In our operations, holding area management and the proper use of a crowd gate play a crucial role in promoting a cow’s comfort and ensuring an optimal milk harvest experience during her daily parlor visits. While these tasks may seem straightforward, they require much more than just moving cows and running them through a parlor.

Proper airflow in milking parlors and holding areas is essential for the well-being of the herd and the efficiency of dairy operations. By effectively removing heat, moisture, odors and contaminants produced by the cows, proper ventilation ensures the cows' comfort, prevents heat stress, maintains good air quality and supports animal health overall.

A cow’s core body temperature can rise very quickly in the holding pen without a cooling strategy in place. Therefore, the cooling strategy for the parlor and holding pen must be more aggressive to compensate for these heat abatement challenges.