After one summer in their new barn with cross ventilation, Mathieu Larose and Nancy Clouâtre of Ferme Laroselait in Verchères, Que., installed canvas baffles in 2020 to force air down onto the cows and cool them.
According to Larose, it’s a must-have for cross-ventilated barns.
Why it matters: Ventilation is key to maintain healthy air for cattle and avoid respiratory challenges.
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Larose had seen American barns with this type of deflector, but they were rigid.
“For our climate, we couldn’t have permanent walls,” he says. “In winter, it would create pockets of humidity.
“The first time we went to see this was in southern Ontario, in London, a big barn of 800 cows that had just been built. We flew with our engineer and we did three producers with barns like that with canvases lowered in the summer and raised in the winter.”
In a cross-ventilated barn like the one at Ferme Laroselait, the air enters through inlets on one side, crosses six rows of stalls and exits through fans on the other side. The square barn is 150 by 150 feet.
Three canvas baffles are hung from the ceiling above the double rows of stalls. They are lowered in spring and raised in fall. The mechanism is manual and allows the canvas to be rolled or unrolled. A long rod attached to the mechanism is operated by a drill.
Clouâtre says that after installing the baffles, they removed four large 78-inch fans. Sale of those fans paid for the baffles.
“When we were running all the fans, it was so windy that the sand from the stalls was coming out,” says Larose.
The only regrets he has are not installing the baffles during barn construction and having installed such a high air intake. In fact, since they installed the baffles, they have had to lower the height of the air inlets.
Despite these points, Larose is satisfied and says the modifications made a big difference in cow comfort this summer.
