my new plan

[Cowgurl101]

For all those who responded to my 'how to keep them cool' question , this is what has transpired - i decided that if i couldnt fund a insulation job on the barn i would find someone who had somewhere insulated that i could keep them. This didnt work for multiple reasons which i will not go into. So now i am reduced to this : i will keep the steers in my hot - but- protected- from- the- sun  barn, 2 per stall (all the room ive got), with fans on them and some kind of misting system on them when it heats up in there. i am so stressed out about this and i hope it works. Oh yeah - my dad is gonna try to make a vent of some sort in the roof so the air circulates better- any other improvements on my plan would be great. Do i need to buy an expensive fan or can i find a decent one for cheap? any suggestions are appreciated. As for the misting thing im not sure what im gonna use yet so im open to tips here as well. Thankyou soooooooo much!! ;D

 

[jm]

Cowgurl,

I've been reading everyones post for sometime know and figured I should finally put my two cents in since someone finally asked a question that I actually could help on, QC Supply has a pretty inexpensive misting system for horse stalls that we use in our cattle barn,  Very easy to set up.  You can look it up on the internet, just google or yahoo qc supply.  When you pull the site up search for misting systems and it should pull it up.  GOOD LUCK

 

[showsteerdlux]

I would buy the turbo fans from Sullivans. You cant beat these fans for air volume that they move.

 

[knabe]

the roof is like a giant solar panel, as is the surrounding ground.  sucking in hot air, may not prove to drop temps.  if one shaded the roof, as well as the south side with some fabric, you can get some pretty dramatic results.  i insulated the south side of my barn and the heat gain drop is about 7 degrees from before on those walls.  i put a shade over the patio and the back of the garage which was acting as a heat sink.  after installation, about $200, the temp in the house dropped 8 degrees from before if the outside temp didn't get over about 95.  then it just raised linearly.  we don't have air conditioning.  if you had a cheap used pump, you could bury some pipe with coolant in it and pump actual cooler less heat generated cooling into the barn.  a used pump you could probably get for 2500-5k, but of course you would have to bury about 600ft of pipe about 3-6 feet deep.  but, if you interconnected it with your house, you could probably run your air conditioning less.

shading devices that are not solid, ie like woven fabric, or tree leaves, let heat escape.  one trick i did for the shade on the house, is not connect it about 6 inches from the house.  i connected it there with only the support beams.  this lets the heat escape there.  most overhangs don't have a heat escape, and are therefore more effective is shorter.  they can actually be oppresive if they are too larger, as the air doesn't move as well.

my ash trees i planted on the south side will propbably start to shade the house in a couple of years.  at the peak of the day, the shadow is about 5 feet from the house.  later in the summer, it will be a little further.  the shade helps keep the lawn cooler too.  these are deciduous trees, the drop leaves, so the sun can get through in the winter on the south side.  another nice thing about ash trees are that they are relatively low in trash, and drop their leaves in a short period, come in a variety of shapes and leaf colors and don't creep up out of the ground like a lot of urban trees that were planted like liquid amber.  those trees along with eucalyptus should be banned from planting outside their native range.

 

[TJ]

the roof is like a giant solar panel, as is the surrounding ground.  sucking in hot air, may not prove to drop temps.  if one shaded the roof, as well as the south side with some fabric, you can get some pretty dramatic results.  i insulated the south side of my barn and the heat gain drop is about 7 degrees from before on those walls.  i put a shade over the patio and the back of the garage which was acting as a heat sink.  after installation, about $200, the temp in the house dropped 8 degrees from before if the outside temp didn't get over about 95.  then it just raised linearly.  we don't have air conditioning.  if you had a cheap used pump, you could bury some pipe with coolant in it and pump actual cooler less heat generated cooling into the barn.  a used pump you could probably get for 2500-5k, but of course you would have to bury about 600ft of pipe about 3-6 feet deep.  but, if you interconnected it with your house, you could probably run your air conditioning less.

shading devices that are not solid, ie like woven fabric, or tree leaves, let heat escape.  one trick i did for the shade on the house, is not connect it about 6 inches from the house.  i connected it there with only the support beams.  this lets the heat escape there.  most overhangs don't have a heat escape, and are therefore more effective is shorter.  they can actually be oppresive if they are too larger, as the air doesn't move as well.

my ash trees i planted on the south side will propbably start to shade the house in a couple of years.  at the peak of the day, the shadow is about 5 feet from the house.  later in the summer, it will be a little further.  the shade helps keep the lawn cooler too.  these are deciduous trees, the drop leaves, so the sun can get through in the winter on the south side.  another nice thing about ash trees are that they are relatively low in trash, and drop their leaves in a short period, come in a variety of shapes and leaf colors and don't creep up out of the ground like a lot of urban trees that were planted like liquid amber.  those trees along with eucalyptus should be banned from planting outside their native range.

Shading the barn is an excellent suggestion.  Also, trees will drop the temps more than artificial shade, but either is better than none at all. 

My uncle does roof coatings on flat roofs.  He says that the house trailers that he has coated (white coating) have seen a substantial drop in cooling costs during the summer.  So, I would go 1 step further than Knabe's suggestions & I would buy some white paint & paint the roof PURE WHITE!  This will help.  Trust me.

 

[Jill]

The fan for the ceiling vents can be any type of fan that pulls your air out, you can find like the bathroom vents with the little circular fans, or an old ceiling fan from a house, I think ours were around 300 new, if you can find an exhaust fan from like over a cook store in a restraunt those work great.  As far as the fans for on the calves, I agree on the turbo's they work great and you can hang them or put them on a stand to make them portable.  If shade is an option that would be great!

 

[BCCC]

We have a fairly large hog shed that is not insulated, we rigged up a srpinkler system on the roof it comes on about every 15 minetes, when it get hotter then 85 degrees. we have 3 water coolers runnign in there (bought them for about 5 bucks each at an auction) and an exaust fan in the roof and it keeps it failry cool in there

 

[Jill]

We run sprinklers on the roof during our county fair, it lowers the temp in the barn by 10 degrees. 

 

[Turkey Creek Ranch]

We keep our show steers in our barn during the summer. We have 2 Sullivan Turbo fans that we run constantly. This seems to keep them pretty cool, we keep the east and west doors open during the time of day when the sun is at the opposite side of the barn (if that makes sense). We also wash them regularly, and give them a nice dry spot to lay down. We also get buckets of water and brush some water on their backs if it is REALLY hot. This seems to work well and keep them content. BUT, one factor you have to look at is, if hair is a big deal. Like at our county fair, hair isn't a big deal, because no one has cool rooms. If hair IS important at your shows, i would consider getting some plywood, and just a simple window air conditioner (maybe 2) and building your own cool room. I have known a few people that did this, and it has been working very well for them, but be ready for some hefty electric bills!

Hope this helps.

 

[knabe]

We run sprinklers on the roof during our county fair, it lowers the temp in the barn by 10 degrees. 

that is one large swamp cooler.  i would like to see a heat gradient comparison from the ground up to about 10 feet off the roof of a building with and without the sprinkler.  that's awesome.

 

[vc]

I took rigid insulation and put over the steers area in the barn, that reduced the heat from the tin roof greatly, covered the front,  back , and North side with shade cloth. used a tarp from roof to ground on the South side to keep the sun out, stretched a tarp off of the eaves out  from the tie area .(keeps direct sun off of the shade cloth)use to turbo fans and a swamp cooler, keeps area about 20% to 30% cooler. When it get warmer we will run the water for the swamp cooler through a ice chest full of ice, (water runs through copper tubing in the cooler). The rigid insulation is a rigid foam with foil on both sides it comes in 4*8 sheets you can get it in thicknesses from 1/2 inch to 2 inches. Easy to use and install.
Friend built his walls out of the rigid insulation and made a cool box with his, runs around 55% to 60% when it is 90% out side. Just need to cover bottom 4 feet with plywood to keep the steers off of it.

 

[linnettejane]

when i was in 4-h, my parents built me a 2 story mini barn on the side of a hill....the lower level was block and only one side was exposed...it was sort of like a  walkout basement...had a concrete floor...it was big enough for 2-3 show calves, and a lamb pen, out the back i had a turnout pen built that went on over the hill.....it always stayed around 55 degrees in there....add a couple fans and a mister from sullivans and i would have to wear a jacket in there in the middle of summer....with the lights out it stayed pretty dark...had no problems growing hair with that setup....the upper level i used to store my show stuff and dad made into his workshop....ill see if i can find some pics of it, scan and post....

 

[knabe]

i was thinking earlier that the old sod front dugouts would be awesome for this.

 

[BCCC]

my dad thinks the same, but he wants to build our cooloer room in the ground :'(

 

[Cowgurl101]

i appreciate all your great suggestions, but the big thing is money. my parents dont want to fund this and i dont have the money to build anything great. they also dont want me to paint the barn roof or get the pastures muddy with a sprinkler system. i cant use tarps outside in montana cuz the wind wrecks everything. im hoping to try some of your ideas next year when i have more money. as for now im hoping that a misting sytem with a fan on them in the barn will suffice. Thankyou guys so much!!

 

[savaged]

Cowgurl.

I hear ya on the money issue.  Here's what you do:  Brush, rinse, brush, rinse, brush, rinse.....................................  If your calves have the genetics, you will be surprised how much hair you can grow with a lot of rinsing and brushing.  Put the fans on them too.

 

[nck21]

We've thought about building a cool room by just putting plywood up and putting an a/c unit in there. It wouldn't
be airtight so I don't think we would need an alarm system. It would be 12'X12' so how much do you think you would
spend a month on electrical bills with just one window unit? Thanks

 

[Jill]

150-300 in Kansas, depends on the price of electric in your area.