Influence of different materials for covering mobile shelters in the thermal comfort of calves in the climatic conditions of Sinop / MT

Abstract

The use of mobile shelters to raise calves has been a practical alternative to farmers, taking into account their importance in reducing the spread of diseases as well as thermal stress. Despite the fact that individual shelters are widely employed in the country, there is little information on the thermal efficiency of materials that are normally used to build them (Barnabé et al, 2014), as well as the high cost involved in their construction. The aim of this study was to evaluate the following variables: temperature, relative humidity and temperature-humidity index (THI), and the cost-benefit ratio of the recyclable materials used to cover the shelters. Bottle PET (T2), tires (T3), milk packaging (Tetrapack^™) (T4) and one sensor as baseline left in full sun. During a 40 days period, the temperature and relative humidity data were recorded hourly, to obtain daily averages. There was no statistical difference (p> 0.05) between materials related to temperature, relative humidity and ITU averages. Even the critical temperature and humidity do not presented significant variation between the treatments (p> 0.05). Considering the results, there is no significant differences among the materials used related to the thermal efficiency based on the above mentioned variables . Therefore, it can be concluded that thereplacement of the conventional roof (Eternit®) by these alternative materials becomes feasible, based on the lower costs and the ecological appeal for recycle materials.