Evaluation of stuructural properties of housing in dairy cattle farm in Denizli region

This study was carried out to determine the structural properties of dairy cattle farms and to investigate housing systems, auxiliary facility features, watering, manure management, age of enterprising, number of cattle, average daily milk yield, dry period, labor utilization, animal health, shape and duration of milking. The material of the study was based on results of a survey performed on 33 farms in Denizli City and its 10 counties.18.2 % of farmers have primary school graduates, 6.1 % of secondary school graduates, 18.2 % of high school and 57.6 % of university graduates, respectively. Besides, the dairy cattle breeding was made for providing subsistence income by 21.2 % of the farms and it was made for gaining supplementary budget by the rest of the farms. According to the results of the study on general characteristics of the housing systems, it was observed that the use of free stall and free barns were 57.5 % and 42.5 % respectively, south enterance were 39.4 %, east enterance were 60.6 %, 30.3 percent of managements were built on sloping land, the rest of them were built on the land that was flat. Manure pit was not found 42.5 percent of managements. It was determined that, 87.8 % of barns were dairy cattle, 12.2 % of both dairy and beef cattle , the farms were members of the Cattle Breeding Association were 93.9 % , 6.1 % of non-members . It was enrolled that, the average daily milk yield per animal was between the 13-36 L and 96.9 % of the managements sold milk to private companies, the rest were sold to the dairy house.The results of this study, housing systems of large-capacity managements are generally good in the region; on the other hand, there are some structural problems and manure management deficiencies. Charing agricultural engineers in the projection of animal production structures, raising the awaresness of management owners and supporting additional investments for improving will contribute the solution of this kind of problems.Key Words: Dairy Cow, Housing Systems