Automatic waterers?

[AudieWyoming]

We used the Hoskins red top tanks at the dairy. They were pretty trouble free, the stanless tanks were easy to clean. I liked that the big heater units were under the tank not in the water. The valves would freeze up on very cold nights, we thawed them with buckets of hot water.

I put the big blue concrete tanks (from Iowa, can't think of the brand) with the element under the hood at the Wyoming ranch. I had to add a small heater or heat lamp on a thermostat underneath any way. If the valve gets sand in it or trickles the over run freeze and thaw damages the concrete over time. @

Does anyone have any experience with Hoskins Red Top Waterers? I know my granddad used to work with them in the Dakotas and Nebraska. http://www.hoskins-mfg.com

 

[KMacGinley]

I have a cobett waterer and I think that it is absolutely the best.

 

[canoetrpr]

Sounds like the ideas are coming together. One more suggestion: could you put the waterer in one wall of the pole shed so that one half (with the drain hole) is outside the shed and one side inside the shed?

This would let you drain/clean it to the outside yet hopefully minimize the trenching. Also may facilitate your two-group weaning?

One more suggestion on a waterer: do it right the first time. The idea of coming back and doing it again just does not seem to work out for me. A bit of additional cost now will long since fade in 5 or 10 years of use.

Best of luck.

Jim

Unfortunately this won't workout for my setup as my pole barn backs onto my shop and has a barn on one side. I've also got to try to minimize the run from the water source as I have to heat it to prevent it from freezing.

I'll dig into what the options might be that involve trenching from my house but it hardly seems to make sense given I've got water coming out in my shop that is about 15 feet away from where I would like the waterer to go. Some more mental gymnastics on my part might yield a solution that I have not thought about yet.

 

[brenda]

You're right on the ponds Dixie. The weather here in MS has really been surreal this year. Snow this morning in Central MS, sunny by noon. We only experienced some half frozen ones, cows still had plenty to drink from. We are lucky living in the South.