Cows in cold climates and water

[Trigger Mike]

I have 3 cows and we hit 27 last night and tonight.  I didn’t want the water line that continuously fills their water trough to freeze and burst the line so I turned it off and turned it back on once it got above 40.  
 

as I did that I got to wondering how big ranchers in areas it stays below freezing keep their water for the cows.  

[Rip Snorter]

Stock tank heater is one way.

[Warden Callaway]

We use to chop holes in the ice on the pond. 

 

We got a water tank now.  And put a heater in it.  Any ag store should have them. 

 

It was down to zero out. Bet that calf wished it was back in where it was warm. 

 

[J-BAR #18287]

Cattle can handle surprisingly low temperatures if they have food and drinking water and shelter from the wind.  Those microbes in their rumens generate a lot of internal heat.  Keep the microbes happy and the cows will be happy.

[Dogmeat Dad, SASS #48563L]

Check out the YouTube channel EnglesCoachShop.  The link will take you to his playlists.

 

He is primarily in the business of building/restoring old horse/mule drawn wagons but he has a series of videos about work on his farm.  He lives in Joliet, Montana and it gets COLD there!

 

He did an insulated geo-thermal heated stock tank for his few head of cattle before last winter and did some updates this fall as well.  May not be applicable to your situation, but I thought it was clever.

[Cypress Sun]

 

I thought that cows farted enough to keep the entire Earth warm. No?

[Trigger Mike]

They are still young so I feed them calf grower and on cold nights add some deer corn and they have a round bale of peanut hay and coastal hay along with rye grass that is trying to come up but they drink a ton .  

[Trigger Mike]

I know why cowboys used to fight over water in westerns.  One cow can drink a few gallons at once

[Texas Maverick]

We didn't have cows but did have horses in Parker, CO. We had heated water bowls in each stall for the horses. This way they had water year round. They work great. When it got to a certain temp the heating unit would come on and keep the water line and bowl above freezing. That along with good hay and grain and a place to get in out of the wind kept them happy.

 

TM

[Bailey Creek,5759]

Some used, Cowboy Heaters. In water tanks.

[Yul Lose]

Back in the mid 70’s (1970’s) I worked for an outfit in Sheridan, Wyoming named J-K Manufacturing. They were a fledgling company building a stock tank that was vacuum formed plastic with an interior liner sprayed in and fiber glass reenforced. They had a tank heater in them and a flap on each end of the tank that covered half of the water. The flaps were vacuum formed plastic and insulated like the tank. The cattle would push the flap down with their nose and get their fill of water.  It looked like a big green bathtub. We built quite a few test models that were used around the Sheridan and Buffalo ranching community and seemed to be really well received. The two partners in the venture took a bunch of the tanks to the Denver Stock Show and sold everything that they brought. I didn’t get along with one of the owners to well and quit after about 6-8 months and got another job. Anyway if memory serves me correctly they had a fire at the plant and never started it up again.

[Oak Ridge Regulator]

When I was a kid my old man had a stock tank heater that was made out of cast iron and sat about 20” deep in the stock tank, every afternoon just before dark he would throw a bucket full of burning coal in the heater and then throw another bucket of raw coal on top, it would keep the tank warm enough so it wouldn’t freeze until he filled it the next night and we used to hit well below zero for weeks on end in January and February, the cows would all wander down in the morning and late afternoon to drink their fill

[Bailey Creek,5759]

Oak Ridge used one that was converted. To burn used oil.

[Maddog McCoy SASS #5672]

Grandparents had cattle.  Had wood Bruner in tank and built. Fire in it to keep water warm. Brother has tank with ball in it that is insulated that keep water from freezing.  Geothermal tank. Not sure where he got it but have 3 of them and autofill float keeps it full. Can check later in week. Where he got it. Cooperative extension office recommends warm water in winner for livestock .

 

[watab kid]

8 hours ago, Cypress Sun said:

 

I thought that cows farted enough to keep the entire Earth warm. No?

ya , me too , thats what they were sayin to stop us from wanting beef in our diet , i still like beef enough to tell them to kiss my redneck A$$ , 

 

im not a rancher but those i know have heated stock tanks and frost proof delivery systems , we get well below zero here 

[Grumpy Old Man]

When I was young, we had a spring that flowed year round.  Had a pipe stuck in it that ran to a trough. Never froze up.

[Grass Range]

We have 3 artesian wells at about 1000 feet deep each. One of these runs the year around at about 20 gallons per minute and is kind of warm water. 

That pasture is about 1000 acres so that is where we keep the critters in the winter. Nothing is close to power or coal burner heaters. Horses can be kept anywhere as they get enough snow when grazing to meet the water desire.