Frozen troughs

[bravheart]

How's everyone managing in this cold spell to get water to the stock? Got a couple of troughs not running here but thought I might share this tip.







Turn the flow right down and reduce the capacity of the trough. It seems to be working here anyway the water is dribbling in almost 24 hours a day and not freezing so have had little trouble in the main shed and the cattle don't seem thirsty.

Hope that might help some because it's soul destroying and time wasting thawing pipes or hauling water to the stock.

 

[M-J-G]

That's what I generally do, I have a stop walve on all troughs, so I shut it down to a dribble and if outdoors I tie the ball down.

 

[Paddington]

Breaking several cms of ice on troughs this morning using a hammer and cold chisel, my fingers were getting numb and the hammer ended up at the bottom of the trough. Up to my elbows in icy water, I wondered how those arctic swimmers manage ?

 

[Welderloon]

My OM used to throw a lump of rock salt in the water trough & a plastic ball from a ball cock or a cheapo kids one from the tat shop when hard frost was forecast....................there was always some nosey beast would stand & lick or nose the ball about preventing the ice forming- they were used to a liquid ball feeder though whether that made a difference ?.

 

[BAF]

They eat frost don't they?







I'm joking before anyone gets too emotional. Sharp spade smashing through the ice today on the sheep troughs. Got bloody cold here last night. Down to -10. Looking after the neighbours dry cows for a month whilst he's gone home to New Zealand and I was carting water out of his Kitchen this morning and this afternoon because the pipes have frozen.

 

[Nearly]

IBC with a 2" hose on filling half 200 litre drums for smaller pens.
Water bowls in cow shed just have 18" of water pipe above the ground. One kettle per bowl is usually enough.

 

[Dry Rot]

Reading another thread on here got me doing some research into molasses. Apparently it has a very low freezing point and is sometimes added to water to stop it freezing.

No water rates here (yet) so I have "over flow" pipes fitted to all water troughs. The pipes lead to the nearest ditch and can be switched on or off by lowering or raising the height. Though the last couple of days leaving them to trickle meant they were all frozen solid! Kettles of boiling water got a couple of essential ones working though and I've left them flowing. Not as if there's actually a water shortage up here at the moment!.

 

[Gulli]

They eat frost don't they?







I'm joking before anyone gets too emotional. Sharp spade smashing through the ice today on the sheep troughs. Got bloody cold here last night. Down to -10. Looking after the neighbours dry cows for a month whilst he's gone home to New Zealand and I was carting water out of his Kitchen this morning and this afternoon because the pipes have frozen.

My parents have just gone to NZ for Christmas, last time they went was 2010. Hoping we don't have a repeat of that winter!

 

[Longlowdog]

I got sick of defrosting with hot water at minus 13 and went to Screwfix for a blowtorch! I learned quite quickly to keep it a good way from the blue alky after watching oxidised old pipe turn glossy in a couple of seconds.

 

[waterboot]

touch wood , pushing my luck a bit , but been quite straight forward so far....managed to keep on top of water job so far, put out extra tank on first hard frost, go straight to carting water to them, fill both up, smash top ice up, pull out bigger ice slabs out so it takes longer to freeze over again, then hopefully they've have enough 2-3 days , breaking top out daily letting them drink out as low as possible before they're out of water, need filling again...

 

[Sir loin]

IBC with a 2" hose on filling half 200 litre drums for smaller pens.
Water bowls in cow shed just have 18" of water pipe above the ground. One kettle per bowl is usually enough.

gripe muck around pipes also helps

 

[Welshram]

gripe muck around pipes also helps

My grandfather used to put a piece of ply over the top of the the water troughs the stop cock end and go dig a muck grab full of hot muck out of the heap and tip it on top covering the hole half of the trough throw a sheet over it and it wouldn’t freeze again a pain to clean up after the frost had gone but you didn’t have to unfreeze water every day

 

[Suffolk Serf]

Got over a hundred troughs frozen here. We just accept that water count be flowing and run round with a bowser, which is a bit tedious but the only focus is on making sure that there is enough of one supply to fill the bowser up and that the bowser outlet doesn't freeze. It will all be over on Sunday.
The bowstring job is shared around all four of us so that nobody gets fed up with it.

 

[onthehoof]

Got a drip on ball valve so still running

 

[TheRanger]

Am I likely to get insulated blue alkathene pipe defrosted today if it's about 3 degrees above zero for 6 hours?

Lots of pipes running along shed roofs and insulated, so sadly not in the sunlight, and not easy to get up and remove the insulation.

 

[Hilly]

Am I likely to get insulated blue alkathene pipe defrosted today if it's about 3 degrees above zero for 6 hours?

Lots of pipes running along shed roofs and insulated, so sadly not in the sunlight, and not easy to get up and remove the insulation.

Can you take the end off ? Some times the presure can fire the ice out if they warm a little bit .

 

[TheRanger]

Can you take the end off ? Some times the presure can fire the ice out if they warm a little bit .

There’s dozens going different directions, will try that with some of the shorter runs later on this afternoon. Thankfully the milkers pipes are all underground so easy to defrost just the troughs. Just had the 300 youngstock to water for 5 days in a row now!

 

[Dry Rot]

Water trough running OK here. 15C below? I have an over flow piped to the nearest ditch. Flow can be adjusted by raising or lowering the pipe. But we pay a connection fee, water is not metered and there is no shortage. I just leaving it running during freezing conditions.

 

[ringi]

It normal for ground two or three feet down to remain at between 10c and 15c over winter. So if water is flowing var pipes at the correct depth it will be well above freezing where the pipe leaves the ground.

 

[Courier]

Watering can full of hot water (no rose on) let’s you direct some heat where you need it - surprising how effective it can be.
And if you are using a hose blow the air out after use.
I used to have electric heating cables in the parlour pit floor - that was a good place to store a hosepipe overnight and keep it supple.