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Winter Grazing and Water

B

Ben H

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 20, 2006
Messages
1,738
Location
Gorham, ME
First Swath Grazing won't work in Maine, too much moisture.
I'm very interested in winter grazing. Maybe using some Winter Annuals to finish on. The thing slowing me down is water sources that won't freeze without the need of electricity. Right now I'm limited to my cattle being in range of water pressurized from our well. There are other fields that could be used but need other options. I've seen a type of pasture nose pump that drains it self below the frost line. I'd like to hear or preferably see (pics) what others are using for their winter water.
 
SNOW.........we just moved our cows to the swath grazing last saturday.Prior to that we had them on full feed because of weather and shortage of time to process and sort them. They all had access to water in the yardsite. I was wondering if they would make the 2 mile trek home for water; after 2 days about 60 came home, tanked up and left for the hills again. Haven't had a cow home since but it's been very mild (above freezing and the snow is wet right now). They're looking good, full, fat and content!
 
the problem here is that it gets cold but sometimes we have a lot of snow sometimes none. Right now we're about none. We had 1.5" a week ago but got some freezing rain then rain. There was a discussion about snow as a water source a while ago, I can't plan on it and it takes too much to get what their diet requires in my opinion.
 
Stock ponds and an axe.Chop ice cool water simple if its mild like this winter the holes have been staying open for weeks at a time..
 
Ben, I don't know how far it is or how accessible the water would be for you to check it daily, but lots of guys "here" simply use tire tanks with the float valve in the bottom of the tank and a winter cover of some sort on them. The cover usually involves megapanel and conveyor belting. Still would have to check the tank and chop ice.

This year I put in 2 miles of pipeline with 5 - 10' round fiberglass tanks along the route. I'm now watering my cows at the tank on the end of the line. I don't have any cover on it at all. I have a Lewis/Watson valve in the bottom of the tank with a metal float. I chop a hole in the ice and chop the float loose and it's good to go. Only had a couple days below 0 this winter though so hasn't been tested much lol!

I hope to put a couple more miles of line in this year (doing all this waterline work under my EQIP plan) I'll end up with a tank in the south end of the same pasture. This tank is required to be a winter equipped tank. For that reason I plan to use a tire tank for this application, although I have seen covered fiberglass tanks that worked well. Another option might be a locally produced concrete tank.

The reason I used fiberglass this year is because tires were quite scarce and expensive. Fiberglass did not cost much more. The fiberglass tanks are lots easier to work with than tires and don't have the quirks of tires or concrete work.

Sheep can and do get by with snow as a water source. IMO, cattle need a reliable winter water source, especially with supplemental feeding.
 
Stock ponds and ice are a recipe for disaster-you can go years with no trouble then get bit in the ash bigtime. Cows do great on snow-as long as there's enough of it.
 
cowsense said:
Ben; try FrostFreeNosePumps.com Reports are good on these!
Click to expand...

These are what I have my eye on. Did the website say what the stocking rate per waterer is in winter vs. summer? I'm thinking have a few of those and have stock tanks with float valves or something in addition to it for the summer. I have worked with the NRCS and the EQUIP program in the past and am currently working with them for some fence and water development for land I want to graze next year. I like the frost free nose pump because I wouldn't need pressurized water or electricity. I've used pasture pumps for years but they freeze when it gets cold.
 

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