CLEARWATER COUNTY, Alta. – More livestock producers are installing pasture pipelines to deliver water to their animals, and that has some worried about how exposed pipes could affect consumption.
“The water is so warm they were concerned it was affecting the cattle and their water consumption,” said Ken Williamson, water specialist with Alberta Agriculture.
There is little research on water temperature for livestock, so this summer Williamson worked with rancher Mike Skeels of Rocky Mountain House, Alta., to measure water temperature in above ground and buried pipelines.
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Skeels runs an intensive rotational grazing program and has a pipeline watering system that draws well water for his cows.
His family has an artesian well that pumps between 500 and 700 gallons per minute. He hooked into the well and installed about 3,000 metres of water line for his cattle.
The pipes were above ground but within a year the grass grew over the lines and provided shade. The experiment offered the cows a choice.
Two 100-gallon troughs were set up side by side. An above ground pipe fed one trough. The other received water from pipes buried about one metre down.
Water meters and a data collection log were installed on the lines and troughs to record water consumption and temperature every 15 minutes.
Thermometers measured air temperature.
Williamson is analyzing data to see how much and how often the animals drank during 20 days under variable conditions. But he already knows they preferred cool water.
Data from Aug. 18 showed the ambient air temperature was 24.6 C, a typical summer day for west-central Alberta.
On that day, water temperature in the trough fed by above ground pipes peaked at 32 C, while the other peaked at 18 C. At one point, water in the above ground pipe reached 40 C.
“When the temperature got above 30 C, they quit drinking from that trough and drank all the water from the cool water trough,” said Williamson.
The data also told researchers that on that particular day, 50 cow-calf pairs, two dry cows and two bulls drank 505 gallons. Average consumption per mature animal was 9.4 gallons per day. The animals drank 350 gallons from the cool trough and the remainder from the warm tank.
Skeels watched the cows the next day and noticed they returned to the cool water tank.
In west-central Alberta, grass quickly grows over pipes and provides shade. However, in the short grass country farther to the south, pipes on the ground may remain exposed and cooling is more difficult.
“Some people have one mile of pipe and no chance of cooling on a sunny day,” Williamson said.
Alberta Agriculture has pipeline-plowing machines available to bury pipe. Through the government water program, rebates of up to one third of the costs of a new system are available.
