Cool room question

[jpcattleco]

I know there are many posts about this topic and ive read many but dont feel i got the answers i was looking for. I have a show stall in my barn that I have been putting the show cattle in. It has room for 3-4 head but we only put 2 in it at max. The ceiling is sealed already and dupe insulated. We use multiple fans and misters in there now. The floor is concrete, bedding is cedar fiber. The walls are framed and ready to be finished. My questions are

1) what is the best material for finishing the interior and exterior walls and where to source them from.

2) what would be the best route for the a.c. system, with only having 2 head would a nice window unit work?

3) how much outside air needs to be pumped in with a ventilation fan and at what intervals.

4) I've read a lot about ammonia issues. Other than cleaning the stall twice daily and keepimg the pee out, what are some waus people help keep the ammonia out and the smell down?

Thank you in advance for your help.

 

[GoWyo]

The guy at Cool Bot says a 1200 lb. steer will radiate about 5600 BTUs per hour.  Two steers will be 11,000-12,000 BTU.  We used a 24,000 BTU window AC with a Cool Bot.  The room was 10x12 with 3-4" of spray foam insulation and the bottom 4' had OSB for interior wall.  We could keep it around 60 degrees on a 90 degree day with the Cool Bot and the AC unit bringing in fresh air, not on recirc.  The cool room was not airtight.  Limiting factor seemed to be that the AC would frost up if tried to get it any cooler and I never could get it resolved.  Limiting the photoperiod and a comfortable temperature were enough to put hair on any cattle that had the genetics to do it.  We just had a dirt floor and used lime or PDZ stall freshener for ammonia.

 

[yuppiecowboy]

first of all what are your calves? You cant grow hair on a Santa Gertudis even if your cooler is running -50. from what i gather your set up is, if you have two cheap window units rolling and turn the calves out at night, rinse morning and night, you will have all the hair you can handle, provided there is some genetic predisposition for hair growth. the big thing everyone seems to forget is you have to keep your cooler DARK. They need to be tricked into thinking its hair growing season.

 

[yuppiecowboy]

i didnt read GoWyo posted but basically, yeah, what they said....

 

[Tallcool1]

Spray foam insulation is the best, because it also seals as it insulates.  You will have to hire someone to come out and do it.  It isn't cheap. 

If you don't want to drop that kind of money, just go to a home improvement store (Lowes, Menards, Home Depot) and buy fiberglass insulation and cover it with tin which can also be purchased there.  You can also use plywood of course.

Get rid of the concrete floor in that room.  There is not enough cushion no matter how much mulch of fiber you put on top of it. 

GoWyo is exactly right with the math.  I have always believed that you need DOUBLE the BTU rating of whatever the cattle are generating.  We used 2-24,000 BTU AC units with 2 Cool Bots.  We did this for 2 reasons.  One was for additional cooling, the other was for safety.  If one froze up, the other would be operating.  We rarely had freeze up problems, but it did on occasion happen.  If you are going to use Cool Bots, just order additional wires and have them on hand.  In 8 years of running Cool Bots, only 1 time did new wires not fix our problems.

 

[jpcattleco]

The calves we have aleays have good hair genetics. For the last few seasons ive kept them with decent hair with just fans and daily rinsing. This year there will likely only be 1 calf in the room because we have other projects and don't want to neglect the 2nd calf.

It will be hard to get rid of the concrete in the room because the whole barn is concrete. Is there any way to add cushion under the cedar fiber?

I was also looking into evaprotive coolers but its seems that they wont get the temp down to where it needs to be to be as successful. We deal with 90s for 2 months before our county fair.

To the comment about darkness we do keep the calves in until it is dark and they are in before the sun is up.

Do you know what rating of ventilation fan we will need to bring fresh air in with? The room is 12x20 if that helps.

 

[Cyfarmer]

Ours is 12x20 also - 18 inches of blanket insulation all the way around, double vapor barrier, plexiboard sheeting on inside to be able to wash down
cedar fiber over mesh, and 4ft of clean rock to allow for drainage
could bring in 6 -12 inches of fill lime for cushion - that would also help with any ammonia issues - PDZ also works wonders
for ventilation - we use a 12" bathroom vent fan on an electronic timer - only runs 2-4 minutes of every 10
we have 2 dryer vents that go to the outside to be able to pull in fresh air when the vent fan runs
remember the more air you pull out - the more you have to cool
we had a coolbot with a 24,000 BTU window air unit - could not keep it from freezing up so we went with a calf climate slide in unit
we usually run 2-3 hd but have had up to 5 without trouble - just a lot of crap to pick up....