Drinking Water Quality for Beef Cattle An Environment Friendly & Production Management Enhancement Technique

A simple yet potentially effective mechanism to modify animal behavior and improve land use has been setup as an applied research demonstration project. The summer water source for livestock on much of the western rangelands is supplied via earthen ponds, dugouts, and/or reservoirs, referred to as dam/pits. Observed drinking behavior of cattle at these dam/pits may cause shoreline vegetation degradation as the water level drops throughout the season. The decline in shoreline vegetation reduces the filtering effectiveness for these water sources and the cover for wildlife. Willms et al. showed yearling steer performance increased 23 % when supplied with an alternate water source rather than watering in a dugout. Our project objective was to answer these questions: Will cattle prefer to drink water from tanks or from dam/pits? Will the shoreline vegetation be affected by a dam/pit having a tank nearby (i.e., 50 to 150 feet away) or compared to a dam/pit with no tank? Are there any differences between tank and dam/pit water quality? To answer these questions one solar and two siphon systems were established. Data and observations show nearly an 80 % preference for tank water over dam/pit water when both sources are near