Software for planning loose yards and designing concrete constructions for dairy farms in arid and semi-arid zones

To plan and design dairy housing, several calculations should be made; this requires time and efforts, with the possibility of making mistakes. The objectives of this paper are to develop a tool to assist the designers in planning and designing dairy housing in arid and semi-arid zones, to save time and efforts, and to provide a new design model. Two mathematical models were developed to plan and design corral systems and the required concrete constructions. Subsequently, an electronic spark map (decision tree) was developed for each mathematical model, and then the mathematical models were integrated into the electronic spark maps. Afterwards, C# (C Sharp) programming language was used to develop the software by integrating the electronic spark maps, and making the user interface. The developed software is able to plan and design the housing system (corrals system), specify corrals and house dimensions, and compute the required amounts of construction materials (iron rods, cement, sand, and gravels) to build the required concrete base. Furthermore, it calculates the capital investment and the fixed, variable, and total costs of the construction. Data of 6 dairy farms were used to validate the model, and to evaluate the software. The differences between actual and calculated values were determined, and the standard deviations were calculated. The coefficients of variation (COVs) range between 3% and 7%.