*32
!—Lancaster Farniof, Saturday, January 26,1550
Winter Time Is
Ventilation Time
Cattle need a healthy
environment to be healthy
themselves and to have the
opportunity to perform well
for us, and reward us for the
time and money we have
invested in them. A healthy
environment includes fresh
air, some protection from
the weather, and a clean, dry
draft-free place to rest.
Notice that I said nothing
about warmth. If we provide
cattle with plenty of forage
m the winter, along with the
requirements mentioned
above for a healthy en
vironment, they will be
warm enough The body heat
cattle generate from
digesting forages will keep
them warm.
These requirements are
easy to meet during the
pasture season when cattle
can be outdoors. The
challenge is much greater
when we start to confine
cattle, especially during the
changing weather conditions
of late Fall and early Spring,
and during warm winter
days! There are many ways
we can provide cattle with a
healthy environment.
Daily
Pipeline
By
Glenn A. Shirk
Extension
Dairy
Agent
One of the healthiest and
perhaps easiest ways is to
offer them a clean, dry,
draft-free pen or bam that
has one side opening to the
southeast into an outside lot.
A calf hutch is another good
example of this type of
shelter. In addition to
planety of fresh air, cattle
are offered a rather wide
range of environmental
conditions, and they have the
freedom to choose their own
comfort zones. However,
these types of facilities do
not fit every farm situation.
There are other alternatives,
but they may require more
management and some wise
decisions on your part.
When we confine cattle to
the indoors, we make them
prisoners to those conditions
which exist in their pen or in
the bam, conditions which
often times they can not
escape. If we do a less-than
adequate job, we also make
them victims of our own
mismanagement. Then we
both lose om - the cattle and
us. Remember, the more we
confine animals, the less
freedom we give them to
choose their own comfort
zonesj and the more
responsibility we place upon
ourselves to supply them
with the environmental
conditions they need to be
healthy and to do a good job
working for us.
What conditions do cattle
need, conditions which we
should try to duplicate in our
dairy barns? 1 mentioned
some of these at the
beginning. We can also learn
a lot about what makes an
animal comfortable by
observing her actions
closely. What is she trying to
avoid? What areas and
conditions does she seek out,
and at what tunes and under
what circumstances? Ob
serve cattle in open-front
facilities with outside lots -
clean facilities and filthy,
poorly-ventilated facilities;
they’ll tell you what they like
best, and when. Think, too,
about what makes you
comfortable and un
comfortable. Think about
those over-crowed, sniffy,
smoke-filled rooms you may
have been m at times, or that
seat you had by a cold
window or in the cold draft of
a vent or fan. How good it
felt to get out for a breath of
fresh air or away from the
draft! You were fortunate;
you could get away from
these unhealthy and un
comfortable conditions.
Let’s provide cattle a similar
opportunity. Better yet, let’s
attempt to never let these
unhealthy environments
exist m our bams.
Bara can be ventilated
naturally by cracking
windows and vents, or
mechanically by relying
upon fans to change the air.
As a guide line, we like to see
50 cfm of air being ex
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Serving Central Pa
and Maryland
RD4, Box 34A
Gettysburg, PA 17325
Ph 717-334 2168
Serving North Central Pa Area
P O Box 937
State College, PA 16801
Ph 814-383 4355
changed continuously for
each 100 pounds of animal
body weight. This provides
for a continuous change of
air, even in the coldest of
days; it keeps the air fresh,
and it removes air-borne
germs and excess humidity.
This is very important, even
if it means keeping the barn
cold. This can be ac
complished by a small fan
running continuously. In
addition to this small fan,
another fan (or set of fans ) is
needed to move an ad
ditional 150 cfm of air per 100
pounds of body weight. This
fan should be controlled by a
thermostat set around 45-
55°F.
All of these fans should be
located together in one
cluster and located in a south
or east wall for greatest
operating efficiency. For
draft control and for
balanced air flow, air inlet
shots should be located
around the full length of all
four walls to within 10 feet of
either side of the fans. These
inlets should be adjustable
so the size of the inlet slot
can be easily changed during
various seasons of the year.
All other cracks and air
leaks should be sealed.
Few bams have these
ideal air inlets. Then what?
If we can’t do an adequate
job using existing windows
as air inlets, then it may be
necessary to install some
strategically located ducts
that bring fresh air in from
the outside. This is often the
case with remodeled stall
bams. The new wing, with
more windows and inlets, is
usually the coldest end.
Instead of shutting the
windows in the cold end,
Serving Eastern Pa
and New Jersey
Box 126,
Phillipsburg, NJ 08865
Ph 201-454-7900
which chokes down the fan
and makes the old part of the
bam even more stuffy, it is
usually necessary to provide
more inlets into the old
section so as to more evenly
balance the air flow. To
reduce drafts, attempt to
have a lot of small openings
distributed uniformly
throughout the entire bam.
What about pole bams and
lean-to’s? An air exchange
will usually occur if we
provide open eaves and an
opening along the full length
of the ridge. The ridge
opening should not restrict
the updraft of air trying to
escape. It should be two
inches wide for every 10 feet
of building width, and no less
then six inches wide. If the
ridge is capped, the bottom
of the cap should be at least
Mexico 9 U.S.
trade pesos and grainy
WASHINGTON, D.C. -
The United States and
Mexico announced today an
agreement for the sale of
U.S. agricultural products to
Mexico in 1980.
According to Un
dersecretary of Agriculture
Dale E. Hathaway, the U.S.
government has agreed to
make available to the
government of Mexico some
of the quantities of wheat,
com, soybean and soybean
products resulting from the
suspension of exports to the
Soviet Umon and to assist in
obtaining specific quantities
of sorghum, edible beans,
sunflower seeds, tallow and
Send information on MORTON BUILDINGS
Have your salesman phone for an appomlment
Garages Shops t I Hog Confinement
Machine Sheds i Cattle Confinement
Horsr Barns ! Free Stall Barns
Grain Storage Livestock Barns
| Name
I %
■ Address
_ Telephone No
4-8 inches above the top level
of the roofing. These
openings will help let die
warm moist air escape
reduce the amount of con
densation dripping from the
roof; it’ll also lengthen the
life of the building. Even
with these openings, there
may be a few minutes of
dripping on a frosty morning
when the sun first hits the
roof. These buildings will be
cold in winter. They’ll
seldom get much warmer
then the outside tem
perature, and if they are
shaded from the sun, they
may actually feel colder.
So, in summary,
remember that cattle need
fresh air at all times, even on
those cold days when it’s
very tempting to close the
bam up tightly.
agree to
nee on behalf of the Mexican
government.
The quantity of these
products is expected to total
nearly 4.8 million metnc
tons.
Both countries further
agreed to continue parallel
discussions for sale in 1981
and 1982.
The two governments look
forward to establishing new
and positive directions m
their bilateral relationship.
They forsee mcreased trade
with one another whereby
each country can help meet
the needs of its neighbor, and
both economies can thereby
be strengthened.