How to Calculate Dry Ingredients for a Footbath

B. C. Allison

Use the steps outlined below to determine how much dry product, such as copper sulfate, to add to your footbath for the proper solution.

1. Determine capacity of footbath in gallons. For this example, the footbath will be 2 feet wide, 6 feet long and have a water depth of 4 inches.

   Formula:

   Length x width x depth x 7.46 (conversion factor to gallons).

   2 feet x 6 feet x 0.3 feet x 7.46 = 26.85 gallons of water

2. When adding dry materials to a footbath, the gallons must be converted to pounds.

   Formula:

   Gallons x 8.33 (conversion factor) = pounds.

   26.85 x 8.33 = 223.66 pounds of water

3. Next, determine the pounds of dry material to add to reach the desired percent solution.

   Formula:

   Pounds of water x percent solution desired = pounds of dry product to add.

   223.66 pounds of water x 0.05 (5 percent solution) =

   11.18 pounds of dry material to add

Source:

DAIRY HERD MANAGEMENT, November, 1995