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Bad luck with cattle waterer today!

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mtrancher

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I had a wreck this morning when I went out to check heifers, found one 2 year old heifer dead by the waterer and then noticed one of my yearling bulls in the pen on the other side of the waterer dead as well. I quick shut the power off and determined that the waterer had shorted out and had electrocuted the cattle, still haven't figured out what caused the hot wire to melt but believe it may be the heat tape shorted out first. Have sure heard of this happening but after 25 years of ranching and numerous waterers in use had never seen it on our place. What especially was disturbing was that the ground wire was broke and wasn't attached to the ground rod. Frustrating that we hadn't been checking those closer.
This is a plastic waterer (by Ritchie) that has an open stainless steel drinking bowl, but as I said the rest of the waterer is plastic. If the whole waterer had been metal, as most of ours are, it may have acted as the ground itself since it is real wet and muddy around the yards now. But apparently in this case just the bowl was charged and the animals we sitting ducks to get sapped.
Something to definitely be aware of, and to check to make sure your grounding rods are attached properly. Its a quick way to loose a lot of money, we could have lost more so for that I'm thankful. Or worse yet an unsuspecting person touch the waterer.
Anyway sure got a eductation, even though I've always had a healthy respect for electricity.
 
OH Man!!! Sorry to hear that ya lost a cow and a bull like that. Ya just never know what's comin next to wreak havoc. Ya do all ya can think of to make things right and then stuff still happens that ya can't explain. Good post tho, lettin others know to be on the lookout with their own equipment. I think sometimes we get so busy doin the everyday things that other stuff slips by us. We all do it, human nature. But like you said, better just 2 than more.
 
Good wake up call for the rest of us. So sorry for your loss. I am a stlickler for grounds. I don't rely on grounding back thru the system, while in most cases that is all you needmI have a ground rod under each waterer I have. I think in the morning I'll check the ground connections.

One thing about this winter I believe I have only turned the waterers on about 5 nights total. Great savings on power.
 
I had a similar close call just before Christmas. We had a water-line leaking. The power wire is buried down with the water-line. We dug down with a backhoe to within 8 or 10 inches of the lines and then I shoveled to expose them.
I repaired the water leak and filled the hole back in. The next day the cattle were all gathered around the waterer bawling and looking at it with their heads up.
Long story short, I must have just nicked the wire with the shovel. Obviously I didn't check close enough before I backfilled the hole. I couldn't feel any shock on the waterer(heavy winter boots on) but I put a meter on it and was getting 36 volts. Enough to give the cows a pretty good "tingle" but not enough to kill them(Thank GOD!). Not enough current to blow the breaker either.
I ended up disconnecting the buried wire and running a temporary overhead line to the waterer.
We were very lucky that no cattle died. :)
 
Sorry to hear about your bad luck, mtrancher, and the loss of your livestock.

A couple years ago, I noticed our horse herd acting funny and hanging around the corral. I thought they might be out of water so checked the Ritchie waterer. There was plenty of water in the bowl, and the horses would go close but were scared to put their nose in. I choused them all to the other side of the pature, where there was a windmill and tank, and they all bellied up to the bar to get a drink. Not being very smart about electrical problems, I called an electrician. They discovered that the underground wiring had gone bad. Anyway, it was a close call.
 
A while back our neighbors were pairing out when they could not get their horses to cross a muddy calving lot. The neighbor was off his horse with tall rubber boots on and could not understand what was wrong with the horses. Finally they figured out a line was shorting and giving areas of the muddy wet lot a charge that he couldn't feel due to his rubber boots.
 
mt rancher,bad luck on the cattle,but it's a simple problem to fix,never run any thing electrical outside in the weather unless it's on a "GFI" either cicuit breaker or receptacle,I seen a high dollar horse get killed when a metal building was shorted and she got between it and a pipe fence...............good luck
 
No FH it was a bull I was raising from my own cattle, He was an AIed son of Power Design so would have been a good one.
Haybuster, thanks for the input. I should have been using GFI breakers, will have to look at switching them over. I'm not an electrician and have just used regular breakers and then relying on the ground rod. Do all you other ranchers have your waterers on GFI? Just curious, Is there any drawbacks to using GFI other than they cost a little more. Sure do look cheap compared to a cow and bull!!! :shock:
 
mtrancher said:
No FH it was a bull I was raising from my own cattle, He was an AIed son of Power Design so would have been a good one.
Haybuster, thanks for the input. I should have been using GFI breakers, will have to look at switching them over. I'm not an electrician and have just used regular breakers and then relying on the ground rod. Do all you other ranchers have your waterers on GFI? Just curious, Is there any drawbacks to using GFI other than they cost a little more. Sure do look cheap compared to a cow and bull!!! :shock:
Click to expand...

I only have electricity to one of my tanks in the corral and thats just for a light over the float, but yes it has a GFI.

I had a short several years ago that was goimng thru' the ground and the sides of my cattle shed/shop. Lost a good young mare and almost lost a bull. Just happened to see the bull get zapped and thot' there was something wrong with him until i found the mare. Had an electrician come and fix it.

Anymore, I'd rather have my lines overhead so I can see when they are getting bad. Or just do without electricity, tho' sometimes that ain't very handy.
 
I just got my old brain kick started again - - - I will get GFI breakers and replace the standard ones on all my drinkers - - - I put the drinkers in in the late 1970s and did not know about GFI breakers at that time. I've had great luck with them as they ( all three) are still working great and as such I don't give them much thought. I only turn the breakers on if the weather is forcast at 20 F or below. Not so much for safety as because I'm a tight wad ( just ask my wife).
 
Question about using GFI breakers, isn't it possible that if you have your waterer on GFI's and they get a little moisture or even condensation inside the waterer they will then kick off, (which I realize that is what they are suppose to do). But in this part of the country when it get to -45 below and your breaker trips off during the night, you are in a heck of a lot of trouble. You'll be dealing with a lot more than electrical problems come morning. Broken water pipes may be a bigger issue. I've lost power at those extreme temps before and that is a wreck when you have a dozen waterers. Anyway my thought was maybe it would be better to have a little stray voltage than to lose the heating altogether. Of course that is where a very good ground wire and rod are absolutely necessary.
I may be totally off base here but would be interested in hearing from some of you guys that have to deal with these extreme temperatures in your operation.
 

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