By Dr. John Yost
The last two summers have made it very clear how important water is to our beef cattle operations. The severe drought left many with dead pastures and compounded the problem with creeks and wells running dry, which required some producers to purchase and transport water for the herd. The lack of drinking water hasn’t been normal concern in our part of the world and historically we may have taken water availability for granted. I think that it is safe to say that even those of us in academia haven’t given livestock water consumption the level of attention that it deserves. Some of that is now changing as we develop new technologies that allow us to monitor individual water intake and can observe cattle behavior as it relates to water.
We know that proper water intake is critical to animal health and welfare. As a general guideline, beef cattle require about one gallon of water per 100 pounds of body weight. During the last trimester of gestation, cows water intake increases approximately 30 percent, and their estimated need is 2 gallons of water per 100 pounds. Additional factors such as dry matter intake, ambient temperature and humidity, animal size, production level, and water quality all influence daily consumption.
Cattle typically drink between two and five times per day. Each visit may last from one to four minutes, during which time they can consume approximately two gallons per minute. From these facts it is suggested that waterers be at least 18 inches high and allow 3.5 inches of linear drinking space per head. The waterer should have a refill rate of two gallons per minute for every animal that can drink at one time.
The biggest question is how much water we need to provide in relation to herd size, the location of the waterer, and if cattle behavior influences this decision. The standard recommendation has been that water sources should be located within 700 to 900 feet of the cattle. Research from the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil (Coimbra et al., 2012) showed that cattle drink more often and consume more water when the waterer is placed within the grazing paddock verses when it is placed in the corridor connecting grazing areas. When the waterer was within the grazing paddock the researchers did not observe a difference in behaviors, but when the waterer was in the corridor dominant cows were observed to drink more water than the subordinate animals.
Source : osu.edu