Air Conditioned Space

[splinter ridge farm]

I am new to showing calves and I have a few questions. I am hoping someone does'nt mind giving me some assistance.
1)It is my understanding that air conditioned rooms are used to promote hair condition & growth, increase appetites and give more comfort to the animal during the summer heat. What are the pro's and con's?
2) How many days prior to a show should the animal start staying in the conditioned space and what temperature range?
3) I assume that they can be turned out in the evening, after the sun goes down for additional exercise?
4) Is it recommended that they get rinsed daily and blown dry before entering conditioned space?
Any and all recommendations are appreciated. Thanks

 

[LoveMoo11]

I never used an air conditioner or fans. I have never heard of anyone using an AC actually, but I know a lot of people that use fans. I just couldn't afford running a fan other than the fans in the barn for ventilation. What I did was to keep brushing them regularly using a squirt bottle of water, and the hair grew very well.

 

[Cowboy 2.0]

We didn't use an air conditioner, we had a cooler, similar to what you might find at a grocery store. The calves went in when we got them in March and stayed in until winter. The temp inside ranged from 48 to 55 degrees. They got rinsed and blowed every morning before they went in. At night they were turned out into runs that had fans for hot nights.

 

[OLF]

Our show cattle stay in cool dark barn during the day with a large fan blowing on them from behind. They are rinsed daily, then blown and brushed but left damp. They go out on pasture at night. I start bringing them in a minimum of 60 days before the first show, preferably 90 days.

 

[redluv]

I am new to showing calves and I have a few questions. I am hoping someone does'nt mind giving me some assistance.
1)It is my understanding that air conditioned rooms are used to promote hair condition & growth, increase appetites and give more comfort to the animal during the summer heat. What are the pro's and con's?
2) How many days prior to a show should the animal start staying in the conditioned space and what temperature range?
3) I assume that they can be turned out in the evening, after the sun goes down for additional exercise?
4) Is it recommended that they get rinsed daily and blown dry before entering conditioned space?
Any and all recommendations are appreciated. Thanks

1. Pros- hair growth Cons- its hard on them when you take them out to a show, especially one in the summer heat. I have had calves in an air conditioned room. If you are thinking of doing this, keep in mind the room needs to be well insulated. The calves need to be checked often, the a/c can go out and the room can turn into an oven. Its also kind of expensive, especially if the unit isn't big enough. It has to fight the animals' body temp and if you put fans in there, they will also put out heat.
2 & 3. With our animals, they started getting put in the a/c in mid May. They stayed in there from the time the sun came up until the sun went down (or was around 75 degrees at night), until the end of show season. The temp was set at 55-60 degrees.
4. Rinse them every day, even if they aren't put in the a/c if you decide to use fans. It helps train the hair. If they do go in the a/c, they will need to be dried completely, otherwise the humidity in the room will be too high and the a/c will burn itself out.

 

[Anonymous]

We didn't use an air conditioner, we had a cooler, similar to what you might find at a grocery store. The calves went in when we got them in March and stayed in until winter. The temp inside ranged from 48 to 55 degrees. They got rinsed and blowed every morning before they went in. At night they were turned out into runs that had fans for hot nights.

I've been thinking about buying a cooler...have you ever had problems with moisture???

 

[Cowboy 2.0]

We didn't use an air conditioner, we had a cooler, similar to what you might find at a grocery store. The calves went in when we got them in March and stayed in until winter. The temp inside ranged from 48 to 55 degrees. They got rinsed and blowed every morning before they went in. At night they were turned out into runs that had fans for hot nights.

I've been thinking about buying a cooler...have you ever had problems with moisture???

No but we had a vent fan to keep the air fresh. Another important thing to have is cedar shavings.

 

[Anonymous]

We didn't use an air conditioner, we had a cooler, similar to what you might find at a grocery store. The calves went in when we got them in March and stayed in until winter. The temp inside ranged from 48 to 55 degrees. They got rinsed and blowed every morning before they went in. At night they were turned out into runs that had fans for hot nights.

I've been thinking about buying a cooler...have you ever had problems with moisture???

No but we had a vent fan to keep the air fresh. Another important thing to have is cedar shavings.

Cedar shaving to soak up the moisture??

 

[Cowboy 2.0]

Cedar shaving to soak up the moisture??

And the lovely smell calves in a cooler make.

 

[show steer up]

http://www.coolcalf.com/index.html

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Electromagnetic door lock 300lbs (cost less through coolcalf)

http://www.sensaphone.com/
model 400 (cost less through coolcalf)


Working on ours at the moment, should be done within two weeks

We put a 5 ton air conditioner unit on this barn. What we used before for the past years was this room and 4 turbo fans, misting system, swamp cooler. We did great with that system but now our comp. is major here.
Our coats last year look as if we hadn't done anything. Most of the major players in our area have vamped up their systems and if we want to play we needed to do this.
This unit will phone me and let me know if the barn looses temp. It will also have the safety door lock. Ill let you know how things work out in a few weeks.
By the way if you do everything yourself and shop around you can do a lot better in price than what cool calf will do for you. We got a 5 ton air conditioner for $200 used. The cooling bill is est. at 200 a month per utility comp. We will see.
This room holds four steer, has a french drain system and we plan on keeping it at 45 - 50F if we are able to. At the fair we run all four turbo fans on our cattle.
Around ten other familys went to air conditioner systems last year and had no problems with their cattle at the fair

 

[splinter ridge farm]

My concern about a "regular" household air conditioner is the potential of the evaporator coil freezing, if you run temps below 60 degrees F, in the box. Will you have an anti- ice control in series with the cooling circuit?

 

[show steer up]

we left the air conditioning systems to the pros. They have that all figured out, I hope

I asked hubbie "AC guys are going to set compressor to cycle more often and may have to put a de froster timer into the evap ciol," ;-)

So....... does that sound good, just checking on the guys, have to be one step ahead of them. Can you think of anything else to pass by them

Hubbie laughed at me when I asked the question........I told him I'm just trying to get smart :lol: :lol: Gotta love it :cboy:

 

[redluv]

Around ten other familys went to air conditioner systems last year and had no problems with their cattle at the fair

You don't have any problems? In order to keep the calves cool here we have to haul misting systems to shows to keep them from panting and rinse them all the time. Maybe its the humidity here...

 

[show steer up]

I've seen some of those systems, they are nice.
Do you have a link, so everyone can see :shock:

No humidity problems here, its dry, dry and when you thought it was too dry and hot, it gets worse :lol:

 

[show steer up]

Hay splinter were are you from :???:

 

[splinter ridge farm]

We are in Indiana...humid and very hot in the summer.I am a HVAC technician (heating and cooling) by trade, so this is all really interesting to me. I think if you put an anti-ice control that should be a sufficient. They are fairly cheap, that can be placed in the cooling circuit and do the same thing as a defrost timer. I don't think you will get it any lower than 55-60 degrees in the box, without getting all technical to explain, but keep us all posted. I would introduce some "make-up" air in the box, it will increase your cooling load, but it would be needed. I have all kinds of thoughts as to how I am going to "custom build" mine.

 

[show steer up]

This is fantastic, thanks a heap
So what are your plans? :help:
Were just trying to keep up with the Jones on our kids pocketbook so everything can help.

 

[splinter ridge farm]

How do you pro's wean your cooler calves from the cooler before the show date? Do you begin turning the t-stat up a week or two before show, so the calves will begin to adjust to the hot weather or will that defeat the whole purpose prematurely?

 

[show steer up]

defeat the whole purpose

Hair would be flying everywhere :cry2: :cry2: :cry2:

We have never had a problem, its around 90-100F here in August and not a problem. People run their barns at 40-50F. No panting cattle, our cattle are kept at the fair in a barn. We all run fans and let them rest all day, rinse in a.m. and again in p.m. no problem.
One big factor could be the humidity, at least that's what it is sounding like. When I showed in California I had a friend that kept their animals in a cooler room, same thing like out here...no problem :?

will you be the first family at your fair running a cooler?

 

[Cowboy 2.0]

If humidity up there is anything like down here then you have to take the cooler with you. Trailer had 3 a/c units on it and we took a port a cool and lots of fans with us when we would go to a show