Very fortunate..

[Brute 23]

We have been very fortunate the last couple weeks with the rain. I dont think there is a red dot over us any more. We start getting some showers a couple weeks ago that primed the pump and got the grass going. Even had a couple good one that filled the better designed stock ponds. Just last night we received 2.5" most if which came in about an hour and half. It's still raining steady. There are a few really large stock tanks that arent quite full but most regular size ones are over flowing.

It's hard to explain to people who dont do this how much of a relief this is. Seems like the last 12 months my time has been consumed with water, cutting cows, feed... just juggling the mess trying to buy a couple more months... a couple more months.

Thanks to who ever brought this rain.

... even rebuilt a couple tanks that are over flowing now.

 

[D2Cat]

What is the depth of that "tank" at it's deepest?

We've had a little over 5" of rain in the last 6 days. Still cloudy, overcast and going to rain more today.

 

[Brute 23]

It's about 6' at the deepest point. They hit a good clay so we stopped but were able to carry that depth thru 2/3 of it. We purposely sloped the other parts up shallower for animals. It was a low slew area thru there with good black dirt. I was very happy with the people who did it. Hopefully it holds water. There is a water well close that may get a solar and trough with the over flow going to it in the near future.

 

[D2Cat]

Since you design/encourage cattle to get water directly from the tank do you at some point down the road have to dredge out the mud to keep the original depth?

Most of the time here we try to fence off the pond and below the dam have a concrete (usually) automatic waterer that gravity feeds from the pond.

 

[Brute 23]

Usually there will be a dry cycle at some point and you can clean them out with a dozer or what ever. Some silt up faster than others depending on the soil, over grazing, etc. Worse case your talking about maybe cleaning the silt out every 30 years or some thing.

We are moving toward using more solars and troughs as are most people who can and just using the stock tanks for back up.

The solar wells are a game changer for our area. There are tons of old water wells left over from oil and gas production scattered across the country side. For $3-4k you can have a good water source, no matter how remote the area.

Running a solar to a cistern with a trough and letting it over flow to a stock tank is becoming pretty popular, and encouraged, around here.

The cattle will go to the fresh water if its available and not use the tank. I'm not aware of any set ups like you are describing.

 

[D2Cat]

Here's a couple of links to show the waterers. They're a concrete tank buried at the bottom of the pond dam. The water is piped into the back and regulated by a float.

https://siprecast.com/projects/freeze-proof-water-tank/

https://stewartconcrete.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Single-Waterer-HW.pdf

 

[wbvs58]

Looks wet.

Ken

 

[greybeard]

it is. Again. This was yesterday. Much higher this morning.


Got up at buttcrack of dawn yesterday and again today.
We've had a lot of rain and storms and am again watching the river rise & snake across my pastures.

Power went off Tuesday night 8pm and was off until about 10pm last night.
Yesterday morning:

Went ahead and fired up the generator yesterday around noon so the freezer and fridge stuff could get some cold air and all our electronics needed a charge, and I needed to pump up some water for toilet too. That genset is soooo LOUD! Keurig coffee this morning, since I didn't get the old school coffee pot washed before crashing late last night.

I went up the hill about a mile away to the nearest convenience store and this was parked outside. One of thos fancy mudders with boom speakers all over it.



Couldn't get positioned to get both vehicles in the shot, but Texas Dept Public Safety (Highway Patrol) car was sitting off to one side of the parking lot by the air/water thingies, and I suspect waiting for the 4 wheeler owner to come out of the store. They aren't allowed on the roads or right-a-ways here and that one wasn't licensed in any way. Hope the trooper just gave him a little verbal warning tho. Out here in the country, things are a bit less 'tight'.
(I could have driven one of my farm tractors up there and it would have been perfectly legal as long as I put the little orange plastic triangle placard on the back of it..probably wouldn't really need the triangle either)

 

[Mrcopier]

We have gotten 6.75 inches and it’s raining again today, supposed to rain the next couple of days but I’m not complaining. The 100 degree days are coming soon enough

 

[BFE]

Here's a couple of links to show the waterers. They're a concrete tank buried at the bottom of the pond dam. The water is piped into the back and regulated by a float.

https://siprecast.com/projects/freeze-proof-water-tank/

https://stewartconcrete.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Single-Waterer-HW.pdf

What do you do to keep these from being a mudhole around them? The dam side of most ponds here are fairly wet, especially if you add in excess foot traffic.

 

[Brute 23]

Ya the spill way usually dumps back in behind the dam.

 

[D2Cat]

What do you do to keep these from being a mudhole around them? The dam side of most ponds here are fairly wet, especially if you add in excess foot traffic.

There is a pipe coming off of the drinking tank acting as an overflow and it is piped away as far as needed to prevent a mud problem. There is also a valve that can adjust the amount of water allowed in. This can be set to just barely allow any water it, and also limits waters used. Cattle, just like horses, tend to come to the water hole in their hierarchy when allowed.

 

[Allenw]

Usually there will be a dry cycle at some point and you can clean them out with a dozer or what ever. Some silt up faster than others depending on the soil, over grazing, etc. Worse case your talking about maybe cleaning the silt out every 30 years or some thing.

We are moving toward using more solars and troughs as are most people who can and just using the stock tanks for back up.

The solar wells are a game changer for our area. There are tons of old water wells left over from oil and gas production scattered across the country side. For $3-4k you can have a good water source, no matter how remote the area.

Running a solar to a cistern with a trough and letting it over flow to a stock tank is becoming pretty popular, and encouraged, around here.

The cattle will go to the fresh water if its available and not use the tank. I'm not aware of any set ups like you are describing.

I've been doing some looking and think I can put a decent solar pump set up together for $1,200 to $1,500 depending on what all the 'little' stuff cost to get it put together.

 

[Brute 23]

I've been doing some looking and think I can put a decent solar pump set up together for $1,200 to $1,500 depending on what all the 'little' stuff cost to get it put together.

That little stuff adds up. We put a temp pump together on poly for a generator that can be moved to fill stock tanks. The pump and poly were the cheap part. The wire, connections, fittings, rope, and nick nacks added up.

With the solars I will say get the biggest/ best pannels you can swing and the biggest pump you can fit. You can watch the water rates going up and down if just a cloud passes passes over. The more pannel surface area you have helps keep those rates up even in low light conditions.

I wish I could trend the out put to show how much of a day, week, month you are actually producing and and what rate. It's a fraction of the time. I believe in having plenty of pump and power so when you get light you fill your cistern or what ever as quick as possible.

A good solar has a switch you can adjust uo and down to control the rate.

The cost to almost double you output is usually just a couple hundred dollars and you will burn that much in hassle if you catch a rainy or cloudy week and it's not keeping up at any point in that pumps life.

We can get a full kit installed that does 7gpm for about $4k. A 4gpm is around $3500, installed. Installation is $600.

 

[Brute 23]

We went from fighting a drought to mud, mosquitos, and flash flood warnings in less than 30 days.

Sale barn went from 2000+ to 300ish.

Its amazing how fast the tide turns.

 

[TCRanch]

Be careful what you wish for!

 

[1982vett]

We went from fighting a drought to mud, mosquitos, and flash flood warnings in less than 30 days.

Sale barn went from 2000+ to 300ish.

Its amazing how fast the tide turns.

Got 2 3/10ths last night. Makes about 8-9 inches the last 3 weeks for me. I’ve had the hay cutter hooked to the tractor and ready to go for weeks now. Guess I should unhook and throw out some fertilizer somewhere. Bet that would make it stop and dry things up.

might could really mess with it and hook back up to the cutter after I threw the fertilizer out...

 

[Caustic Burno]

Got 2 3/10ths last night. Makes about 8-9 inches the last 3 weeks for me. I’ve had the hay cutter hooked to the tractor and ready to go for weeks now. Guess I should unhook and throw out some fertilizer somewhere. Bet that would make it stop and dry things up.

might could really mess with it and hook back up to the cutter after I threw the fertilizer out...

It is wetter here than when Harvey came through.
Get inch or more daily, can’t drive the Mule through the pasture without making ruts.
I haven’t sprayed, fertilized or had the first bale cut. It’s okay I will take this any day over drought. Wished I could spread it out over July and August.

 

[greybeard]

The rains we've received over the last 3 weeks have for the most part, been moderate and steady instead of absolute downpours. Means the soil has stayed completely saturated, tho the river has been in 'action' stage or higher for much of the period. It 'may' drop below that stage tomorrow for the first time in over 2 weeks, but I've had no real flood threat to the cattle or structures so far.
It's just terribly messy and soft everywhere.
(we have had a few T-storms come thru that were real frog stranglers too)

 

[Texas G@l]

I haven’t sprayed, fertilized or had the first bale cut. It’s okay I will take this any day over drought. Wished I could spread it out over July and August.

X2....mud's better than powder dry dirt. Since the first of May we've gone from severe drought to "normal".