Livestock watering systems for parched prairies

In Western Canada, the land aches for water.

Drought has plagued parts of the Prairies for years now. Water levels in rivers, lakes and producers’ dugouts have dropped. Grass in the summer looks the same as it does in the fall — brown, crunchy and dead.

The concern lingers going into the growing and calving season. Much of Western Canada, especially in Saskatchewan and Alberta, experienced a winter with very little snow, which means not much runoff.

However, there are tools to help producers effectively manage the water they have.

Stockboss Waterers

David Flundra says the idea for Stockboss Waterers started with wanting to design something better than what was on the market by using less, or no, electricity.

From there, they created the watering system they currently offer which consists of troughs with pipes running underground.

Their watering system is made of recycled, moulded plastic with double walls to insulate. Flundra says the system is buried at six to eight feet and subsurface ground temperature keeps the system from freezing in the winter. He says the system was created to work in all seasons.

“Once you get to six feet, you start dealing with ground heat,” he says. “And then we wanted to capture some of the ground heat to enable us to keep the waters warm without relying on electricity.”

With the weather reaching -50 C across the Prairies this winter, Flundra says the systems worked well. Though there was some ice, it wasn’t completely frozen and was able to be broken through easily.

He says installation instructions are available on their website or with a YouTube video.

“It’s extremely simple. A couple hours with a backhoe and a little bit of sand.”

He says the system helps during a drought, especially if producers have a reliable water source they can trench to the waterer.

Flundra’s wife, Ladi, echoes this.

“There’s so much evaporation, there’s so much waste of water. By putting this in the water, it’s actually very beneficial in a drought situation for us,” she says.

Flundra says their price range is on the lower side of what is currently found in the market.

Clearfab Manufacturers

Clearfab Manufacturers, located near Cleardale, Alta., was created in 2000, but only started offering their water buggies in the last few years.

Tobias Stahl, owner of Clearfab, says the water buggy is a self-contained, completely portable water unit. It contains a basin trough that holds approximately 275 gallons of water with a mechanical float switch. When cattle drink the water, the float switch turns the pump on, which refills the buggy. The buggy can be connected to electricity or can have a solar panel on it to power it.

“The idea of it was to bring cattle water without having them going to get brisket deep or neck deep to get a decent drink.

“So you park your solar system, wherever is a good spot like nice high ground, nice and dry. And then you run your hose to your water source. And you bring the water to the cows.”

The water buggy is designed for the summer. Stahl says their customers primarily use it for rotational grazing.

“A bunch of guys are trying to decrease their footprint or trying to be more sustainable, trying to do it in a more cost-effective way. So after moving their cows, it’s way better if you can move your water with the cows.”

The drought has caused problems for his customers and Stahl says it has affected business a bit. However, he says the water buggy can be beneficial during drought, as well. Because it’s portable it can be moved away from a water source, meaning there is no concern of cattle getting stuck in mud near dugouts.

Stahl says they designed an additional pump for the water buggy to lift water 40 feet, as opposed to the original one, which lifts it 15 feet.

“Now that the water levels are lower inside these dugouts, they’re not keeping up to the herd sizes,” Stahl says.

The water buggy price varies depending on the type of pump chosen and the application. Stahl says the standard model is around $10,000 and it goes up from there.

He says they use the water buggies on their own operation and have buggies with seven- or eight-year-old pumps that still work fine. He says the key to ensuring it lasts is making sure the pump isn’t picking up debris. The minimum life of a pump should be four to five years.

Frostfree Nosepumps

Jim Anderson believes livestock should work for the producer — not the other way around.

That’s what he had in mind when he designed his product, the Frostfree Nosepump.

“Anytime I do something for the critter, it’s going to cost me either machinery or labour or energy or something,” Anderson says. “And of course, it all comes down to, that’s not how you make money with cattle.”

Frostfree Nosepump is a livestock waterer designed to allow the livestock to water themselves. Using a nose plate, the livestock pump their own water. This product doesn’t need electricity and uses geothermal heat to make it winter-tolerant. To get this geothermal heat, it must be installed at a depth of at least 20 feet with a minimum diameter for the culvert of 24 inches.

Anderson says the idea for this product came from his operation, where they couldn’t put cattle on a couple of quarter sections because there were no watering systems and no power.

“We had been using another style of nose pump, but it was not a winter-tolerant one. And I felt we had grazing capacity there ’til Christmas or New Year’s. And so we had to have something that was frost-tolerant.”

Because this product requires the cattle to pump the water themselves, Anderson says some training goes along with it. He says producers should not have several cattle using the pump to start. The cattle who learn can then train the rest of the herd.

He says to train, the producer should put the animals in a mini corral with no other water, to force them to learn how to use the pump. Then, the producer should manually use the pump to show the cattle where the water comes from.

“From that point on, they basically train themselves.”

In droughts, Anderson says it is essential to make sure there is water the pump can pull from. He encourages people to put the pump alongside a dugout because it prevents the cattle from trying to go down to the water, which will stop them from getting stuck in the mud and will keep the dugout clean and safe.

He also says the product can help find a new water source during drought because it can tap into high water tables.

“By the time you get down into the ground 18 feet, you may have gotten below the water table. And the water table in the ground can be your source of water. Not everybody has that opportunity,” Anderson says.

“It’s not that common, but occasionally it’s available.”

The Frostfree Nosepumps vary from $5,000 and up.

Other systems

There are other systems producers can consider, as well, from companies such as the Water Box, Promold Marketing, Sundog Solar and Kelln Solar.

Bill Cunningham and his wife, Judy, from Promold Marketing offer both summer and winter water troughs, which are moulded to fit over a two-inch pipe.

Cunningham says having a good, reliable water source for cattle is important to put pounds on calves.

“They’re not having to deal with dirty udders or stuck cows in the dugout or caving the dugout in and the water quality goes through the roof,” he says in an interview.

“We see 50-pound gain on calves over one season.”

The troughs are anywhere from $4,000 and up, depending on which one the producer picks for their needs.

Cunningham says using a product such as theirs prevents cattle from going down to the dugout, which allows vegetation to grow again. It’s a big benefit to the cattle, as well.

“If we can help (producers) put weight on those calves by simply cleaning up and making the water more accessible for calves instead of having to follow Mom around and survive on her. It’s not only hard on your calf, but it’s hard on your mom.”

Lee Smith is the inventor of the Water Box, a product that uses geothermal energy to keep the watering hole open in the winter months. Cattle open the nose flipper to access the water. It is intended for direct watering from a source such as a creek, a dugout, etc.

In an emailed interview, Smith says the Water Box is a good tool to have in drought years because it’s portable and can be moved with ease, allowing the producer to access the water from multiple water sources.

“It also gives ranchers the option to alleviate their watering systems at home that may have suffered through a drought in spring, summer and fall,” he says. “Come winter, if their watering system at home can no longer keep up with the herd needs because of the lack of water, they want to reduce electrical bill costs, or they want to keep their cattle out of the confinements of their yard, the Water Box is a low-cost input that will allow ranchers to easily and safely access other water sources during the winter.”

The Water Box costs around $1,800.

Sundog Solar, a manufacturer located near Sundre, Alta., has a solar water pumping product, as well as a solar water wintering system. They also provide information about riparian management on their website.

Kelln Solar, on the other hand, is located near Lumsden, Sask. They sell many different solar watering systems, advertising their remote watering system on their website, as well as their winter-tolerant systems. They also sell a 500-gallon solar-powered mobile trough.

Water system calculator

To decide which water systems would be most beneficial to a producer’s operation, the Beef Cattle Research Council (BCRC) has a water system calculator which, according to their website, allows producers to evaluate three things: the costs and benefits of installing three different systems on a cow-calf operation, the costs and benefits of installing five different watering systems on a cow-calf operation, and how long it will take to pay off any of these livestock watering systems on an operation.

Huiting Huang is a research analyst at Canfax and played a big role in the creation of the water calculator. She says this was an important tool to create because of how important water is for beef operations.

“Providing adequate and clean water is very important for cattle growth and performance,” Huang says. “And also, an offsite water system has its environmental benefits. For example, it helps reduce bank erosion and protects wildlife habitats. So, in terms of importance, it could be a win-win for producers. It can help protect environments and also it has economic potential benefits.”

She says the process to create the calculator started in 2017 when a master’s student from the University of Alberta looked at different types of water systems. Then she created a spreadsheet and a fact sheet. With input from other industry experts, they created the calculator.

Huang says the biggest challenges were finding the typical price for the different types of water systems and ensuring the calculator was easy to use.

“There are many parts of the system,” Huang says. “So, there are many moving pieces, you can make it very robust for the producer. Putting 50 boxes for producers to enter their numbers, it will be too much. So we want to balance it with the simplicity for producers to use.”

Huang says all producers have to do is go to the calculator on the BCRC website and input their data from their operation.

“I think the most important part of using this tool is to put in your own numbers. Put in the numbers that reflect your own situation and your own region, price range and your management plan.”

Huang says there are a significant number of producers interested and using the calculator. Stats from BCRC say there are over 650 views for the calculator in the past 12 months.

There was a major update to the calculator in 2022 and Huang says more is to come.

“We are always open for suggestions and questions.”