Mobile app able to quantify the thermal comfort of dairy cattle and propose mitigatory measures to heat stress

• Grant number: 21/04665-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2022
• End date: April 30, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Animal Production
• Principal Investigator: Silvia Regina Lucas de Souza
• Grantee: Vinicius de Oliveira Branco
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agronômicas (FCA). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Thermal comfort is related to the productive capacity of dairy cows, because in an environment with high temperatures, these animals can go into heat stress, causing them to demand efforts to mitigate the consequences with remarkable physiological responses, which trigger significant losses in the production. To reverse the discomfort caused by cattle heat, it is necessary to take some steps that use natural and artificial resources. The Temperature and Humidity Index (ITU) is a relationship that uses the meteorological variables 'air temperature and relative humidity', which are measured, respectively, by a dry bulb thermometer and a hygrometer, and allows the calculation of thermal comfort. of the animals. In this way, a mobile device application will be developed in the integrated Android Studio 4.1.2 development environment. through the Java object-oriented programming language. The application will serve as a management facilitator and instructor for newly hired employees and unskilled labor. It will have in its interface the ITU calculator and will present in response the result of the values of the relation of the ITU and, in case the application points heat stress, a different 'checklist', for each level of the ITU, showing mitigation measures to counter the adverse situation. With this, it is expected to quantify the thermal well-being of dairy cows and to propose efficient measures to mitigate heat stress through the making of the proposed application. (AU)