The aim of this study was to demonstrate the enhancement of milk production and its economic effect by adopting a warm water feeding system, which used fermentation heat recovered from a composting facility in winter. On a dairy farm with approximately 100 lactating cows, a monthly repetitive experiment was conducted in winter over two years, alternating between a warm water condition where water warmed up using heat released from fermentation was fed to the lactating herd, and a cold water condition where unheated water was provided. The water was heated from 6.1 ℃ to 22.8 ℃ in the warm water condition via heat exchange using an exhaust system at an average temperature of 47.8 ℃. The warm water condition significantly increased water intake and milk yield by 7.6 % and 3.9 %, respectively, compared with the cold water condition at 7.3 ℃. The amount of fermentation heat used to heat the water was estimated to be the kerosene equivalent of 85 000 yen/month, and the increased income from providing warm water to the lactating herd in winter was approximately 327 000 yen/month for 104 cows. Therefore, we concluded that the warm water feeding system effectively used fermentation heat in dairy farms with approximately 100 lactating cows when it was implemented for more than 3 months a year, generating more revenue than the initial and running costs.
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