Smart Shading for Beef Cattle in Tropical Environments: Environmental and Economic Outcomes

• Grant number: 24/00438-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2024
• End date: April 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry
• Principal Investigator: Gustavo André Bernado Moura
• Grantee: João Lucas Murcia Batista
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias (FCAV). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Jaboticabal. Jaboticabal , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Despite the artificial shading being widely known as a strategy to reduce heat load on animals, its adoption in feedlot cattle operations is still low. One possible reason may be the lack of information about its economic and environmental impact. This research aims to determine the economic and environmental impact resulting from the implementation of the Smart Shade concept, a technology developed by our research team (Maia et al., 2023), in the feedlot of Agropastoril Campanelli, Altair, São Paulo, Brazil. A total of 9000 B. indicus × Bos taurus cattle, predominantly Nellore, were used during three feeding cycles of ~120 days, from November 2019 to November 2021. During each feeding cycle, cattle were allocated to 60 soil-surfaced pens (50 animals per pen), with 30 being assigned to the pens with availability of the smart shading. In each feeding cycle, meteorological variables were recorded every minute using a portable weather station. We will use an environmental index, the In_Comfort Index, to determine the heat load experienced by cattle during the days on feeding. In each pen, data about the water intake by cattle were daily collected through hydrometers installed within the water troughs. Generalized mixed models and artificial intelligence algorithms will be used to determine the impact of thermal conditions experienced by the animals and shading on intake, productivity, and costs of water. Ultimately, at each feeding cycle, economic outcomes and the payback time derived from the implementation of smart shading will be determined using the net present value (NPV). It is expected to provide producers with robust information about the economic and environmental outcomes resulted from using the concept of smart shading in feedlot cattle operations.