Water Systems for Intensive Grazing

jhambley · Jun 3, 2007

How did you design and implement your water system?

I'm planning an intensive grazing system which will divide my 70+ acres into about 30 cells.
I have several ponds as a water source but want to fence the cattle out of these.
I live in east central Kansas so winter freezing is a concern.

Any suggestions out there?

JH

dun · Jun 3, 2007

Unforunately providing water to multiple paddocks isn;t alwasy a cut and dried solution. First thing we do is try to set the paddocks up so that the cattle don;t have to travel more then 500 ft from the most distant point to reaqch water. In a couple of fields we ran underground pipe from thr well to the middle of the pasture and do a wabon wheel spoke kind of arrangments to break the larger pasture into smaller paddocks. On our furthest back field we provide water via 1 1/2 poly pipe above ground which is hooked to the well. There is also a freezeproof waterer that is supplied from an underground pipe from a pond. Once freezing weather hits we water them from the freezerpoof and drain the poly pipe. We attempt to graze the pastures in a rotaion that will put that pasture last to be grazed before winter, then move the cows p closer to the well and the fields that are watered with the undergrond pipe and freezeproof waters.
Setting up a grazing system can be a kind of hairy deal to figure out. All of the paddocks/pastures here are different sizes and shapes and the temp paddocks change size and shape as the growing season progress's.

dun

Frankie · Jun 3, 2007

jhambley":g1px4etq said:
How did you design and implement your water system?

I'm planning an intensive grazing system which will divide my 70+ acres into about 30 cells.
I have several ponds as a water source but want to fence the cattle out of these.
I live in east central Kansas so winter freezing is a concern.

Any suggestions out there?

JH

Generally speaking, we run an electric fence around the pond, then put gates from each grazing paddock into the pond area. It doesn't matter which paddock they're in, they have the same access to the water. But we're not dealing with nearly as many paddocks as you're talking about.

pdfangus · Jun 5, 2007

go to your local soil and water conservation district.

If they do not have someone who is qualified to assist you they should at least be able to put you in touch with someone who is qualified to assist you.

If you are protecting streams and natural watercourses there may even be cost share for fencing the cattle out of the natural water.

Here in Virginia there are both federal programs and state programs to provide such assistance.

cfpinz · Jun 5, 2007

Saw a show on tv a couple years back (RFD-???) where a man had underground lines buried with a riser in each pasture and a portable water tank and mineral feeder on a trailer that he pulled from one pasture to another with a truck. Pretty neat setup.

cfpinz

pdfangus · Jun 5, 2007

cfpinz":1gl9ulue said:
Saw a show on tv a couple years back (RFD-???) where a man had underground lines buried with a riser in each pasture and a portable water tank and mineral feeder on a trailer that he pulled from one pasture to another with a truck. Pretty neat setup.

cfpinz

very simple to set up and the parts are readily available.
will also work with regular stock tanks.
there are some little tanks about thirty gallons available today that have the float and the hookup already in them for smaller operations.

One company even has a pipe called pasture pipe that is supposed to be able to withstand freezing and can be portable on top of the ground.