Hauling water

[snoopdog]

I will be hauling water this weekend , never seen the pond this low. Been feeding hay over 2 months now . Boss is going to let me borrow a 4000 gal bobtruck thankfully , and the neighbor has given me access to the creek. Ill end up buying some hay ,probably. But Ill do what I have to do . Funny , when I asked my boss to borrow the truck, I said "do I have authorization or do I have to steal it ?", he said "use it".

 

[TCRanch]

That scares me, you aren't too far and we haven't had rain in a long time. Ponds still holding up (barely) but the watershed lake was drained almost 4' for routine maintenance on the spillway so we're already down to drought level.

 

[farmerjan]

I have been hauling water since mid Sept to one place to supplement the spring that has not recovered. We moved 10 head out and it helped but then it stayed dry and so I am hauling 150 gal a day so that the calves can get enough to drink because they can't reach down into the concrete water troughs because the cows keep it so low since it isn't filling fast enough. Had about a week respite when we got some rain in early oct; but it didn't last. So some days I haul 300 gal then skip a day but with 4 nurse cows with 10 plus calves on them, plus the 10 first calf heifers that have 3 month calves on them, plus some others there, I have to haul. The spring is gravity fed and no elec so I also haul some for the calves on the nurse cows in the lot because they are starting to eat hay and grain and I have seen them drinking water also. Usually we have about a month of supplementing the spring in the hottest days of august, but never this late in the year. We never used to go weeks between rain like this year. It is worrisome.

 

[kenny thomas]

It's really hard to haul in the freezing weather too.

 

[kenny thomas]

Snoopdog, during 2006 I spent a 23 days during January and February in Oakmulgee, OK because of all the fires. It was really dry. Hope that doesn't happen again this year.

 

[skyhightree1]

It's really hard to haul in the freezing weather too.

try hauling 3000 gallons of milk

 

[melking]

Trying not to be stupid but why not drill a well?

 

[Davemk]

He lives in Oklahoma. Water is deep and expensive in most parts of Oklahoma.

 

[TCRanch]

He lives in Oklahoma. Water is deep and expensive in most parts of Oklahoma.

I'm assuming it's similar to KS. We have a well in one of the pastures, at the barn & 2 for the house. One concern is hitting the salt table, there's a ton of sand (have to clean the filters every few weeks) and yes, very expensive. In the winter there's the additional cost of electricity for heaters in the well houses so the pipes don't freeze, heating tape on the outside/exposed pipes and a stock tank deicer for the one in the pasture (the barn has a Ritchie fountain).

 

[D2Cat]

I've got a well at the farm on a slope near the barn. It's 28' deep and about 6' dia. laced with rock and has 3' of muck on the bottom. Had a concrete slab and a hand pump mounted on a steel plate.

I drilled a hole in the plate for a 1" suction line. Used a discarded chest freezer for my pump house by drilling a hole one one end for the inlet pipe. On the other end is conduit for water and electricity. Pump sets in the freezer and have never had a problem with anything freezing in about 7 years.

Line goes up about 50' to a hyd. then though a pen about 50' then to a Mura Fount automatic waterer mounted with a hole on both sides of the fence.

I've had the water tested by KCC thinking some of the nearby oil fields may have contaminated it, but that is not a problem. So I took samples to the Culligan water people who said it was excellent. (but that's another story)

I tried to pump the well dry a few years ago during a drought, but never did, but only watering about 15 head.

Had a pond dug and it was to overflow level before the first rain. The spring in it gushed water like a fountain.

Very fortunate when it comes to water.

 

[TexasBred]

He lives in Oklahoma. Water is deep and expensive in most parts of Oklahoma.

Yeah and you never know when you'll hit oil instead of water. :lol2: :lol2:

 

[Brute 23]

I would invest in a holding talk and trough. Dumping water in to pits is very inefficient... even with the company truck.

 

[backhoeboogie]

A few years back I was hauling 1100 gallons each evening and nearly 8,000 gallons on Saturday and then again on Sunday. Start over on Monday and watch the water level drop all week. 1100 gallons just about filled the water troughs but the cows would drink that down each day and then start on the pond water.

The main pond "didn't even go dry during the 50's drought" was bone dry.

I cleaned out all the tanks while they were dry. Put in nearly 3 more acres of water tanks around 16 feet deep. Once the rains hit again, I was in tall cotton.

To replace the old windmill it was going to cost around $12,000 Power was close by so I put in a meter loop and was going to put in a submersible pump. Never got that far before the rains came.

I had hay. But I turned the cows in on the hay field and that is not good for coastal. We managed.

Drought is never good. Surplus hay is the best insurance a person can have.

 

[cow pollinater]

I hauled a bunch of water when the drought hit in CA. I hauled once a day three hours round trip to supplement what springs I had left. When the following winter was dry as well I told my wife I was done doing that and we picked up and moved shortly after.
At least here the country is easy enough that the cows still get out and use the feed. In CA I ran into cows being concentrated on water but had plenty of feed on other parts of the ranch, they just couldn't get to it because it was to far from water.

 

[farmerjan]

The reason I am hauling is it is a rented pasture. The owners won't go the route of another well, there is one at the house they renovated but the electric gets turned off when they aren't there ( it is a 3rd home that her father left her), and they won't allow us to use the well for the cattle. Might burn up the pump or pump the well dry....or whatever. The granddaughter wants to drill a well for the pasture use and having a second source.... she has some common sense. If it wasn't for the convenience of where it is and having my nurse cows there with the little barn/shed, we would just pull stuff out when it got this dry. But it is a good place to calve out the first calf heifers, just a little bit of woods that I can check them and get them in if need be to help them.

We have never been this dry this time of year. By this time of year, the spring has always had plenty of water and we have had more head than is there now, every year for the past 15 years. So it is just a pain right now.

Yes Kenny, hauling water this time of year is the PITS.....

I put the water into water troughs near the barn, not into the concrete one that the spring feeds. Can't get to it with a truck now after years of tree growth. So the calves will come up and drink where the trough is and the cows don't go crazy for water so I am keeping up. The nurse cows will go to the one trough when not in the barn lot; and will drink some of what I put in the shorter troughs for the calves in the barn lot, but that is okay.

Maybe some rain next weekend.... we got flurries/ spitting snow off and on all day but no accumulation. Got COLD with the temps dropping and the wind. Down to 26 from 40 today, and with the wind is colder. Supposed to go down to 18 they say with 30 mile wind gusts. BRRRRRR

 

[snoopdog]

Not sure why my other post didn't come through , anyway , it is lease land -as to why not drill a well . I do have totes and will be filling them and gravity feeding to a trough . But I have to get ahead of it hence the truck to the pond. You know how it is ,The weather liars tease you , and it has rained around us, inches at a time . We had the wettest august on record , then nothing but a couple of insignificant showers . I would sell down under normal circumstances, but this is our first year back in the cow/calf side, since the last major drought . We sold out then , and went all hay for 2 years and did ok. I handpicked these girls from a really good closed herd and I am in them right , so I am in for the duration , but damn .