Water infrastructure for the summer?

[OgdenAcres]

I am out in West Texas and we have expanded our operation recently. We are looking to add some water infrastructure to the property, but havent really done a lot of water managing in the past, our current property has always had water systems. Wanted to see what others are doing for water management, infrastructure, and checking water?

 

[Brute 23]

Cell cams are the best thing to happen to the water game. You can check water and cattle and likely will get some entertainment out of what else comes to the water.

 

[Mighty Mouse]

Cell cams are the best thing to happen to the water game. You can check water and cattle and likely will get some entertainment out of what else comes to the water.

I hadn't thought of using a cellular camera to remotely monitor water sources, but that's a great idea. Do you have any recommendations for a specific cell cam?

 

[wbvs58]

What do you need to add? Are you looking at finding more water for it or are you looking to manage the existing water on the property?

Ken

 

[Brute 23]

I hadn't thought of using a cellular camera to remotely monitor water sources, but that's a great idea. Do you have any recommendations for a specific cell cam?

I use Tactacam. I've heard Wise Eye is good, also. They are smaller companies that like Moultrie or stuff like that. Watching a trough is pretty basic though so you don't need very fancy stuff. Add-ons like antennas and things of that nature might matter if you are in a poor service area.

This one is mounted in a big tree watching a trough with a cistern. We use a generator to fill the trough so if a float acts up or there is an upset we lose everything.

 

[TCRanch]

We have ponds, creeks, stock tanks, a fountain at the barn and a watershed lake. But I'm out there every day to check (I'm not bougie like @Brute 23 ).

 

[clarkmorefarm]

I am out in West Texas and we have expanded our operation recently. We are looking to add some water infrastructure to the property, but havent really done a lot of water managing in the past, our current property has always had water systems. Wanted to see what others are doing for water management, infrastructure, and checking water?

Do you have access to a well or water infrastructure? Or are you just asking how to manage water on a daily basis?

I love my Trutest ball waterers. Makes life very easy.

 

[gman4691]

My wife put a Spy Point Flex Series camera on our trough…a motion sensor triggers it. Pretty inexpensive but have to pay $10-$12 per month to retrieve pictures. Much better than a $600 water bill…which is what prompted us to get the camera…

 

[RockingV]

We use a couple of the Reolink cell cameras on a leased property. Got them to monitor water and check the herd when you can't get there. Picked them up from Amazon, opted for the full feature version, pan tilt zoom, with solar panel. Add a cell card and you can live steam 24-7 through their app. Motion activated, and the night vision with built in IR light is very useful. Cell with data limit is about $10 per month per camera.

 

[DCortes]

We use a couple of the Reolink cell cameras on a leased property. Got them to monitor water and check the herd when you can't get there. Picked them up from Amazon, opted for the full feature version, pan tilt zoom, with solar panel. Add a cell card and you can live steam 24-7 through their app. Motion activated, and the night vision with built in IR light is very useful. Cell with data limit is about $10 per month per camera.

I went with reolink too and could not be happier. There is no subscription needed and the quality of the camera is pretty good. Just make sure you get a 4G LTE SIM card to go with it. You have to be careful with that. Most providers use 5G cards now and the camera won't be able to connect to the network.

 

[Brute 23]

We use a couple of the Reolink cell cameras on a leased property. Got them to monitor water and check the herd when you can't get there. Picked them up from Amazon, opted for the full feature version, pan tilt zoom, with solar panel. Add a cell card and you can live steam 24-7 through their app. Motion activated, and the night vision with built in IR light is very useful. Cell with data limit is about $10 per month per camera.

Those look pretty nice

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

I'm hoping one day we get reliable cell service so I can use one of those cell cameras to monitor water at remote pastures. Until then I drive my butt out there everyday to check things out.

 

[crossbreed]

I'm hoping one day we get reliable cell service so I can use one of those cell cameras to monitor water at remote pastures. Until then I drive my butt out there everyday to check things out.

Is starlink an option? We have poor service at the farm also and are looking into this option.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Possibly but last I checked starlink was $120 a month. Thats too rich for my blood.

 

[SDgrampa]

Possibly but last I checked starlink was $120 a month. Thats too rich for my blood.

That's $4.00 a day. You drive to remote pastures for less than that? Plus factor in your time?

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

That's just the starlink, then you still need the camera, and a power source for all of it.

I have to go rotate pastures, fill and move mineral, and physically check cows roughly every 2 days anyways. So if I have to be there 50% of the days anyways.

Then add to that I would need to make some sort skid to house a power source, starlink gear, camera gear, etc as the cows are always moving around. And the antenna will probably require alignment with every move. Also that sort of apparatus just screams "steal me" because it isn't discrete at all.

A cell camera at $12 a month is much easier to justify if it would work. All that's needed is the camera and it's on-board battery. Can be moved with 1 hand and 15 seconds of time.

It could be done surely but I won't be dealing with that cost and headache anytime soon.

 

[Mighty Mouse]

That's $4.00 a day. You drive to remote pastures for less than that? Plus factor in your time?

$4/day plus the initial Starlink hardware cost of $350 plus the cost of a 100W power source to run it. And that's only going to service the area within the WiFi router's range (i.e., probably a single watering location).

I have Starlink at my house and love it, but I don't see it being practical for remote monitoring of livestock water in most situations.

 

[RockingV]

Those look pretty nice

The reolink work well, definitely recommend if they work for your situation. Not the cheapest but after digging through the options for several weeks we tried them. Video and audio is very good.

A couple pitfalls to watch for- Actual cell coverage is of course one and then Finding the right cell provider can be an issue- for us Verizon had coverage, sold us cards but literally changed their policy so they wouldn't support them because we didnt buy through them. T mobile did so it worked out. The solar keeps them charged up. Data can be an issue if you like watching for long periods every day so have to balance that. Overall very happy. Have to buy a replacement as
We had one smoked by a close lightning strike to a nearby tree.

 

[RockingV]

Starlink works really well for us, but it is our primary internet and for tv streaming at the home. No need to realign the gen2 antenna panel once you set it up. About 500' range from the router through residential walls. You can add a slave node and create a mesh network to expand the range. It's just another router that you connect to the base. I think it's about $250 per node. I thought about doing a basic wifi based / router setup for the lease as I have power available, but decided to just go with the cell cams.

That said, if you don't have cell coverage then you need to go wifi or RF. Without power, you could get a solar set up to provide power.

 

[OgdenAcres]

This has been interesting and given me a lot to think about. I was doing some research and ran across this thing called Ranchbot? Anybody heard of or used them before? Seemed interesting.