By Mary Hightower
With ponds starved by rainless skies and reduced to thick mire by 100-degree heat, some Arkansas ranchers are having to find other ways to keep their herds hydrated.
“Water has become a concern for many producers,” said Ronnie Horn, Washington County extension agent for the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture. “A number of stock ponds are extremely low, and some have dried up completely.
“Several producers have had to find alternative water sources such as rural or city water for their livestock,” Horn said.
In White County, Extension Staff Chair Brian Haller, said the water woes go beyond simply short supply.
“I’ve heard from many producers saying they have never seen their ponds so low. We have had producers having problems with cattle getting stuck in the mud trying to get to what water is left in the ponds,” he said.
“I have had a report of fatalities of cattle from drinking pond water that has blue-green algae,” Haller said. “Blue-green algae produces a toxin that is deadly to cattle.”
On a more positive note, Horn said, “some farmers are taking advantage of the low water levels to clean out existing ponds and deepen them to improve their water storage capacity for the future.”
For Dana Martin Stewart’s cattle operation, bringing additional water means roughly doubling what she pays to keep the water tanks filled in an already expensive year. The city water supplements what the farm draws from its wells.
Source : uada.edu