cattle without water

mylittlepony · 10-01-2010 7:20pm

Or if you can find huge chunks of ice offer them this too for licking.

whelan1 · 10-01-2010 7:47pm

good bit of a thaw here so hopefully tomorrow there will be water flowing again:D

Sam Kade · 10-01-2010 8:12pm

dar31 wrote: »

I have 65 spring heifers out on kale and silage(wet ish), the water to the paddocks was turned off 4 days ago incase of pipes bursting down the feilds, any way the water level of the 300gl through has only droped by 4 inchs in that time. id say that the most ot that drop was due to ice being removed every day. from these observations the heifers have drank little if any water over the peroid wheather they are not keen on the iced water or just dont need it, im not sure

I have had cattle grazing kale over the years and they hardly ever went near the water trough.

tedandbetty · 11-01-2010 2:11pm

I never expected such a reply to my initial post.

anyway heres the latest update.

after a week without water i got a couple of 40 gallon barrels and started drawing water and as i expected the cattle were thirsty, at first i though they would nexer stop drinking but after a gallon or 2 each each they just stopped, i know the water was very cold which proably limited their water intake. one whitehead did go a bit overboard on the water and started shivering for a while afterwards.
on sunday i headed off with more water to them but to my surprise they had little interest in drinking any with some refusing any water at all.

it did increase the amount of silage they were eating as some of the newer bales were a bit on the dry side.

hope fully inanother day or 2 water will return when things thaw a bit.

8k2q1gfcz9s5d4 · 12-01-2010 2:05am

tedandbetty wrote: »

how long can cattle go (only getting silage) without water?
every pipe i have is frozen. they are fine at the moment but they have no water for the last week.

a week?:eek:

get a blow torch to the pipes, i had to do this to all the pipes in the sheads last sat. left a tap slightly running at the end of the line to keep everything moving. they are ok now, bit of a thaw, was -10 some nights!

cjpm · 20-01-2010 12:09pm

networks wrote: »

jeez go easy on him lads,im feeding round bales of gud silage which has brown water dripping out of it(baled in early june/perfect conditions)?? and they dont go to water trough all even tho its full of water and ballcock frozen

Extract from John Shirley's article in todays independent....

"Some farmers in our area don't get excited about providing water for housed livestock if they are only getting silage. Some years ago, when cattle drinkers were frozen, it was noticed that the cattle still thrived without added drinking water. The only difference was that the straw beds stayed a lot drier. So, when the thaw came, the farmers left the drinkers turned off and they have stayed off ever since. The sky hasn't fallen. The cattle adjust to lower fluid intake.
It would make an interesting trial for Teagasc to see if providing added water does anything for livestock being wintered largely, or fully, on silage"

- John Shirley
Irish Independent

adne · 20-01-2010 12:46pm

cjpm wrote: »

Extract from John Shirley's article in todays independent....

"Some farmers in our area don't get excited about providing water for housed livestock if they are only getting silage. Some years ago, when cattle drinkers were frozen, it was noticed that the cattle still thrived without added drinking water. The only difference was that the straw beds stayed a lot drier. So, when the thaw came, the farmers left the drinkers turned off and they have stayed off ever since. The sky hasn't fallen. The cattle adjust to lower fluid intake.
It would make an interesting trial for Teagasc to see if providing added water does anything for livestock being wintered largely, or fully, on silage"

- John Shirley
Irish Independent

IMO this is bull s***........ animals need water......

wallycool · 20-01-2010 10:29pm

I was told if you have any animal that is dry for a long time and all of a sudden you give them alot of water they can over dose on it .... :pac:

bbam · 21-01-2010 12:36am

During the frost we were giving drinks with IBC tank on the front loader and half barrels, the cattle were drinking plenty and it needed doing every day..
Our neighbour let his out to the river every three days and there was a stampeed down the field where they would have their heads down for 20minutes drinking...
Then I heard today of a clown down the road who had no water with calved cows for 10days and wasn't bothered..

adne · 21-01-2010 10:46am

wallycool wrote: »

I was told if you have any animal that is dry for a long time and all of a sudden you give them alot of water they can over dose on it .... :pac:

they don't overdose but can end up getting twisted gut.......

cattle without water

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