Sunday, June 26, 2011

Caring For Animals With An Automatic Horse Waterer

By Mavis Roach


Time is a precious commodity on a farm or ranch. From dawn to dusk and sometimes longer everyone is busy with work of tending the land, the animals, or fences and machinery. Watering the cattle and horses takes a lot of time and energy. A popular way to ease this burden is to invest in an automatic horse waterer.

The old-fashioned way to give the livestock a drink is with buckets or troughs. But buckets are heavy and and troughs are open to spilling. The ground around the place for drinking can get muddy and messy to walk through. Any standing water is attractive to mosquitoes looking for a place to lay eggs. Algae and other types of bacteria can grow and fester in these environments as well.

An updating may be in order. A smaller drinking surface in a vessel mounted to the barn wall will suit the needs of some. A float on the surface, like one in a toilet bowl, will fall when the horses drink and more water will be introduced. There is no room for Rusty or Honey to dunk or splash about and mess up the area.

The biggest obstacle to keeping drinking water available for animals is ice in winter. On a cold morning it is a heavy but unavoidable chore to break up any ice that is preventing the horses from hydrating. Water flow is alright when animals are drinking, but at night freezing occurs while they are sleeping. There are different methods to solve this with an automatic horse waterer.

Heaters are often used to overcome this difficulty. The great majority of automatic watering machines have these. The best temperature for equine health is determined and the water is kept warm at that level. Owners have found an improvement in winter fitness for their animals as some pesky illnesses have diminished, like colic for example. Some people though are wary of electricity, and they choose a product that keeps water moving and sends the excess out. The movement prevents freezing.

But buckets and troughs had the advantage of letting owners know when their horses had stopped drinking. A disinclination to drink can be a sign of illness in livestock. For this concern, water consumption meters can be installed on almost all models to give owners and vets valuable information about animal health.

Banish the bucket to the back of the barn and stop fussing with the hose. Animal lovers can spend more time riding once they switch to an automatic horse waterer.




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