big enough??

[BCCC]

How big of a cooler would be needed for 3-4 calves??? It is normally fairly dry around here. and hot, normally about 85-90 in the barn, I have a chance to buy a fairly large water coole, should I buy it??, I also have a heavy duty window cooler. It would cool a 15x17 room very good. I have 4 turbo fans, with misters, I am planing on putting in there also.

The floor is all cement, so how should I do it?? put lime and then wood mulch down?

 

[Jill]

1. You don't ever want to run a mister and an AC unit together, they work against each other.

Our floor is cement, but is slanted to a drain, is your cement a flat slab or is there slope to it.  We use cedar fiber about 8 -12 inches thick over the concrete, but if you have a flat slab you will need to do something for drainage.

 

[BCCC]

I am almost positive it is a flat surface. we were thinking about about kack hammering a hole in the cement, so it would drain.

So should I run the ac and the 4 fans with out misters, OR run the 4 fans with misters, and the water cooler??

 

[Jill]

Either way would be fine, an AC unit tries to take the humidity out of the air so running the mister they are actually working against each other (we have made this mistake) an AC unit with fans will work 100% better than also running the mister unit.
We have a drain that runs a couple of inches lower than the floor and has slatted flooring with screen wire over it to drain the moisture, we keep them tied while in there so they always pee in the same general location.

 

[BCCC]

would you tie them up or let them losse??? if they are tied they only need like 3 foot of space right?? but if losse, they need 50 sq ft?

 

[Jill]

We keep them tied whether in a cooler or under fans in a fan cage with misters, basically the same amount of room you would need at a show,  I know Clanton's have pens in the cooler and they are loose, but I don't have the space for that, and it seems like it would be more of a mess to me. 

 

[OH Breeder]

This past summer I saw the nicest cooler I think I have ever seen. It had 6 12 x 12 pens and had drains on both sides of them. Cooled with commecial unit. The folks had it custom built.

If you are building a cooler, you need to figure the heat each animal will produce. That has to be taken into condieration. The unit will have to work against the animals heat. We get pretty hot here in Ohio in the summer. We had one calf in a 10 x 12 pen. Rinsed twice a day and turned out at night. talk with an HVAC person about what you need for sure. How many calves are you trying to cool?
4 fans would work, ventilation is also key. The ammonia can build up pretty quick. the kids mucked the pen every day.

 

[BCCC]

I will be trying to cool 4 calves, I will be using a fan cage, with the fans hooked to it, I have a spot where a window is, that I was going to put an exaust fan, would a 20 inche be big enough? How do I figure how much heat an aninal puts off?

 

[OH Breeder]

I will be trying to cool 4 calves, I will be using a fan cage, with the fans hooked to it, I have a spot where a window is, that I was going to put an exaust fan, would a 20 inche be big enough? How do I figure how much heat an aninal puts off?

For the life of me there is a term. It is basically the amount of heat that we give off and you have to convert it to animals. The heat is figured by the weight. call any air condition person and ask them what size unit you will need to maintain temperature. Let me talk with my brother, he is an HVAC guy. He helped me figure ours.I will PM you.

 

[Jill]

Sorry, I must have misunderstood, I thought you already had a space you were trying to utilize?

 

[sawboss]

I have a cool room that is 8x8x14, big enough for two calves.  Drainage is important so that you do not have excessive ammonia build up.  There are several factors dealing with a cool room that are very vital that have not been discussed:
1.  Fresh air fan - this is set on a timer to pump fresh air into the enclosure to help deal with ammonia build up and fight respiration problems in the calves lungs.
2.  Emergency door release -  I use an electromagnetic door latch that will release if power to the unit is lost, or the temperature gets to high inside and the thermostat trips the release.
If you plan on leaving the calves unattended during the day, it is a must to have these safety features in place.  You would hate to have a problem while gone and return to find dead calves inside the nonoperating cool room.  Look at Cool Calf.com and you will see these features and a basic floor plan.  Give them a call they are very helpful in giving you information on such things as BTU's to house x number of animals and how to set up the drainage and fresh air system.  Good luck it is not as simple as it appears, and very scary to leave expensive animals unattended in the cool room.

 

[farmboy]

if ur trying to grow hair it dosnt nessecarily (sp) need to be freezing but keep it dark as much as you can

 

[AAOK]

If you will contact Clendon Gilbert at Cool Calf, he can professionally address all your questions.  One of their units would probably be less expensive than any other way you could go, and make sure it is right for your situation.

Cool Calf Co.
a division of Supermarket Services, Co.
1529 Industrial Lane
Tishomingo, OK 73640
Phone: 800-711-8982
Local: 580-371-0220
Fax: 580-371-0041
Clendon Gilbert: [email protected]
www.coolcalf.com

 

[Jill]

Something else you need to figure into your spending process, it cost us about 400 a month when the coolers are running, Electricity is probably going to be your biggest expense.

 

[BCCC]

I have a 25x30 barn, The barn has a very open layout, the cellings are about 8 foot tall, the floors are all cement. The Barn is about 75 feet from the house, and about 20 foot, from our shop, we are almost always in one spot or the other.

If I build the cooler in the back part of the barn and make it 12x25, I will have two windows on opposite sides, one which I could put an intake fan and the other an exaust fan, I was planning on making the celling as low as possible like 7 foot. We already have a thing that if the electricty goes out, tempertaure is wrong or there is a fire, it will automaticly call up to 8 different phones until it reaches ones. I would like the cooler to be about 70 degrees, and then with me washing 2-3 times a day, fans, darkness, and melition implants they should have decent hair

 

[shortdawg]

Call Phillip @ 229-546-8857, he has a nice one for sale that will hold 4-6 head.

 

[doubled]

The guys just built one, with a wash rack on one end, pm me and give them a call they sure will share with you what they did wrong and right.

 

[OH Breeder]

If you will contact Clendon Gilbert at Cool Calf, he can professionally address all your questions.  One of their units would probably be less expensive than any other way you could go, and make sure it is right for your situation.

Cool Calf Co.
a division of Supermarket Services, Co.
1529 Industrial Lane
Tishomingo, OK 73640
Phone: 800-711-8982
Local: 580-371-0220
Fax: 580-371-0041
Clendon Gilbert: [email protected]
www.coolcalf.com

BCC a system like you want will run over 10 grand. You can build in your barn with the proper insulation what you need etc ALOT cheaper.

 

[BCCC]

I have been talking to Clendon from cool calf, and he said that since I was in a dryer area, I could use the watercooler, and the fan's, would do fine,  an dhe said to insulate up to R-24 which is what their's are. I will be building a 12x16 cooler, so that I can set up a fan cage in there, and then have the water cooler on one end, and an exaust fan on top, and he said the water cooler, would work to bring in the fresh air, we are goign to put a drain at on end, and slope the cement towards it, and we will put plywood on the outside, and then insulation, and then tin on the inside. 

How far should we space the studs?? 16 inches like in houses?

Thanks a lot

 

[OH Breeder]

I have been talking to Clendon from cool calf, and he said that since I was in a dryer area, I could use the watercooler, and the fan's, would do fine,  an dhe said to insulate up to R-24 which is what their's are. I will be building a 12x16 cooler, so that I can set up a fan cage in there, and then have the water cooler on one end, and an exaust fan on top, and he said the water cooler, would work to bring in the fresh air, we are goign to put a drain at on end, and slope the cement towards it, and we will put plywood on the outside, and then insulation, and then tin on the inside. 

How far should we space the studs?? 16 inches like in houses?

Thanks a lot

I put mine 16 on center. Most insulation is cut for that or 24". I also used R 30 but temps swing a bit more.I also used visqueen or plastic liner over insulation becuase of moisture before I put the ply over it.