Plumbers in Paradise, Texas

The numbers that matter to animals

A standard household test reports hardness and bacteria and tells you very little about whether stock will thrive on the water. The figures that matter here are different ones.

Total dissolved solids. The headline figure for stock water. Low is unremarkable, moderate is usually fine, and high enough will suppress intake, and animals that drink less eat less.

Sulphates. The one that catches people out. Sulphate-heavy water tastes foul to animals long before it reaches a level anyone would call unsafe, and it causes scouring and refusal. It is also common in shallow groundwater in this part of the state.

Nitrates. Worth knowing about wherever there is fertiliser, a feedlot upstream or an old pen near the well, and more serious for young animals than for mature ones.

Iron, manganese and hardness. Largely nuisance rather than health, and they matter because they foul pipework, block float valves and stain everything, which is a maintenance cost rather than an animal one.

Ask the laboratory for a livestock panel rather than a domestic one. It is a different set of parameters and it usually costs about the same.

The trough is half the problem

Water can arrive perfectly good and be unpalatable by the time an animal reaches it. An open trough in a Texas summer grows algae within days, warms to a temperature nothing wants to drink, and collects feed, droppings and dust.

Animals avoid dirty water and then drink less, which shows up as condition rather than as a complaint. Cleaning on a schedule does more for intake than most water treatment does.

Shade over a trough, a float that actually shuts off, and a drain plug that makes cleaning a two minute job rather than a bailing exercise are the three practical improvements. The drain plug is the one people skip and then never clean the trough.

Flow matters too: a trough refilling slowly means the last animals through get warm, stirred-up water, and a float sized for the herd rather than for the plumber's convenience is worth specifying.

Fixing it, and how we work

Treatment for stock water is a different calculation from household treatment, because the volumes are large and the economics rarely justify treating everything. Where sulphates or dissolved solids are the problem, the usual answers are blending with a better source, using a different well or zone, or hauling for the worst of a dry spell.

Where the problem is iron and fouling, filtration at the point where the line leaves for the paddocks protects the float valves and the pipework, which is usually the actual complaint.

Keep the house and the stock supply distinct where the quality differs, and protect the potable side at every point a hose or a trough could connect to it.

We test, interpret against stock rather than household standards, and set up supply, storage and troughs that suit the herd. Paradise, Boyd, Bridgeport and Chico are all within our area.