Old Water Tanks Make Intensive Grazing System Work

Old Water Tanks Make Intensive Grazing System Work LIVESTOCK Beef 19-2-33 A pair of 800-gal. steel tanks, salvaged from a water treatment plant, saved Ohio farmer Dave Dailey the expense of installing underground concrete tanks to supply water to cattle on pasture. Dailey keeps two herds of Holstein re-placement heifers - 55 cattle in each herd - on an intensive grazing system where cattle are regularly rotated between 70 by 130-ft. pastures. Water is pumped from a well through black plastic pipe to the above-ground tanks. From the tanks it gravity flows through plastic pipe to a "push pump", powered by an electric motor, that delivers the water to 40-gal. "watering tanks". Dailey moves each herd to a new pasture every day and uses a 4-wheel ATV to move the portable watering tanks with them. "Taking water to cattle instead of making cattle come to water is a more efficient way of grazing. There's always plenty of water available to the cattle during the day because the tanks automatically fill up overnight. There's a float valve on top of each stationary tank so that when it gets full, the well stops pumping. A timer automatically shuts off the pump if the well runs out of water. As the well fills back up, the pump starts filling the tanks again." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Dave Dailey, Dailey Fencing and Supply, 5385 Edgemore Rd., Adamsville, Ohio 43802 (ph 614 79676531).

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