rinsing..

I had a quick question, people recommend to rinse 4 times a day sometimes, especially in the hot weather. I do not have a cooler, and just have fans. I read it is good to keep the calves in the dark, would this not affect their eating habits? I guess my main question is: do you blow after EACH rinse and brush??? if not, when, and if so...yikes!

There hair actually grows better in the dark and cooler air. I would suggest getting a mister to hook up to your fans. If you do that you don't have to rinse more than once a day. Yes, it's very important to blow out the calf everytime you dry so you train the hair to lay properly and not get goofed up. Cows can see in the dark to eat, it's not a problem :O)

we did the mister thing about two years ago, yes it helped keep them cool but.............with the constant dampness, we had alot of problems with footrot that year.  we had great drainage with about 8 inches of cedar fibers under them.  since then, we quit the misters and just went back to the fans in a dark area.  GOODLUCK!!

I use misters but they are kind of a pain.  We have a lot of mineral in our water and it always plugs the nozzles up.  We have a water filter that we use but it doesn't get everything and they are constanly plugging up.  We rinse twice a day.

We also have a high mineral content in our water and had problems with the Sullivan's misters.  Went to Fleet Farm and got set up with a couple of fine sprayer nozzles, an electric irrigation valve and a digital irrigation controller. Whole project cost about $45 with the hose. Have the misters set to come on eight times a day for about four minutes per time.  Seems to work good for us as we both work and last year the kids were to young to be home by them selves and rinsing yet.

WE rinse twice a day put under fans wet and brush them dry dont blow in the summer except at shows brushing will promote the hair growth the dark keeps black ones blacker we dont have a place that is completely black but is far out of sun in back of barn

If your cows are black you do want to keep them out of the sun so they don't bleach out to tinty red.
We use stove pellets from Home Depot for bedding. Spread them out about 1 1/2 to 2 inches thick and wet them down really good. They will expand and create a soft bedding. We like it because it's very easy to dispose of the waste, you don't waste a lot like sifting through shavings. Also it seems to soak up the urine and eliminate the smell.
We also use a rice brush and there is an attachment through Sullivan's for a round brush that you attach to a drill. We work the legs and rear end. It does a good job to stimulate the growth and train the hair.

Steergal said:

I had a quick question, people recommend to rinse 4 times a day sometimes, especially in the hot weather. I do not have a cooler, and just have fans. I read it is good to keep the calves in the dark, would this not affect their eating habits? I guess my main question is: do you blow after EACH rinse and brush??? if not, when, and if so...yikes!

Click to expand...

We rinse AT LEAST twice a day after May 1, and often times three times every day if the weather is 85 degrees or above.  You read correctly about keeping the calves in the dark, it promotes the production of Melatonin, the active ingredient in many "hair" supplements.  We've never had one go off feed because of it being dark.  We LOVE the Roto Brush from Sullivan's, it really gets the hair on the back legs to grow and pop, and we also use a regular Rice Root brush, and also a green plastic scrub brush, they're great for getting hair trained too. 

Here's how we do the whole "rinsing" thing.
1. We rinse each calf
2. After each calf is rinsed, it gets combed and brushed out, and all excess water is brushed out. 
3. AfterALL the calves have been rinsed and brushed, then we go down the line and blow each calf out dry and work the hair for a good amount of time.  This is when our Conditioner/Vinegar is blown into the hair (a Kleen Sheen/Vinegar mixture is popular too). 

rtmcc said:

We also have a high mineral content in our water and had problems with the Sullivan's misters.  Went to Fleet Farm and got set up with a couple of fine sprayer nozzles, an electric irrigation valve and a digital irrigation controller. Whole project cost about $45 with the hose. Have the misters set to come on eight times a day for about four minutes per time.  Seems to work good for us as we both work and last year the kids were to young to be home by them selves and rinsing yet.

Click to expand...

I'll have to look into that.

We rinse twice a day, morning and night, during the day when they are tied in the dark they were under a mister system, we have ours set on a timer so they don't stay wet (needs to be gauged to the calf hair and temp) it clicks on and off.  Our mister is connected to an ice chest so the water that is spraying out is also ice cold.