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how far to water

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there are way too many unknown variables to answer that question inteligently.
that said, I've seen brangus cows in cool weather travel up to 9 miles in the desert but they didn't put on much weight doing it.
if your grass is strong I would venture to say pairs with big ol calves in the fall can travel a couple miles back and forth easily.the further to water the harder they are on the closest grass though.

dust pnemonia can become a problem around here with cattle trailing back and forth to water in the fall.
 
My cows are just spoiled - - - In all but 2 pastures I would say they can go less than 100 yards to water and in the other two it would be less than 1/8th mile.

I love looking at the pictures you all post but most of the time I just love being where I grew up and have gotten used to.
 
hayguy said:
is there a rule of thumb as to how far to make cows and calves come to water in a pasture situation?
Click to expand...

Cows that are making milk need more water ,many times a day . So yes, that does make a difference to their access of water and how much milk they produce.
 
This is probably as good a time as any to remind everyone
that water is the #1 requirement of livestock. Without it,
everything else suffers. They just can't utilize feed when
short of water, and they sure don't milk well. FWIW

We were in a situation once where cattle had to walk a long
ways to water and there wasn't much of it when they got there.
NOT A GOOD THING!!
 
I know this would not work for some of your big ranches but when we have had a drought I have a 2,000 gal water wagon that is used in the gravel pit to keep the dust down on the roads. I have a boiler ( garden hose ) valve on the back and I hauled to the different pastures they were in and ran a hose to a float on a 100 gal plastic tank.

You need a large flow float ( most come with several different ones ) as with gravity it goes a little slow and the cattle will knock the tank around if it gets below 1/2 full.

Easy to move to the next pasture and keep full as I have a 3" pump on the back that will fill it from the creek in about 19 minutes.

As many old semi tank trailers as there are out there would you help yourselves by getting an old tank that is no longer certified for its original use ( tranlated "cheep" ) and flush it and haul water to allow the cattle to beter utilise the pasture you have?

I have been here since 1971 and have only needed my tank for cattle two years but it is nice to know it is ready when needed.
 
Some years our cattle trail up to 5 miles in rough country to water. As it cools off in the fall, they will stay out on the ridges chasing native grass and only water every three days. A bovine is an amazing critter in it's ability to adapt although having older cows to show the way helps.
 

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