Would this make a difference?

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WBar Farms

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Jul 27, 2008
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In order to make my steers colder because its 50-55 under the fans I was thinking of taking a small bucket of water and putting it in the freezer till its nearly frozen and dumping it on them.  I wash twice a day and brush quite a bit but I thought that this might make a significant difference.  Has anyone tried this does it even work? did you blow it all the way out after or partially or just leave them wet and brush? Any ideas or opinions would be welcome.
 

vc

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I know people that have a chest freezer they pump water out of and rinse with it, the out side edges are frozen so the water is just above freezing.  I do not know if it helps since they are already in a cool box. The wash rack is in the cooler as well.
I wounder what reaction you may get out of your calves by dumbing ice cold water on them, you might try a watercan so it is less of a shock to them. I think if you do it, you would want to comb the hair and put them under the fans wet for awhile and then comb and blow them out after about an hour of being tied. If you blow them out immediately after I do not think it will be as effective.
 

farmin female

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since you are on this track, I'll tell you that yes, you can use ice water to promote hair growth.  If you will just take a bucket of ice water and brush the calf with it during the last 30-45 days, it will really get the hair going.  Especially if you do it a couple times a day.  You don't want to dump it on them cause your water is just going to run off of them and down the drain and you tick off the calf. 
 

WBar Farms

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I was thinkin maybe put it in a spraybottle then put it on cause if I have water constantly running into my shavings that wont be good.  I guess it would just be like an ice cold mister instead of hooking the mister to the hydrant which isn't really cold.  Ive got about 75 days are you saying it would be pointless to do it now.
 

shortyjock89

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We fog ours in between each rinsing with ice water. I think it makes a difference, and the calves like it haha. I just fill up the fogger and run it empty on each of them, and then comb and brush them until they're almost dry again and let the fans do the rest.
 

Till-Hill

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Freeze water in a milk jug and cut little holes in it and put in front of your fan. Cold water all day blowing would be better I think
 

farmin female

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I don't think 75 days is necessarily to far out.  It's just a matter if you have the time to put into it each day.  Putting ice water in the swamp cooler or foggers is fine, cause it does help drop the temp in the cool barn.  The idea with ice water though is to chill the hide.  If you just put it in a spray bottle, you would have to make sure that you get enough on him to get down to the skin and in an amount that will chill the calf.  I have heard some people use the chest freezer for an ice chest and they pump the water out of it to soak the calf.  That would work really well, but if you have more than 1 calf, you might need more than 1 freezer.  I guess the poor man's way of doing it would be how I was taught which is to fill a couple of 5 gallon buckets with water, put them in the chest freezer in the morning and by mid-afternoon you pull one out and just dip your rice root in the water and start brushing away.  Simple yet effective.  I don't do it because I have access to some cold water out of an irrigation ditch.  We can pull a calf out and soak him with the hose for 15 minutes and he will actually shiver - and then the hair grows.

I think the common theme here with most of the successful show people is that they chill the calf with water and they brush- and they do it a lot.  However you choose to do it is up to your imagination. 
 

vc

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The chest freezer water is only used after the steer has been fully rinsed with regular water (water out of the tap tends to run warm) they are currently rinsing 3 head, it really does not take that much water at 33-34 degrees to chill the hide. I would guess the pump they are using pumps 4-5 gallons a minute, chest cooler is probably 2*3*2.5 or just over 100 gallons of water .There are times when you have to turn down the freezer so the water does not become a solid ice cube. They just fill chest up after each use and it is cold by next rinse.

Side note: beer stays extremely cold when floating in the chest freezer
 
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