Self filling bowls, advice please...

[Danllan]

I've no experience of these, always having used troughs of various sizes and types. But I'm going to try changing part of my set up this year, so am intending to have a couple of separate pens for yearling and two-year-old beef steers, just half a dozen in each to see how it goes. A trough is over-kill and wouldn't fit with what / where they'll be, so drinkers / bowls of the type linked at bottom seem a better bet. Two questions:

1) Are these fine connected directly to the general water supply, or is a header tank advisable or what?

2) Experience tells me that the pressed ones are going to get trashed by anything bigger than a calf, anybody found otherwise or is it just best to go for the cast version?

Thanks in advance.

Self Fill Water Bowls | Water Bowls and Troughs | IAE Agriculture

 

[Pan mixer]

I have a couple of those sort of things in calving/isolation pens, they have been very successful.

I have built a frame round them to stop them being broken off by a heavy foot or a bang from barging.

One that is only a foot or so off the ground is often full of poo and needs cleaning a lot, another is 2 feet up and doesn't seem to suffer so much of that.

They are quite vulnerable to loader damage unless sited carefully (mine aren't)

Small numbers of cattle are fine on them but cattle often drink together.

You should feed them from a header tank as there is no 6 inch gap between fill and overflow.

I have gone for tip-over troughs in my newest shed, not quite as big as these, ironically they never seem to get dirty or need tipping over.

Tired of cleaning out water troughs? Then a tip-over drinker might be for you - Agriland.ie

For the majority of farmers, the housing period is in full swing as grass growth comes to a halt and ground conditions deteriorate.

www.agriland.ie

 

[Ffermer Bach]

I've no experience of these, always having used troughs of various sizes and types. But I'm going to try changing part of my set up this year, so am intending to have a couple of separate pens for yearling and two-year-old beef steers, just half a dozen in each to see how it goes. A trough is over-kill and wouldn't fit with what / where they'll be, so drinkers / bowls of the type linked at bottom seem a better bet. Two questions:

1) Are these fine connected directly to the general water supply, or is a header tank advisable or what?

2) Experience tells me that the pressed ones are going to get trashed by anything bigger than a calf, anybody found otherwise or is it just best to go for the cast version?

Thanks in advance.

Self Fill Water Bowls | Water Bowls and Troughs | IAE Agriculture

I have the pressed ones, and I have found them useless, the rubber seals soon start leaking and when the rubber is replaced soon leaks again, C & P sell the bowls, but not the seals either, bought seals off the internet but should have got a new nipple with them for the seals to seal against. So my issue is not with the bowls, but lack of easy access to the bits that wear!

 

[wdah/him]

we find the self fill bowls give less bother if fed from a header tank as our pressure is variable

 

[Northeastfarmer]

 

[Northeastfarmer]

We have both these types and have both been excellent

 

[adda]

we have these

 

[M-J-G]

I've sways found them to eventually give bother on a reasonable mains or high pressure supply

 

[Forever Fendt]

I have the green cast iron la Buvette ones and have been absolutely faultless ,they have a rubber bung in the bottom and a galvanised rump rail is available to stop animals rubbing on them

 

[johnspeehs]

Haven't saw them yet but a friend of mine is fitting nipple type drinkers that just have a small bowl below them. He is a top man at finishing cattle and he will have researched them to hell and back so they must work.

 

[Ffermer Bach]

how about theses? I think Bateman stuff is pretty good.

Swivel Water Troughs - LM Bateman

These troughs are held rigid in a panel allowing water to be drank from either side or can be shielded with a metal shroud to make the animals drink from a scrape passage. A strong robust trough with multiple uses.

lmbateman.co.uk

 

[Scotter]

We have these in our bull pens. Been in 5 years now. We made a frame and mounted them to the wall.

 

[adda]

We have these in our bull pens. Been in 5 years now. We made a frame and mounted them to the wall.

They are fisher ones

 

[Gerbert]

Suevia drinkers with a nipple here. You would have to pretty adventurous to break them. They have a feed on both top and bottom so you can pump water around to keep them from freezing.

 

[Danllan]

Seuvia drinkers with a nipple here. You would have to pretty adventurous to break them. They have a feed on both top and bottom so you can pump water around to keep them from freezing.

Is that Thomas Sowell in your avatar?

 

[Ukjay]

In reply to your question on the legalities etc (water regs bumf), unfortunately it is deemed fluid category 5, which means you 'should' and I say should as many may not adhere to the regs, use a break tank to supply from, and also give prior notice to the water authority before working on the system for non domestic situations.

Reason being, they fear that the drinkers can allow pathogens etc to enter the mains if there is works being carried out on the main system, thus presenting a risk to public health.

What you chose to do in reality is altogether different, as I see it is commong to JFDI a lot of the time

 

[Gerbert]

Is that Thomas Sowell in your avatar?

Indeed.

 

[Danllan]

Indeed.

A fine man with a keen intelligence and the rare gift of successfully explaining complicated concepts in relatively simple terms without being patronising; probably not as widely known as he should be.

 

[Muck Spreader]

I've got a number of La Buvette drinkers around. They have to be cast and well secured as the cows use them for scratching on. Also, if your water supply has a high pressure you need to fit a pressure reducing valve before the bowls. As for self-filling or a flap, I have an old Jersey cow who can flood the shed out with either type. On the self filling she just stands for hours flicking water out of it, on the flap ones she just stands their pressing her horn on the flap.

The demon at work!

 

[Danllan]

I've got a number of La Buvette drinkers around. They have to be cast and well secured as the cows use them for scratching on. Also, if your water supply has a high pressure you need to fit a pressure reducing valve before the bowls. As for self-filling or a flap, I have an old Jersey cow who can flood the shed out with either type. On the self filling she just stands for hours flicking water out of it, on the flap ones she just stands their pressing her horn on the flap.

The demon at work!

They do that; I have one girl who can open the swing-latch on hurdle and handling gates with her tongue. So now I have latches on both sides of most of them...