Passive House Standard requires effective strategies to substantially reduce energy consumption for all end uses. Heating and cooling loads are low by necessity in a Passive House. As such this makes end uses like water heating a much larger fraction of total energy use than they would be in a typical building. When air to water heat pumps are employed the energy consumption by water heating is lowered significantly. By employing innovative heat recovery strategies the energy consumption for water heating and HVAC can be reduced even further. This study uses energy modeling and project cost analysis to evaluate three innovative control strategies. Results for a Passive House in Portland Oregon show a savings of about $70 annually with a payback period of 10 years. The same Passive House in Fairbanks Alaska with a different strategy would save $150 annually with a payback period of 5 years.

The goal of this diploma thesis is to create a building technology project for construction of 4 flat houses within stage 3a. of the building project „Green town of Prague – Jarov, phase II“. The flat houses are in two pairs interconnected by basement, each is a 7 floor high reinforced concrete building with flat roof and is functionally connected to others by a terrace garden system. This document focuses on organisation and preparation of the construction. It includes building site equipment, cost calculation for setting up and servicing of the building site with graphical illustrations for selected construction phases. Additionally a detailed time schedule was created with a proposal for stream construction of the reinforced concrete scelet and lining in the pairs of interconnected buildings. A realization study of the main technological phases was also prepared. The diploma thesis covers in detail construction of reinforced steel scelet and circumferential casing including a layer of contact insulation system. A blueprint of formwork for walls and ceiling is included in the manual for construction of reinforced steel scelet. On these particular actions probationary and control plans were added. The required machinery set with detailed placement was also drafted. An itemized budget for the main building was prepared as well. Attached to this document is a detailed manual on how to use housing units including repairs and revisions plan for next 30 years. Part of this diploma thesis is also a detailed study covering the construction in relation to the surronding living and educational areas.

碩士
國立成功大學
工學院工程管理專班
97
21st-century intelligent houses are architectural structures that incorporate technologies to meet information, internet, and human needs. Related automatic service systems are introduced into residences in order to attain the overall benefits of service functions. Future development should not involve integration for the sake of integration, but should take into account technology maturity and actual needs as the prerequisites for integration. This study uses literature review as a foundation to posit theoretical concepts for intelligent houses under existing architectural theory. We also examine the development of current intelligent houses, government policies, as well as the functions of various types of equipment available in the industry, and then incorporate the lifestyle needs of family members based on different life cycle perspectives. We participated in relevant intelligent house seminars sponsored by intelligent house alliances, Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), and the Institute for Information Industry (III) to consult expert opinion; we also referred to expert opinions from the research results of Architectural and Building Research Institute (Ministry of the Interior, ABRI). We reached the following conclusions: 1. Architectural theories are the key foundation for constructing intelligent houses. 2. Buildings are the vector for intelligent houses and can provide the flexible space needed by function systems. 3. Mixed cabling systems are the nervous networks of intelligent houses and must possess the integrated capabilities of cables of different materials. 4. The space required by mixed cabling systems is of key importance. 5. Function systems are responsible for tasks such as the control, information integration, and determination of terminal equipment. Consequently, the communications protocols of the various function systems must be compatible. 6. Terminal equipment is responsible for executing the identification, scanning, and warnings for smart functions or for providing direct services functions. Consequently, different brands must have substitutable interfaces for universal use. 7. People are the controllers of intelligent houses and are responsible for constructing and protecting systems; they are the recipients of system benefits. 8. The equipment of smart houses must meet natural, energy-saving, safety, and comfort needs, and must have smart substitutable functions in accordance with human life cycles.

碩士
國立臺灣科技大學
工程技術研究所
86
The purpose of this research is to investigate the circumstances and problems of water supply system in houses that happened in domestic building equipment. We know that water quality from inlet point to outlet of faucet in building might change. This phenomenon can show some condition of water supply system. This research will use a quantitative survey method to analyze the water quality, and try to find the influence parameters in water supply system. By the results of this research, the first, we will try to build a common estimation system for the water supply in buildings. Furthermore, we hope to propose the solution of previous problems and promote the function of water supply system in buildings. This research includes the investigation of circumstances and analyses of water quality in domestic building equipment. Concerning the investigation, there are building usage, materials of pipe system, water tank, water equipment, etc., we will record the situation and put these problems in order. About the analysis, there are pH reading, bacterium test, chloride density, calcium hardness, coloring test, etc..

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Alberta, 2009.
Title from pdf file main screen (viewed on Jan. 7, 2010). "A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Food Science and Technology, Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science, University of Alberta." Includes bibliographical references.