Saving time……….

[woodland]

Time is definitely a limiting factor for us. Always looking for ideas to save it and become more efficient.

Been thinking about how to monitor remote waterers since most of our pastures now rely on troughs and we fenced out the dugouts. It has definitely been an issue this year since most sloughs dried up which rarely happens here. Nothing pleasant about fixing a water issue with a couple hundred thirsty momma cows voicing their displeasure to you.


Bought a couple of these cell based trail cams on sale and had a rain delay in finishing up combining so today I’m figuring them out. Only wish I could program them as to when to take a picture but I can only control when they’re on. I get 100 free pictures a month or can do a 1,000 for $10/month which is pretty reasonable.

I can see this saving a pile of time next year and taking away the nagging thought in the back of my head saying I should spend the hour to check the troughs.

What are some simple things you do to make life easier or save time?

[foragefarmer]

Very simple.

Let my well organized non-procrastinating wife do as much as possible and stay out of the way.

[mcfarms]

For gods sake Woodland bad enough this other clowns have pretty much made this site useless anymore and now you go and start another cowvid thread.
Its a good idea though especially if those cows are not close to home .

[BreadWinner]

Great idea !!!!

[bullshead]

Woodland we have had solar waters for over 20 years now and the one thing we don't do anymore is fence off the water supply. When we first started they wanted everything fenced off and sure as hell you check 30 days in a row everything works one day you don't check it is not working. Sounds like you found out what happens when you show up and no water try and keep a 100 cows from trying to run you over, what we started was making an alley way to the water so if things quit they still have water access. Now we don't fence water sources off at all and about 90% will drink from the trough and only timid ones usually drink from the water. They do keep water way cleaner and most of the calves will drink from the trough too.

[woodland]

Woodland we have had solar waters for over 20 years now and the one thing we don't do anymore is fence off the water supply. When we first started they wanted everything fenced off and sure as hell you check 30 days in a row everything works one day you don't check it is not working. Sounds like you found out what happens when you show up and no water try and keep a 100 cows from trying to run you over, what we started was making an alley way to the water so if things quit they still have water access. Now we don't fence water sources off at all and about 90% will drink from the trough and only timid ones usually drink from the water. They do keep water way cleaner and most of the calves will drink from the trough too.

Bullshead……… how do you keep the cows from messing up the pump if you don’t fence the water hole out? This year the charge controllers died in both our solar systems within days of each other. Otherwise they’ve been great and very reliable. Planning on moving one camera with each bunch as they move. Just have a mount at each waterer and strap it on.

With us rotating pastures regularly with big bunches instead of leaving them in small groups all summer water has become a huge issue. Good fences and water aren’t cheap but neither is roaming thirsty cows………

[bullshead]

We have the floating pumps and in the dams we go out with hip wader and stick a bar in the ground and tie it to it, on dugouts we have them staked with a rope to the opposite side and then tie the eletrical line to the hose. We also stake the water line to the ground where it comes out of the water to the trough, it is amazing that with hardly any animals going into the water we seldom have to worry about the pump.