Livestock Energetics and Thermal Environmental Management

The intent of this monograph is to present engineering information for the design and management of the thermal environment for livestock. Engineers in general have related environmental design to the heat and moisture load created by the animal. In the simplest form this is appropriate. However, the complexities are numerous. In the last four decades, engineers have started to acknowledge the effects of nutrition, acclimatization, dynamic changes in the environment, physiological state, and social interactions as affecting the animal’s productive responses to the thermal environment, including temperature, humidity, and air velocity. Conversely, animal scientists initially concentrated on understanding the response of the animal to its environment by limiting interacting variables which were not applicable for engineering design of production environments, e.g., by using basal (fasting) conditions. Over time, the increase in knowledge of the complexity of the interactions of the animal and its environment, and the need for more understanding, has been acknowledged by both engineers and animal scientists, causing greater interactions between the two disciplines. Animal health is also an important variable and thus veterinarians provide important insights into the responses of animals to their environments.