Water trough size

[denoginnizer]

How do I determine the best size water trough for cattle? Is there a rule of thumb , x amount of sq feet or gallons per head?

 

[Howdyjabo]

I go for the bigger the better.
Power failure or pump failure-- no biggy (for awhile)
Water keeps better in the summer and in the winter.

 

[Farmhand]

Depends on if you have a steady water supply to it. If it has some sort of float system so it refills automatically then size doesn't really matter. If it is something you will be hand filling each day then figure size of tank something like this. Number of head drinking per day x number of gallons each head will drink per day. This will tell you how many gallons of water your herd will need each day. Your tank will need to be big enough to hold that amount.

 

[msscamp]

How do I determine the best size water trough for cattle? Is there a rule of thumb , x amount of sq feet or gallons per head?

While it needs to be taken into account, gallons per head is going to vary pretty dramatically according to what type of grass they are on, whether they have calves or not, whether it is summer or winter, location, etc. One also needs to take into account the amount of access that is available to the tank (the whole tank, half of the tank, etc.), the source of refill - gravity flow from a supply tank, pump from a stream, or a pressure pump from a well - rate of flow for gravity flow and psi of the pump, which will determine how fast it refills, the number of cattle that are being watered from this tank, etc, etc.

 

[bullred]

How do I determine the best size water trough for cattle? Is there a rule of thumb , x amount of sq feet or gallons per head?

If you have to manually fill the tank, and it's the only source of water, a rule of thumb is 40 gallons per head storage capacity with all tanks combined. That should give you about 100% safety factor under most conditions. Like has been said, if you have floats size is less relevant, but it's good to have at least two tanks with different floats.

 

[bigbull338]

its not the size of the water troughs that matters.its the number of troughs you have.if you have 100 cows.its the number of cows pre through that matters.an if you have floats on them.

 

[LonghornRanch]

I use old protein tubs with floats on a water well. But I check them everyday also.

 

[Nowland Farms]

On my small herd, I use the Freedom Fountains from Behlen Country. They work great. I have the 2 holer in each paddock.

Check out this URL

http://www.behlencountry.com/asp/catalog.asp?Product=Freedom Fountains&Family=Freedom Fountains