Fans for calves question

More CFM or more velocity? Which will be the most effective for cooling?

Since velocity is part of the formula for cfm......    yes

Sure, but a 24" at 1000rpm or an 18" at 1500rpm?

WinterSpringsFarm said:

More CFM or more velocity? Which will be the most effective for cooling?

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how about colder air?

Not an option at this point in time Knabe. Maybe in the future.

if you are moving the same temperature of air around faster, how does this cool better?

are misters an option?

Could be I suppose.

By your response I suppose if it was 90 degrees out you'd be happier without a fan moving since its the same temp air? I know I'd be more comfortable with air moving, regardless its temp.

If it's 100f outside, 500 more cfm won't matter.

You are just moving hot air and have diminishing return with that strategy.

You need misters or a swamp cooler. Something to get water in the air. And on their body.

Listen Mr., can't you jerry-rig a mister? <cowboy>

Lots of odd information here. Misters and swamp coolers do not work well in areas that already have high humidity.

We do not run either, just lots of fans and rinsing and I would say our barn is as comfortable as any I have been in barring actual cooler rooms.

I would never suggest leaving an animal wet in humid conditions. What works in California doesn't work in Louisiana or Illinois.

I'd also like to see all these hairy calves Knabe must have with his strategies.

OFS, care to share what you use for fans?  How many?

I don't think a swamp cooler or musters would work here. A cool room would be great, but not feasible at this time.

We use a lot of both Sullivan Barn Fans and Schaefer deep basket fans. Found a deal on QC supply a few years back for great 24 inch fans with deep baskets for like 160 bucks. Bought 10 of them and 7 or 8 are still around going strong. The motors never went out of the others, their cages just weren't as robust as the Sull and Schaef fans.

Generally 2 fans per 12 x 10 pen, with one big heifer in each pen.

Ran a Port a Cool at Cyclone Trace and it was good for maybe 3 or 4 days a week if we were lucky. Just contributed to skin issues on the other days.

Cold well water and an assortment of brushes seem to help a lot too!

Thank you for your help!

Olson Family Shorthorns said:

I'd also like to see all these hairy calves Knabe must have with his strategies.

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My showing days are long gone.  We used misters in California and cut most of the hair off.


Was on show team for a while. Oh well. Times have changed. 

That's kind of what I was getting at. Our customers in California get along great with misters and port a cools. Our customers in the Midwest and deep south do not.

I agree with Justin not every thing is going to work for everyone.We have a very modest barn and set up and we just use fans.  We have a misting system set up in our barn but it just added to much moisture to the air and we ended up with to many fungus issues.  We are in Northeast Oklahoma and have quite a bit of humidity.  If you are out west in a dry climate port a cools and misters work great.  Sometimes it is not just about growing hair but keeping the their skin and hair healthy and fresh. We have one turbo fan placed behind each calf and then an exhaust fan to take out all of the bad air.  I believe the removal of the hot bad air helps a tremendous amount. We try and keep them as comfortable as possible and try and rinse each calf in the afternoon to help lower the body temperature especially just before we feed of an evening.  If you can keep them on feed you have won 3/4 of the battle. Some just will not grow hair.  At the Junior nationals we had a couple with as much hair as any there even the ones out of a cool room and we also had one who is as slick as a goat. We just try to make them as fresh appearing as possible.   

Thanks Will, and I appreciate your input Knabe. I don't know where all this is going yet, as I'm not in the club calf business. More like raising good cattle in general, and I got a couple nice calves that I am breaking now and would like to keep them as comfortable as possible when tied up.