Fabric minimizes drafts

During winter, landscape fabric protects calves from drafts in this tunnel-ventilated calf barn at Patterson Farms, Inc., near Auburn, N.Y. The fabric covers the drainage stones underneath the calf pens. A roll of the fabric is 12 feet long. Each calf pen is 8 feet long, so that leaves a 4-foot length of fabric to pull up the back of each pen, says Jean Burr, youngstock manager. The fabric is fastened to the pens with zip ties. It is thrown out after a calf moves out of the pen.

A 3-foot-by-12-foot strip of fabric can be cut into four 3-foot-by-3-foot pieces for individual windbreaks, Burr adds.

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