Waterers

[farmers_son]

I am looking to install some new waterers. Any comments on what is good or bad and what has worked for you.

[just_wondering]

Last year we put in a big blue cement things(cancreate maybe), one of those feedlot water bowls anyways. and never had a bit of trouble with it it cost quite a bit more but has been absolutely trouble free in some very cold weather, when we had some of the orange ones freeze hard.
it also seems easier to set as far as water leval when the orange one is always either overflowing or froze up
hope that helps

[grassfarmer]

We just installed two frost-free-nose pumps for the cows wintering out on pasture. They are a real pain to install, and difficult to get some cows started on but once you have them they have no running costs and look like they will last for a very long time. I understand you can run them off a pressure line as well so you could set them up in your corrals. The cost savings over using power over a 20-30 year period must be considerable.
It was a treat watching the cows drinking from them this morning when it was -30C!!

[victoire]

we have found that 6 ft tire troughs are the most practical for us .

[PureCountry]

As long as you are doing this using power, I would go with the tires with a concrete bottom and central tube/pipe riser. Indestructible. The key is to make a lid covering the area where the float is, and fix your floating electric heater in place close to the float(tie it to the underside of your lid with light chain or cable). I've seen some where the heater would float away from the float, which then freezes in place. The cattle come along, drink the water down, and your float being still stuck in a chunk of ice, doesn't allow more water in. Then your water line may freeze INSIDE the pipe, which is a real pain in the @$$ to get at to work on. Speaking from experience.

But set up right, they're great, if you have the space to fit in the original hole.

[rkaiser]

Stuck a little pond pump in ours. This submersible pump cost me $70 and moves about 400 gallons an hour. Costs nothing to run. Moving the water near the float mechanism has been great and almost the whole top of our trough was open this morning after a -25 degree night and a bit of wind.