frozen water in shed

Tomjim

water is frozen in shed. How long would store cattle go without water

If the temperatures rise to 4 degrees on Saturday will this be enough for the water to thaw

CloughCasey1

Tomjim wrote: »

water is frozen in shed. How long would store cattle go without water

If the temperatures rise to 4 degrees on Saturday will this be enough for the water to thaw

3 hours today drawing water from tanks to cattle. They were emptying the water troughs as quick as I was filling them.

BigSteaks

Tomjim wrote: »

water is frozen in shed. How long would store cattle go without water

If the temperatures rise to 4 degrees on Saturday will this be enough for the water to thaw

3 days after that you are in trouble.

Tomjim

will the pipes thaw at 3 degrees

BigSteaks

Tomjim wrote: »

will the pipes thaw at 3 degrees

They will, how long will it take is the question!

greysides

A long length of garden hose might get you out of trouble?

tanko

Tomjim wrote: »

water is frozen in shed. How long would store cattle go without water

If the temperatures rise to 4 degrees on Saturday will this be enough for the water to thaw

All the drinkers frozen here this morning, one kettle of boiling water and 5 litres of hot tap water got each drinker and pipe feeding it thawed out.
They kept going until evening, will thaw them out again in the morning.

queueeye

Tomjim wrote: »

water is frozen in shed. How long would store cattle go without water

If the temperatures rise to 4 degrees on Saturday will this be enough for the water to thaw

Stop giving any ration and you'll get a few more days.

CloughCasey1

greysides wrote: »

A long length of garden hose might get you out of trouble?

I'm afraid not GS. worked for 30mins here. Then started to freeze. Bucket and barrell I'm afraid.

tracey turnblad

I seen a post on face book... don’t know how useful this would be but here goes....

To stop a barrell of water from freezing fill a few bottles 1/3 full with salt and the rest water. Close them tight and even seal them to prevent the sat water leaking out. Put the bottles in to the barrels of water... this should stop the barrels of water freezing
http://vitaferm.com/how-to-keep-water-tanks-clear-in-winter/

squinn2912

I'm frozen too but there's a drop of water left in the drinkers. As long as they don't go empty I should be ok yea?

TwoOldBoots

If you have one of those infra red lamps for warming the calves, rig it up above one of the water troughs to keep one of them free. You'll have to bucket it from there.
Maybe you have a river or stream flowing nearby, if so with a bit of help you could walk them down to it

dohc turbo2

Mine came back earlier , happy days

_Brian

0c here all day, was a slight thaw but that has stopped again.

Hose and half barrels here.

anthony500_1

Had to draw water from a well here today, I'd say the last time the well was used was 2010, never as happy to see a bucket of water being pulled from a hole. Definitely not a fun time being a farmer

Never wrestle with pigs

_Brian wrote: »

0c here all day, was a slight thaw but that has stopped again.

Hose and half barrels here.

Same here, about 10 boiling kettles got a tap going that I could keep the half barrels toped up! Handy yoaks like that put away in a corner can make life easier on a day like today.

squinn2912

Sheds back on this afternoon bar 2 pens so will have to draw water there tomorrow. The ones I did draw water to weren't that fussed on it. Maybe the one pro of dmd down on this year's siliage!

squinn2912

Sheds back on this afternoon bar 2 pens so will have to draw water there tomorrow. The ones I did draw water to weren't that fussed on it. Maybe the one pro of dmd down on this year's siliage!

Aravo

Was at troughs yesterday. Found big ball of ice around the floats. Broke off this ice, small bit of hot water and presto. Glad not at 2010 situation here anyways.

Muckit

Aravo wrote: »

Found big ball of ice around the floats. Broke off this ice, small bit of hot water and presto.

Yes this is what l was saying in another post. In many cases its the float that is jammed from the ice in bowl behind cover. Covers need to be taken off. If you can't manage this, fill the bowl with hot water. There should be no need for barrels and hardship in many cases unless you have yards of uncovered pipe.

A lot of lads on here with grant spec sheds. All you have is 3 foot of pipe out of the ground and the drinker to defrost.

Sheep breeder

All frozen up here with heavy duty half inch pipe froze solid and had to bucket from the house into barrels and tractor to the yard and then give to ewes and lambs and the cattle long day,
Wondering anybody using better water pipe than we have against freezing.

Aravo

Sheep breeder wrote:

All frozen up here with heavy duty half inch pipe froze solid and had to bucket from the house into barrels and tractor to the yard and then give to ewes and lambs and the cattle long day, Wondering anybody using better water pipe than we have against freezing.

I would undo the philmac type fitting that connects to the elbow fitting of the trough. At least this will identify if the pipe is frozen or if the problem is further ahead. We had some troughs at back of slatted shed. Pain checking them and not good for H&S entering pens. So moved them to front and brought pipes up and over and lagged them. Seems to gave worked well as only the trough froze and not 20ft of pipe.

Muckit

The simple and possibly only solution is to have as much pipe as possible underground.

Also the fact that its half inch pipe wouldnt be helping things. Serious resistance compared to a bigger diameter pipe. Even 3/4 would be much better.

I know it'll probably be the furthest thing from your mind, but this summer, when the sweat is on your brow, let these days of torture be your inspiration to get your pipework sorted. It's money well spent as you can claim back the vat.

Mooooo

Muckit wrote: »

The simple and possibly only solution is to have as much pipe as possible underground.

Also the fact that its half inch pipe wouldnt be helping things. Serious resistance compared to a bigger diameter pipe. Even 3/4 would be much better.

I know it'll probably be the furthest thing from your mind, but this summer, when the sweat is on your brow, let these days of torture be your inspiration to get your pipework sorted. It's money well spent as you can claim back the vat.

Most of ours are underground, noticed the cows licking the concrete in one pen water seeping up, right next to a rail holding the gate as well

Injuryprone

Best €15 I think I ever spent. I take the view that if there's no water in the pipe then it can't freeze.

Have a 400m length of 3/4 inch pipe above ground direct to the parlour as normal supply. Normal supply to the sheds is a disaster with branches going in multiple directions, so I just got a spare bit of pipe and connected it at the parlour and went around to all the different troughs. Worked out ok. Pipe blown out straight away when finished. Have been putting a kettle of boiling water into the line in the morning before turning on the water to flush out any frozen droplets.

Muckit

Good idea. How does the air fitting stay in the philmac fitting? Is it just push fit?

farawaygrass

Injuryprone wrote: »

Best €15 I think I ever spent. I take the view that if there's no water in the pipe then it can't freeze.

Have a 400m length of 3/4 inch pipe above ground direct to the parlour as normal supply. Normal supply to the sheds is a disaster with branches going in multiple directions, so I just got a spare bit of pipe and connected it at the parlour and went around to all the different troughs. Worked out ok. Pipe blown out straight away when finished. Have been putting a kettle of boiling water into the line in the morning before turning on the water to flush out any frozen droplets.

I don’t get you-so you blow out all the water from the pipe with a compressor? You just need to keep the main supply free then to connect to any pipe you need?

Injuryprone

Muckit wrote: »

Good idea. How does the air fitting stay in the philmac fitting? Is it just push fit?

Had to call to a few different places but Chadwicks sorted me. It took 2 brass reducers to screw in the standard air fitting into the philmac.

Injuryprone

farawaygrass wrote: »

I don’t get you-so you blow out all the water from the pipe with a compressor? You just need to keep the main supply free then to connect to any pipe you need?

It just so happens that my compressor is in the dairy for running the meal feeders etc. So I just connected it to the nearest water pipe and blew it out back to the pumphouse. I had to T in a relief pipe just before the pressure vessel to release the water being blown back. It worked well in that line because it's a straight line. If it had branches, the water could get driven up dead ends (ie full water troughs) and come back into the main line after.

Once I had the water running in the parlour, just connected a spare empty pipe and went around to all the troughs

Muckit

Injuryprone wrote: »

Had to call to a few different places but Chadwicks sorted me. It took 2 brass reducers to screw in the standard air fitting into the philmac.

But are the philmacs threaded on the inside is my point ? Or did you just cut threads into it? I suppose the brass inserts helped in that they are soft and there's probably not aot of pressure on the fitting with the end of the other end of the water pipe open. It works anyhow and that's the main thing!

Injuryprone

Muckit wrote: »

But are the philmacs threaded on the inside is my point ? Or did you just cut threads into it? I suppose the brass inserts helped in that they are soft and there's probably not aot of pressure on the fitting with the end of the other end of the water pipe open. It works anyhow and that's the main thing!

Oh yeah, philmac threaded on inside. Standard enough fitting. Straight version of the trough fitting. Nice bit of pressure initially with the pipe full of water, I limited it to 50psi. Once pipe emptied out, you'd see the guage drop away to nothing

kollegeknight

Injuryprone wrote: »

Best €15 I think I ever spent. I take the view that if there's no water in the pipe then it can't freeze.

Have a 400m length of 3/4 inch pipe above ground direct to the parlour as normal supply. Normal supply to the sheds is a disaster with branches going in multiple directions, so I just got a spare bit of pipe and connected it at the parlour and went around to all the different troughs. Worked out ok. Pipe blown out straight away when finished. Have been putting a kettle of boiling water into the line in the morning before turning on the water to flush out any frozen droplets.

Fair play to you- great job. I was thinking the same after spending 2 days bucketting water.

kk.man

I had food, meal, fodder, ending, plenty of space and water in half barrels to do me a week. I forgot to turn off the shut off valves going to the yards!
Two joints bust so far! Ya can never prepare for everthing!