Daily Chores

Every day, two tanks. :>)

Allan

Mine drink it so fast,I haven't had that problem.

As kids, our tank was a pond. We chopped the hole too big one day and had to fish one animal out of it. WE cut a shallow channel in the ice and had a few suckers swimming on top of the ice as well. SDE

That is where we got the ice for our homemade ice cream when I was a kid.

A hole twice as deep as the frost line, a piece of culvert to the bottom, surrounded by 4" of blue foam insulation from frost line up and a water circulating bubbler in the bottom might just work to keep open water. Jim
Bubbler system

(quoted from post at 14:10:20 01/04/15) Every day, two tanks. :&gt

Allan

<img src="http://i57.tinypic.com/2d1664m.jpg">

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Ruined a few axe handles chopping holes in the Ponca creek growing up...worst part was when you chopped and chopped and all you got was sand!

I would consider covering 75% of the top of the tank if possible. At least there would be a lot less chopping. If your tank is float controlled for automatic water refill you shouldn't need near the whole tank for the herd to drink. An automatic fountain with a couple holes 1 x 2' should handle 150 cows. I don't have a clue how many you have. There are a lot of gimmicks out there including using a propane bubbler to keep the water stirred up. If you move enough water and reduce the heat loss off of the top and around the sides you don't need a lot of heat. There is an option for automatic fountains called "constant flow" where they use a brass petcock like a radiator drain to flow enough thru the unit to prevent freezeup, but you need to provide a drain away from the area and be willing to waste some water. A well insulated plastic fountain with floating closures and enough cattle to consume enough water would probably work well for you.
Sorry for being so wordy. I know you are a smart enough fellow to find something better than an ax to provide for your cows. You Could also be working on tractors or making music and surfing the net to make better use of your time.
Roy

I have heaters in every stock tank. That works fine unless you have a steer like #47. He likes to take the heater out and throw it on the ground. I zip tied the heater to the tank so his next trick was to unplug it. I tied it to the fence today to see if that helps. If all else fails I will wait him out. He goes to slaughter February 1st. He's been a deal since he was born. I honestly think I have less trouble with all of the hogs than he causes on a daily basis. He can stir anyone up. I should have named him Eddie Haskell.

So far the automatic waterer from the pond dam has stayed thawed. I can't remember whether they are supposed to be frost free, but there are 60 head drinking from it so it should be. I don't need that thing freezing the float and draining the pond.

When it's 20 below over night there's not much you can do. I've found that all you do if you don't clear it all off is make it run over then you have to wear ice skates to break it open.

We had a tank like that with a jacket filled with sawdust about a foot thick. Then the tank was covered except for one end that had a door to open up . Also had a wood fired stove to heat the water that had to be fired up every cold morning. I think the cows drank more water when it was warm too. Can't remember chopping ice.

I had to take sludge hammer to the ones in the barn a few times. 6 plus inch "roof" and a 6 plus inch ring around the sides. With the weather/wind right can go from clear to that tight overnight even freezing while filling. I know its bad when I hit with the hammer for 1/2 hour and have a small(maybe ft. round inch deep) chunk, then its time to get the spitting wedge and blacksmith hammer(or heavy wedged bar) for another 1/2 hoping I don't fall into the water that is left.

Get a tank about half that size and a heater. Or run some underground pipe and waterers next spring. You gotta spend money to make maoney and it's tax deductible.

I don't know if they still make them, but after trying every type made at the time, the best water heater we ever had was a large submerisable metal box that burned wood. If it got real cold, we filled it with wood in late afternoon and let it burn all night. Otherwise, we simply built a fire early in the morning and it didn't take long to melt the ice.

One thing about winter - gives you plenty of extra chores to do. I ran an underground line from a spring on my back hill, then piped the overflow underground to my pond. Works well except for making the line from the spring too small - when it gets real cold, it will still ice over. Going to replace it with a bigger supply line in the spring.
Pete