Being a farm and cattle owner, it’s crucial to understand the importance of supplying your herd with fresh, clean, easily-accessed water. It’s also imperative and often overlooked- to provide enough. Read on to find out how much water your herd needs, the options and features our range of cattle water troughs offer, and how to set them up correctly on your farm.

Importance & Level of Cattle Hydration

Understanding the level at which cattle need to hydrate is essential to have a healthy and happy herd, and plays a big role in milk production. Fluids make up on average 60% of the cow. Milk produced is only 12% dry matter and 88% water, so to produce high-quality milk it’s clear to see the importance of keeping your cows well hydrated. If you’re wondering how much water you need to provide, a good rule of thumb is that for every 100 pounds that a cow weighs, it’ll need 1 gallon of water in cool wet conditions. This doubles (2 gallons) in warm dry conditions. An average fully grown cow weighs approximately 1500 pounds and so needs 15- 30 gallons of water for itself. Then, of course, multiply this by the size of your herd and you know how much water is needed to keep them all healthily hydrated. Up to 50% of cows’ daily water intake is consumed almost immediately after milking. Make sure the water troughs are replenished and full for post-milking times.

Cattle Water Troughs with Carlow Tanks

Carlow Concrete Tanks produce 3 different sizes of troughs, our 140-gallon, which is suitable for the suckler cows and for small dairy farms. Our 300-gallon, which is more suited to larger dairy herds (over 100 head), and our 500-gallon, which is suitable for even grander dairy herds. Our troughs are made up of minimum 50N concrete. They are durable and long-lasting hydration solutions for any livestock farmer. All our high-quality products are reinforced and have a bung in the bottom for ease of draining. We do recommend they are drained in extreme cold conditions to prevent damage . The 500-gallon trough is an ideal solution for a farm that wants to split the use between 2 paddocks. They are also great additions when located where cows exit the milking parlour after milking. Our largeritems are fitted with lifting inserts to facilitate ease of moving them into position.

Setting Up a Cattle Water Trough

The positioning of your cattle trough is important to consider to ensure a peaceful herd and farm. The middle of a paddock is the ideal place to have your trough, where it’s easily accessed from all possible angles. This allows maximum cattle hydration. People often make the mistake of placing troughs against a fence or in a corner- which means cows must do more walking and queuing to get their water. The excess walking is bad for the soil, and queues can lead to hostility and bullying in the herd. If your cows
are queuing up, there is not enough space- so bear this in mind when purchasing water troughs.

Carlow Concrete Tanks

If you need more advice on cattle water troughs, feel free to call us at Carlow Concrete Tanks, we’re here and happy to help you make the best decision for your herd and farm.