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Regular
Posts: 69
| We recently moved and our cattle pasture has a Nelson automatic waterer. It looks to me more like a horse waterer (kind of narrow and tall) and I am afraid to take the big troughs away. It is no taller than the troughs, it just seems more horse friendly than cow friendly. We are coming up on a big freeze and a trip away and it would be 1000% easier to leave them with the automatic waterer then to fill and break ice in the troughs!
Folks are telling me that the cattle will have no issues, but I want to hear from others. There is really no way to monitor that they are drinking...
Ideas??? |
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  Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
  
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | My father in law has some real asanine things here, one is a small waterer similar to what you mentioned. One side is in the corral (where we already had a water spicket-rolling eyes) the other side is on the pasture side...with a cut bank about 10 feet from the tank (rolling eyes here again). It's in a pasture that has a windmill so when we have no wind, cattle have no water. Right now 130 heifer calves make their way back there and water when the windmill tank is dry. They do just fine...slow as they wait in line like kindergartners, but no problem and they do it summer or winter. Honestly my husband and I also open the corral up so they can meander in and drink from both sides.
Edited by wyoming barrel racer 2017-12-19 10:40 AM
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Married to a Louie Lover
Posts: 3303
| We have automatic waterers for horses and cattle. One is in our fence line and has a drinking basin on each side - each basin is probably 18-20” long by 8-10” wide and 6” of water. Cattle come down from the pasture and find it just fine.
My only caution if they’re horned cattle, or just for piece of mind, is to make sure the tank plug is inserted from the outside. Ours was inserted from the inside when we installed and they knocked it out a couple times with their horns, taking away the water source and flooding the area. Haven’t had any issues since we flipped it. |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 310
Location: North Dakota | All of our cattle drink from automatic waterers of varying sizes depending on which pasture or dry lot pen they are in. We are currently backgrounding the weaned calves, and all 95 of them are drinking from one that is roughly 20"x12" and they have absolutely no problem. As long as your cattle can reach it, you should have nothing to worry about. They're a lot smarter than people give them credit for |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 982
Location: On the back of a horse | Our neighbors have them all over their place and all their livestock use them without an issue. They have beef cattle, roping steers, horses, donkeys, ect. |
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 Straight Shooter
Posts: 5725
Location: SW North Dakota | We have all kinds of different automatic water configurations and they figure them all out. My father in law even has some of the old style frost free ones that have the giant balls they have to push down to get a drink and they do.
I'm assuming it's set in a fenceline so they cant crowd it? That would be my biggest concern- they get to pushing around wanting water and wreck the dang thing. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1100
Location: Southeastern Idaho | We have Bar Bar A and Mirafount water troughs. The Bar Bar A is a tall narrow cone and has a metal flap that the animal has to push down when drinking. Cows use it just fine. The biggest issue with it is only one can drink at a time. Mirafounts have 2 to 4 nose holes . Our cattle watched the horses use it and that was all it took. Easy. If you see them eating snow I would guess that they are not using it like they should. |
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Regular
Posts: 69
| Thank you very much for the replies!!
This is a round 10" diameter bowl- like a dog bowl. It sits by myself side a loafing shed, but is encased in concrete.
Definitely only one can drink at a time...it is SO not cattle friendly! |
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