Cool room problems

[haydude]

Here in California the temperature this past week has been well over 100degrees. We keep both steers in the cool room all day at 55degrees and at night we rinse and turn them out into the pasture.. Lately we haven't taken them out in till 10:00 pm due to the heat and they are having a hard time breathing. One steers we had to call the vet because he had mucous and blood coming from his nose. How due I get these steers to grow hair which they do have a lot of hair. But I want them to keep it yet it will not do any good if come fair time in Sept they have a heat stroke and cannot perform in the show rink. Help

 

[OH Breeder]

Just as an FYI, you do not have to freeze them to grow hair. Day time temps in the lower 60's with air flow and rinsing will promote hair growth. I would also say if you plan on showing in temperatures that high you need to take plenty of time to acclimate them to the change in temperature. What have the night temps been running? I am not expert by any means.

 

[drl]

I would agree that it isn't necessarily the cold that grows the hair it is a combination of things. I have only seen 100 degrees about twice in my life but have seen quite a bit of 90s this summer. I would consider raising the temperature above 60 if it is 90 plus outside. Do they have shade or a fan in their outside pen at night? That seems to help with those warm nights. Or a person could have misters in their outside pen as well. One thing I that could help is to walk your steer for 30 minutes every morning and night to get them some exercise so they can take the heat better. I saw someone that had a really good steer at Kansas City that was Reserve Overall. In class he was 2nd to the Grand, by division champ a person probably would have switched them because the champ was falling apart because he was so hot while the exercised steer still looked great. You might have to be careful though if your steers are already sick.

 

[vc]

Along with what the others have mentioned, are you keeping the cooler clean, does it smell like ammonia in it, you may need to pull the bedding out and put some fresh in. I have heard of calves getting sick from the build up in the bedding.  You can take the old bedding out rinse it out real well, treat it with one of the products that help remove the ammonia, let it dry out and reuse it.

 

[showman4]

We have found that after you rinse them at night to blow dry them completely before turning them out. The moisture left in their hair when you don't dry them causes heat to be trapped on them making them hot. We also feed our calves in the cooler and wash & dry them and just leave them in there until we come back down to the barn at around 10:30 to turn them out. We keep our cool room at 55. The temperatures here have been extremely high, the 90s with heat indexes in the 100s-110s. Just waiting and turning them out later works perfectly fine for us.