How To Reduce Water Usage for Livestock on Your Farm
If you’re a farmer dedicated to providing the best possible conditions for your livestock, you already know how important it is to make sure to care for every aspect of their needs. Day in and day out, your animals take top priority. Grooming, feeding, stimulation—there are so many aspects to caring for livestock animals that the average person often doesn’t think about.
As much as we wish we could give our animals every single thing they need to live their best lives, the realities of the world around us can make that job more difficult. Changing climates and supply line issues are commonplace nowadays, making it more difficult for livestock farmers to take care of their charges.
Water is often a key part of these issues. Of course, you want to always make sure your livestock have the water they need, but you can’t use up water irresponsibly because of how precious and expensive it is. Understanding how to reduce water usage for livestock on your farm is crucial because it can affect the animals’ long-term health and wellbeing. We’ll give you a few tips on reducing water consumption and look at why it’s such an important part of a livestock-focused farm.
Reduce Instances of Overfilling
Surprisingly, we can waste a lot of water just by not paying close enough attention to how we refill troughs and water tanks. Forgetting that you began filling up a water tub or trough and allowing it to overflow is a significant issue. Gallons upon gallons of water can go to waste just from a simple slip of the mind. If you’re filling up water, try to stay focused on the task and avoid letting other tasks distract you. Alternatively, livestock tank floats can help automatically prevent this issue.
Be Aware of Leaking Pipelines
Livestock farms don’t deal in small quantities of water. We’re talking about truly massive amounts of water used every single day. This means that a leaking water pipe is no small issue that can simply go ignored. Even the smallest hair-line crack in a pipeline can lead to multiple gallons of water lost every time you turn the water on. Stay up to date on pipeline maintenance, and treat any leak as a problem worth solving as soon as possible.
Reuse Wash Water Whenever Possible
Using water for washing down your facilities is just as important as the water that your livestock drinks. Thankfully, your wash water doesn’t need perfect filtration and purification to do its job. If you have a clean-in-place system, you can divert wash water into a separate storage tank for later use. This water obviously isn’t suitable for drinking, but storing wash water can still help save water that you’ll need for regular cleaning tasks.
Run Livestock Cooling Equipment on a Cycle
Another good way to reduce water usage on your livestock farm is to rethink the way that your livestock cooling equipment works. Many livestock farmers rely on cooling equipment to help their animals beat the heat, but you don’t need to keep these machines in constant use. Instead of constantly staying on, you can place cooling systems that use water on cycles, turning them on and off automatically. This keeps your livestock cool and hydrated without wasting water.
Pre-Clean Facilities Before Utilizing Water
Cleaning the floors and areas where livestock spend a lot of their time is an essential part of keeping them healthy, but you don’t need to rely only on water to clean them out. Many of these areas have material that will simply soak up excess water as you try to spray it away. If you manually clean these areas before you begin the wash cycle, you can end up using less water overall.
Protect Against Wasted Water From Contamination
If foreign bodies contaminate your water, it’s no longer suitable for your animals. Contaminated water is a reality that many farmers dread because of the devastating effects it can have on their livestock. Keeping a close eye on the purity of your water is the first step to ensuring that your livestock never have to rely on unclean and hazardous water.
Important: Never Restrict Livestock Water Access
Sometimes, water might be in short supply. For many different reasons, you might need to cut down on your water consumption. Should this happen to you, remember to never reduce your livestock’s access to water. Livestock need a lot of water to thrive, and restricting their access to it, even a little bit, can have serious adverse effects on their health and mental state.
The Importance of Limiting Water Usage
What is the point of all this thrifty water use? Why do we need to make sure that our livestock farms aren’t going overboard with consuming water? There are plenty of good reasons, but these are some of the most important.
Limited Water Supply
We’ve only got one planet, and even that only has so much fresh water that we can rely on. The livestock industry consumes a significant portion of global water usage. If livestock farmers want to be able to support their animals and businesses in the long run, we need to take steps now to preserve all the water that we can.
Ensuring Adequate Water Reserves
Preserving the water that you do have access to makes it easier to keep a store of it in case of emergencies. Being cut off from water for whatever reason can put you and your livestock in a state of panic. Conserving as much water as possible ensures you don’t have to worry about running out as quickly.
Increasing Supply, Reducing Costs
Water isn’t cheap, especially in the quantities that livestock farmers need. The more livestock farmers can reduce their water consumption, the more water there will be to go around. The higher that supply of water is, the less water companies can increase the price of water access to those who need it most.
Best Float Valves knows better than most how precious every drop of water is. Our products help you manage your water supply properly, making your work easier and creating a better environment for your livestock to live and thrive in.
