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water trough insulation

V

vscummins

Well-known Member
Tried making a natural insulation for my trough works pretty good so far .
a177581.jpg
 
Stick an old tire in it upright, so it won't damage the trough if it freezes. Ice compresses the tire and not the trough.
 
I hope it works out for you.
We had a 55 gal drum cut open on each end and buried into the ground where a spring was located. It was on the back of the farm where our cattle spend the summer. They drank their water from the drum. One time they where all bawling as to tell us something was wrong. We went back there to inspect and found a calf had got knocked head first into the drum and drowned. He was unable to get out. As a result the others were unable to drink. We redid it so that didn't happen again.
 
You need to put something across the top to keep any calves or colts from getting knocked into the top of the tub up side down. They will not be able to get out. I have had full size cows get knocked into feed troughs that way. What you have right now is dangerous to smaller cattle.

As for the trough not freezing. It will work for a while but the lose dirt will not insulate it very well if you get cold weather for very long.

What I have seen done that works well and costs little, is to put a smaller trough like yours inside a older larger trough. Then fill the gap between the two with insulation. Then seal the top of the gap so water does not get the insulation wet.

Your idea will work if you do not get very cold but you need to put something on the top to keep some animal from falling into it. Also a ground level tank will get manure in it.

I think I saw a guy built a square box out of treated wood and put a trough like you did in it with it insulated by dirt.
 

I have heard the old timers would put horse manure around a cattle tank. Composting horse manure is supposed to heat well.
 
It's funny you mention the smaller trough inside the larger one because when i went to fill it up the first time I descoverd it had a leak in the bottom of the trough so I went to town and bought a 75 gallon trough and stuck inside this one I didn't have any real insulation so I just used straw and dirt . So far just had a 1 or 2 inch layer of I'ce to break and it was pretty cold last day or so I don't think it'll be a match for 30 below zero we sometimes get but hopefully it will work until I get some electric heat to it. As far as stock goes this is just my horse corral to hold my horse that I ride during the week to check Cows no cows or calves will be in the corral it seems like calves love to find there way into canals and drown around here never got one in a trough though.
 
Calves seem to like to find things to drown in all right. had a spring on one of the places I was renting and it was a long fall from the spring to the corral just had a 5/8 inch plastic pipe that ran on top of the ground to the water tank which I made out of a five gallon hydraulic oil bucket I cut in half set in a tire worked really well .
 
The worse one I ever had to work with was an old 300 gal galvanized water trough that a Neighbor lady was feeding her brood cows hay in. The trough was about six feet long and three feet wide an about 2 1/2 feet deep. She let the manure build up around the trough so it was only sticking about a foot out of the manure. One of the brood cows was standing parallel with the trough and another knocked it into the trough. The trough edge tripped it and the cow fell into the trough perfectly upside down. The fun part was this was in side a barn under the hay mow. The hay loft floor was only about 7 feet tall. So you add some manure you have even less head room.

We had to take a block and tackle and lift the cow out of the trough. The cow was alright afterwards. I then bolted steel cross pieces across the top to make it into sections where the cows could still reach the hay but could not fall into the trough.
 
I bet that was a good time getting her out I've never had a cow or calf get in a trough thankfully . Had calves get in the canal or cow get upside down in a canal
 
We used a tank inside a insulated plywood box. For insulation we used the blue 2 in. thick stuff from HD. 2 years ago I put a stick-on oil pan heater, that's hooked to a timer. For most temps it works real good on timer. When the temp goes below 10 just switch timer to 'full on'. 3rd day between -10 and +10 have used big tank heater. Oil pan heater @ 130 watts and big heater @ 1500 watts. Guess which I prefer ~grinz~
 
I have taken to putting a 2X6 in the water tank.Letting it float but long enough one end sticks out. Haven't had anything drown in tank since.
 
it was 5 degrees here last night and had 4 INCH layer of ice on the trough so it seenms to be working pretty good the nieghbors trough was froze completely froze
 
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