Homemade "cool room" PICS

[ShowmanQ]

Well, there have been several posts on here in the past asking about "homemade cool rooms", and I thought I would share ours. We just got it finished last week, and are still putting on some of the finishing touches. I am not a big believer in cranking coolers down to 40 degrees (but they do grow hair  O0) so ours is more of a tie area kept around 65-70 which makes a BIG difference when it is 90 outside. I basically designed it to be a nice place to have calves tied throughout the day, with fans and tie rails, just as if they were at a show. The room is 18x12, and has a plexiglass "viewing window" from the main aisle of the barn. The room will be used as a clipping room in the winter time, with the addition of lighting once we get the chance (lol)

 

[ROMAX]

Pretty sweet

 

[shortyjock89]

Looks good Q, hopefully we'll have ours done this fall and we can use it to clip in this winter.

 

[OqRanch]

Looks good ;D

 

[herefordfootball]

Pretty neat!  ;D I've got plans to build one, now I just got to get the oldman and brother to go along with it!!! 

Chris

 

[stangs13]

How does the AC unit work for you? Is it constantly running?

 

[ShowmanQ]

It seems to be working pretty well. It basically runs the entire day (when the cales are in there) but i turn it up to like 75 and on energy saver cycle at night when nothing is in there.

 

[LT]

Looks really good Q.  I especially like the plastic covers on the door.  What kind of a back up or alarm if it goes off during the day if they are tied?  Remember that can be deadly!  (happened in your area before!)

Looks good! <party>

 

[beefy08]

Looks really nice. Dad and I are talking about turning an old milk parlor on our place into a cooler room.

 

[ShowmanQ]

Looks really good Q.  I especially like the plastic covers on the door.  What kind of a back up or alarm if it goes off during the day if they are tied?  Remember that can be deadly!  (happened in your area before!)

Looks good! <party>

You are spot on with that statement. We built the room and turned fans on via a seperate breaker, and on a 93 degree day the room stayed 76 with no AC. The fans are on a seperate braker than the AC and will run at all times. The AC runs on a breaker with nothing else on it but a radio. The radio can be heard from the house, so if the breaker were to go out someone could easily tell. The calves will NOT be in the "cooler" if there will be no one home for a period of longer than 2 hours. Someone goes out and picks manure every hour or so, so everything can be checked. This is not exactly a sure fire safety plan, but it is something we are working on, we believe that with proper managment and smart thinking we should be fine.

The "plastic cover" on the door is a "cool curtain" used in commercial freezer appilcations for restaraunts. It REALLY helps.

 

[mike]

Cooler looks good but you went to all that work and then use plexa glass so there is light in there all day cattle grow hair best with cool temps and darkness you have the cool now but not the darkness, in my past experiance darkness was one of the most important elements in growing hair, maybe you could get a curtain to cover up the window during the day? JMO

 

[shortyjock89]

I agree with mike, we don't have a cooler, but we have a room similar to Q's there, but with only three walls, and our barn is DARK, and stays pretty cool with fans, and everyone usually asks us how cold we turn our cooler down to. 

I'd say get either an insulated sliding cover for the window, or a heavy tarp, but I like the viewing window for having some light when you comb and blow out the calves without having to put in actual lights yet.

 

[okcc]

Looks Great. How did you build the walls? What did you use for insulation?

 

[chiangus]

I would like to frame out a room with 2 x 6's and use the foam insulation.

 

[GoWyo]

We made a small one this year out of a 10x10 foot stall, put on 3 to 4 inches of the spray foam insulation and put in a 18,000 b.t.u. air conditioner with one of the $72 Maxxess fans off e-bay.  Someone needs to be at home or at least check every couple of hours to make sure AC is working, but we set it at 60 deg. and it stays nice and comfy and totally dark.  Only been using it about 3 weeks, but it should help on the hair and it sure seems to help on keeping them on feed.  This room only fits 2, but is doing the job.

 

[ShowmanQ]

Cooler looks good but you went to all that work and then use plexa glass so there is light in there all day cattle grow hair best with cool temps and darkness you have the cool now but not the darkness, in my past experiance darkness was one of the most important elements in growing hair, maybe you could get a curtain to cover up the window during the day? JMO

The picture shows the room when the calves are not in it. During the day when the calves are in there, we shut the back barn doors, and already have a tarp that hangs over the window on the outside.

 

[OH Breeder]

Q looks great. Very professional looking. (clapping)

 

[ruhtram]

Looks good. I'm sure you'll love the results!

 

[farmboy]

looks good q. if i had a barn to go with mine i would like mine even more lol.

 

[LUKE]

Zach, there is an abundance of lumber in the old barn you just need to get off of your rump! (argue)