PPRM trust me cows can winter just fine without warm water in the trough-it's pretty obvious that nobody here has ever wintered in COLD weather-our cows and brood mares lick snow all winter-they have for 20 years or so(the cows anyway the horses have forever). If you watch cows licking snow they take a lick every few steps as they graze. They never shiver from this-cows drinking from a heated wateringbowl-only the first couple get warm water the rest get a cold drink and then shiver and shake.You'd need a nucleur powered heating system up here to keep water warm for a large group of cows in a cold snap. It can get brutally cold up here for a long stretch but our 4 or 5 days of summer more than make up for it. I'll never forget the first year we started to switch from Feb. to summer calving. The coldest Feb, day we had a calf was -53 F the hottest summer day was 101F.