Floating “Shade Balls” Proven To Save Water

Floating “Shade Balls” Proven To Save Water LIVESTOCK Beef Mitzi and Dink Miller are saving water and keeping tumbleweeds out of cow tanks thanks to shade balls The 4-in black plastic balls cover the water surface preventing evaporation and keeping tanks open in cold weather “A guy on our Roosevelt County Soil and Water Conservation District SWCD board saw an article about them being used on big Los Angeles reservoirs to slow evaporation and wondered what they would do on stock tanks ” says Mitzi also a board member “We decided to try some ” About the only difference between “cow balls” which were featured in FARM SHOW nearly 20 years ago Vol 25 No 5 and today’s shade balls is water ballast Water in the balls keeps them floating on the surface even in windy conditions Cows are also less likely to knock them out of the tank They got them from a U S supplier The board tried them out on pairs of 7 1/2-ft and 20-ft dia stock tanks one with the balls and one without The demonstration was carried out for about 3 years “It was amazing the lack of evaporation with shade balls on a tank ” says Miller The 7 1/2-ft dia tank without the balls lost 10 767 gal over the test period while the tank with shade balls lost only 2 622 gal The 20-ft tank without balls lost 81 168 gal while the one with shade balls lost only 19 771 gal The shade ball tanks also had less ice formation That was good news for the Millers They ranch in eastern New Mexico where it can be hard for wells to supply cattle when a drought hits They were sold on the concept “We’ve seen similar results to the district ” says Miller “We had less evaporation where we had shade balls And when temperatures got down below freezing we had to break ice in tanks without shade balls but cattle were able to drink freely from tanks with them ” Other benefits Miller has seen include fewer birds around a shade ball-covered tank and less algae as less dirt and trash get in the tank They also reduce labor “We have tumbleweeds in the winter and when the wind starts blowing the tanks will fill up with them ” she says “They blow over the top of tanks with shade balls ” The only negative is the cost The Roosevelt County SWCD has become a dealer for the shade balls as a way to keep costs down The high-density polyethylene plastic balls cost about 60 cents each To get the recommended surface density an 8-ft dia tank requires about 500 shade balls A 25-ft dia tank would require more than 4 900 “They’re a hard sell to ranchers but they really ought to try them ” says Miller Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Dawn Privett Roosevelt Soil and Water Conservation District 050 NM Highway 467 Portales New Mexico 88130 ph 575 356-6629 ext 3019; rooseveltswcd@gmail com

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