Cattle don't grow in streams
Published: 2012
Location: South Carolina
Morris Warner: We were interested in getting the cattle out of the streams and putting in alternate water sources and allowing the owner to have a better opportunity to manage the pastures and forages on the farm. There are several advantages to having a clean water source available to the cattle. One, it gets them out of the mud, so you have less problems with foot rot and other diseases that are caused by drinking out of poor water sources. It also allows the owner an opportunity to manage where the water is available and by managing where the water is available, you manage where the cattle will be. By having better forage management, they are going to get better growth rates on the cattle, and that turns into dollars.
Carol Hendrix: Having water directly available in the pasture gives us the opportunity to better use our forage. We split our pastures up and we have more ground that we can carry. The cows are not having to move so far, they better graze the pastures, more evenly graze. Whereas, when we did not have water, they tend in the summertime to stay towards the creeks. By splitting all our pastures up and having water in every pasture, it gives us the opportunity to use our entire acreage. Water is the most important thing. If you have not got good, clean water, you lose all the conversion with your feeds and your pasture utilization. And water is a very vital thing to your cattle operation, probably the most important thing you will deal with on your farm.
