Barn and Environmental Characteristics of Cattle Enterprises in Central County of Ağrı Province

Abstract

In this study, a survey was conducted with 400 enterprise owners in order to determine the current situation and problems related to the structural characteristics of the barns in cattle enterprises located in the central county of Ağrı province, and the data obtained were transferred into Microsoft Excel program and frequency analysis was performed in SPSS statistical program. Findings were evaluated through graphs obtained from proportional values. It was determined that 66% of the enterprises have free-stall closed barns, the barns in 48.5% of the enterprises were used for less than 10 years and the barns were generally detached (98.5%). Building material for the walls of the barns was mostly stone (72.8%), and sheet metal (72.8%) was the most preferred material for the construction of the roof, and the floors of the were generally made of concrete (88.8%). The feed alley (15%) and automatic waterers (2.8%) are available in a small percentage of the barns. It was determined that 88% of the cattle farms have individual calf units, and calves in the most of the enterprises are housed in a separate group sections (87.5%) in the same barn. Only 15% of the enterprises used bedding and 85% of them did not have bedding material. The majority of the enterprises watered the animals with buckets (51.5%) and village's fountain or trough (43.8%). It also found out that 62.3% of the enterprises implemented general cleaning and 99.3% cleaned the manure with manpower. Furthermore, 94.5% of the enterprises stored the manure near the barn without any cover. In addition, 72.5% of the cattle farms utilized from the manure for heating purpose and 51% of them used it as fertilizer in their field. As a result of the findings, it was concluded that the information support and investment incentives to be given to the enterprises and the training of breeders could be helpful to ensure profitable livestock production in the region.In this study, a survey was conducted with 400 enterprise owners to determine the current situation and problems related to the structural characteristics of the barns in cattle enterprises located in the central county of Ağrı province. The data obtained were transferred into Microsoft Excel program. Frequency analysis was performed in SPSS statistical program. Findings were evaluated through graphs obtained from proportional values. It was determined that 66% of the enterprises had free-stall closed barns, the barns in 48.5% of the enterprises were used for less than 10 years and the barns were generally detached (98.5%). The building material for the walls of the barns was mostly stone (72.8%), and sheet metal (72.8%) was the most preferred material for the construction of the roof, and the floors were generally made of concrete (88.8%). The feed alley (15%) and automatic waterers (2.8%) are available in a small percentage of the barns. It was determined that 88% of the cattle farms have individual calf units, and calves in most enterprises are housed in separate group sections (87.5%) in the same barn. Only 15% of the enterprises used bedding and 85% did not have bedding material. The majority of the enterprises watered the animals with buckets (51.5%) and the village’s fountain or trough (43.8%). It also found out that 62.3% of the enterprises implemented general cleaning and 99.3% cleaned the manure with human resources. Furthermore, 94.5% of the enterprises stored the manure near the barn without any cover. In addition, 72.5% of the cattle farms utilized manure for heating purposes, and 51% used it as fertilizer in their field. As a result of the findings, it was concluded that the information support and investment incentives to be given to the enterprises and the training of breeders could be helpful to ensure profitable livestock production in the region.