Best Freeze-Proof Water Trough for Central Texas

[ClinchValley86]

@rocfarm If you are on Facebook or youtube, look up Russ Wilson. He runs cattle in Pennsylvania. Channel might be called "Wilson Land and Cattle company." He has an inexpensive water setup that didn't freeze at -45 degrees F. Costs less than $100 of i remember correctly. He has DIY videos and also sells parts if you so choose. It is scalable I would imagine if you need something bigger. It's also portable... He moves it daily.

 

[rocfarm]

@rocfarm If you are on Facebook or youtube, look up Russ Wilson. He runs cattle in Pennsylvania. Channel might be called "Wilson Land and Cattle company." He has an inexpensive water setup that didn't freeze at -45 degrees F. Costs less than $100 of i remember correctly. He has DIY videos and also sells parts if you so choose. It is scalable I would imagine if you need something bigger. It's also portable... He moves it daily.

Man. You guys are great. Thanks for the info. Hope I'm not the only one benefiting. May all the cattle of America always have clean, fresh, water.

 

[RDFF]

Russ Wilson is using the same concept in a "portable" system. He "insulates" everything that's exposed to the cold except the top surface of his tank, and then uses continuous flow to keep that open. Keeping the amount of surface you have exposed of course "helps", and that's why he's able to make that work. Keep in mind that he's located in Pennsylvania... and just mentions that it has worked up into Canada to -14F. In other words, he isn't USING this system, with lots of animals depending on it, in those kind of temps, on a daily basis. One or two days at that is one thing, weeks, or even months sometimes, without a reprieve, is another. I can tell you that I am watering about 90 head with a hydrant just "running" at a reduced rate.... but that WILL freeze/has frozen up on me, and I intend to change that out to what I've shown here previously, where EVERYTHING is protected from freezing, all the time (unless of course the electricity/well shuts off, and the cattle drink the tank empty).

I don't want to have to worry about it. Worst case scenario, the above DOES happen... I cover the tank and put a propane heater inside it to thaw the pipes on the floor out, and turn the water back on. If something did burst, it's ALL above the floor to work on. Incidentally, if the well does quit, the pressure will eventually drop on the supply line... and as that happens and the water in the supply line begins to draw "back", it will allow the air valve to open, thereby allowing the water in the hydrant to drop down below the frostline... which is where???.... above the floor of the tank in this case (because the tire is big enough that it has been protecting the area under it... so there's no frost underneath the tank where the pipes are anyway).

 

[RDFF]

BTW, not wanting to knock anything that Wilson is doing in any way. It's working for him, obviously, and in central Texas, it would likely work well too. His tank has very little "reserve capacity" though, and if you're watering alot of animals, the "flow" then has to keep up with them. I rotationally graze, and walk my cattle back to water sometimes as much as a mile... and I have learned that if the reserve capacity is limited, they WILL learn to come as onesy-twosy's, even for that distance, to accomodate this. But that can only take you so far, as your herd grows.

The tire tank design is far more durable, less labor intensive, provides a robust reserve capacity, and is far more "secure" against freezing. When you have lots of cattle depending on it, and you KNOW you're going to be up against weather that you'd just as soon not have to mess with water systems in, you'll eventually gravitate toward figuring out a way to overcome that concern. When it's well below 0 for weeks at a time, a cattleman has more important things to do than worrying about frozen water systems because he didn't plan for it.