It’s time to think drinking troughs

Providing these animals with quality drinking wateris crucial if they are to meet their full production potential.

Water is the most important nutrient a dairy cow receives, why? Water intake has a direct impact on a cow’s ability to eat and digest food, an inadequate supply of water leads to lower food intake and ultimately reduced productivity from the herd.

The obvious starting point to the ‘drinking’ challenge on every farm is to check the condition of the water supply and troughs in place.

It’s a case of assessing the drinking requirements of the stock that will be turned out to grass and evaluate whether the drinking troughs that are available can meet these needs.

Completing this exercise is of particular importance on those farms where stock numbers have increased over recent times.

According to CAFRE, dairy cows require five litres of water for every litre of milk produced.

As about half of the herd’s daily water requirement is consumed after each milking, it is important to provide adequate trough capacity and water flow rates to meet demand. Any restriction in water supply will affect milk yield.

In practical terms, dairy farmers should provide enough trough space for 10% of the herd to drink at any one time and over 100mm of trough space per cow drinking at all stages of the production cycle, according to AHDB. In addition, troughs should be located across the grazing area to avoid access restriction.

Moore Concrete manufactures a range of high-quality precast water troughs, the use of which will allow livestock farmers to meet the drinking needs of all their animals in full.

Moore’s Keri McGivern commented:“Providing adequate water is a key determinant of performance for all stock. Making this a reality requires the availability of sufficient drinking troughs across the grazing platform and within livestock accommodation.

“Recent years have seen a significant increase in dairy herd size across Northern Ireland. However, this has not been matched with a similar scaling-up of the water supply available to these animals.

“The easiest way of achieving this is through an investment in additional drinking troughs.”

Moore Concrete manufactures a comprehensive range of quality concrete water troughs, varying in size from 15 gallon (68 ltrs) to 500 gallon (2270 ltrs). The range provides water troughs suitable for any size of beef or dairy cattle, with different designs creating solutions that are suitable for use in external or internal settings. In addition, the 40 gallon through to the 500 gallon drinkers also include a galvanised steel lid which is much lighter and easier to handle than a traditional concrete lid.

One of the core design features of the Moore drinker range is the rounded corners. This “bath-shaped” design notonly enhances the strength of the troughs, but also acts as an additional animal safety feature.

All Moore Concrete drinking troughs are easily drained, having a suitably sized rubber bung positioned in the side wall. The troughs are designed to be used with both conventional and fast flow ball cocks.

“We have a comprehensive network of agricultural merchants throughout the province stocking our range of water troughs.” added Keri McGivern

For further information, contact Moore Concrete on (028) 2565 2566 Ext 1 or www.moore-concrete.com.