Grazing Water Solutions

Water, Water, Water

Without water there is no life.  Without good, reliable distribution of water the regeneration of grasslands is challenging.

This is a pictorial back up to the section in A Herd Owner's Manual that deals with water.  

Ideally you want clean, cool water ad lib within 600m of grazing.  To achieve this an investment in a water distribution system is required - kilometres of sufficiently wide diameter pipe (40 to 63 mm depending on herd sizes) to ensure good delivery, reliable sources stored in big enough tanks with back up plans to ensure enough supply and mobile water troughs.  To cover your farm in multiple troughs rather than mobile ones is to spend a lot of money tied up in equipment that is only going to be used infrequently, to have a lot of equipment being 'eaten' by the sun, to have permanent sources of water attracting wildlife to the same areas constantly and to have a lot more potential leaks.  A 3m long mobile water trough can water 500 LSU if it has a sufficiently strong flow of water and the livestock have faith in it to keep delivering.

Fittings - quick connect camlock fittings are ideal.  Do not undermine your water system and investment by placing small fittings between the permanent system and the trough. A fitting like the 25mm plastic one below will throttle your water flow.

Water troughs must be small enough for one person to move or on wheels.  The pipe between the trough and the riser must be tough enough to be trodden on by cattle.  Class 12 HDPE works well.  The fittings an attachment to the trough must be designed and constructed in a sufficiently robust way to not be broken by cattle standing on them.

Risers should be easy to find and protected from hooves and if the climate demands cold temperatures.

Pipes should be buried for protection and temperature control.