Don’t Forget About Livestock Water Needs in Winter

livestock-640While livestock may need less water in the winter, good, clean, uncontaminated water is still a basic need. If you own livestock, then the link below to a recent article is a must-read. 

The essence of the article, published in the Ohio State University’s OSU Extension Beef Cattle Letter, is that you need to have the water you are providing to your livestock tested by a professional lab to ensure that it is safe to drink. Some of the parameters it mentions to test for are Total dissolved solids or salinity, pH (acid or alkaline value), Nitrates, Sulfates, and Hardness.

It turns out that livestock needs to drink 7 pounds of water for every pound of dry matter they consume. During winter months, the cold weather leads to an increase in feed intake in order to generate body heat. If there isn’t a sufficient amount of water to drink, feed intake is less, resulting in decreased body condition, poor fetal growth, and lactation levels.

The bottom line is that you need to pay attention to the water you are providing to your livestock during the winter months to ensure they remain healthy.

Our ‘Bang-for-the-Buck’ Water Tests are perfect for testing water fed to livestock. You can read more about these tests at http://drinkingwaterspecialists.com/bang-buck-water-tests/

You can read the whole article, published by The Columbus Dispatch, Don’t forget about livestock water needs in winter

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