Hi I'm Mike, according to Leonardo da Vinci water is the driving force of all nature and
at the same time it's the driving force of the ranch, without it we have no animals
and no crops.
Nothing.
Join me as we take a look at the cool refreshing side of the ranch with water, on our Wyoming
life.
Life is simple, just add water.
On the ranch water is everything.
Cattle can survive for as long as sixty days with little or no food, but only seven days
without water, and it's even shorter in the hot summer months.
In any given mammal 60% of their body weight is made up in water, which constantly has
to be replenished and it's no different in cows.
A growing animal or a lactating cow needs two gallons of water per 100 pounds of body
weight.
A nonlactating cow or bull needs one gallon of water per 100 pounds of body weight.
So for an example, a cow with a calf will need close to 24 gallons of water per day
for themselves and another 5 to 10 gallons for their calf daily.
That's a lot of water.
On the ranch we consider our water consumption for animals to be about 5500 gallons per day
during the summer months.
The average bathtub holds about 40 gallons of water, so in one day in July or August,
the cows here on the ranch would drink almost 140 bathtubs full of water.
That's if you let them in your bathroom, which luckily, we don't have to.
Spread out all over the ranch are a number of water supplies for the cows.
From stock tanks to reservoirs to creek bottoms, but none of these are an endless supply.
Like everything on the ranch, control and management are required.
Just like managing the grasslands the cattle graze you have to oversee the water they drink.
It's a never-ending job because losing control of one resource could set the ranch into a
downward spiral that could end up being devastating.
Under the ground and maybe under you right now, is water, in underground aquifers.
These aquifers can found anywhere from a few feet to up to 30,000 feet deep.
Some come up through the ground naturally in natural springs but for a majority of the
water around here you have to drill.
Drilling a new water well will cost you about $35 per foot and there isn't really a guarantee
of how deep you will have to drill.
We have 2 wells on the ranch that are only about 35 feet deep, others that are about
300 and a deep well that is drilled to 680 feet.
Even though they are within miles of each other the depths differ greatly and the reason
behind that is the water table.
The water table is the top level of water found underground in the cracks and spaces
in soil, sand and rock.
It is stored in and moves slowly through geologic formations of soil, sand and rocks called
aquifers.
Ground water fills these aquifers by soaking into the ground from rain and snow and is
a renewable resource , as long as you have rain and snow, which there is no guarantee
of in these parts.
Run off from rain and melting snow can also fill reservoirs but will eventually soak back
into the ground unless the bottom of the pond or reservoir is below the water table.
Like every resource here on the ranch, renewable or not, water is very valuable and requires
supervision and water management starts right here at the hydrant.
We have 6 water wells spread across the ranch, each producing water that animals drink.
Hydrants are normally used to fill stock tanks.
Our average stock tank measures 10 feet around and 2 feet deep, each holding about 1000 gallons
of water.
Each pasture the cattle graze has at least one stock tank in it.
Cattle will generally only travel about a mile from any given water source, so our goal
on the ranch is to make sure that water is available in strategic locations throughout
pastures.
This ensures equal and even grazing of the grassland and in some cases, we will even
move water tanks and fill them with the fire truck to move cattle to better grazing areas.
All summer long it is important to make sure that stock tanks are always full and that's
where floats come into play.
A float is hooked up to a water hydrant and in turn attached to a stock tank.
The float regulates the water flowing into the tank and when the water is full it will
shut off the flow of water, keeping the tank full while at the same time, keeping it from
overflowing.
They work great, in the summer, but as the temperature falls and eventually lands below
zero they will freeze and become useless.
Managing water in the summer and water in the winter can be as different as night and
day.
During the summer we utilize windmills rather than electric wells to pump water to the ranch
animals.
These windmills are old and require constant maintenance and upkeep to keep them running
efficiently.
During the winter the upkeep on an old fashioned windmill can become overwhelming due to high
winds and freezing temperatures.
So in the winter the windmills are shut down, floats are disconnected and all watering is
done by hand.
Filling each tank and making sure they don't overflow and make a huge mess.
A stock tank that overflows actually becomes a hazard to cattle as the water will sit on
the frozen ground, and then eventually freeze itself creating a sheet of ice that cows can
slip and fall on.
During winter all the cows and other livestock is kept pretty close to home, mostly for easy
feeding but also for easy watering.
Because we use electric water wells in the winter having all the stock tanks near the
main ranch saves time and money.
Animals are also separated during this time of year.
Cows in one pasture, bulls in another, heifers off by themselves and steers and horses in
their own corrals as well.
All these separated living conditions require their own water and everyday we check and
fill 5 different stock tanks, one or two for each group.
Another addition to the tanks in the winter are stock tank heaters.
1500 watt electric heaters that either float or sit in the water to keep it from freezing,
until the temperature gets too low.
In larger tanks even the heaters cant keep up and a tool that will will bring with us
everyday will be a hatchet to break ice so the animals can get in.
A new challenge this year is Erin's winter gardens.
This is our first year growing in the winter and almost all of the irrigation for gardens
runs above ground.
Which means that getting water to the gardens through our normal irrigation system is impossible
in the winter due to freezing.
The only way to combat this is to use a portable water tank and fill it and take it to the
garden when she needs to water, then using a small pump she can apply water to her plants.
Water on the ranch is always a challenge, and just when you think things are going fine
that's when you come out and find a broken water line.
Never and easy fix but a lot easier to fix when your fingers aren't wet and frozen.
This is the water line to the chickenhouse and this morning after a cold night that got
down into the teens, I found that my electric heat tape that I usually count on to keep
the line from freezing had failed.
The big problem with broken water lines is that you never know that they are broken until
they thaw and by then you have a mess to fix.
But after a quick trip to town for parts its just a matter of fixing the broken section
of pipe.
Then replacing the defective heat tape and hoping that it holds out.
Every rancher I know is part vet, part environmentalist, part plumber and part crazy, it's a life
that you either love or you hate but in the end its all about being here next year and
the year after that and hopefully passing something down to our kids that is worth having,
loving and respecting.
Water is everywhere, and without it this would be straight whiskey and like a good whiskey,
water shouldn't be taken for granted.
I'm going to sit here and hydrate myself.
If you'd like to join the herd and become a ranch hand yourself, make sure you click
that subscribe button and join us on a journey through hard work, dedication and sometimes
disappointment but when the day is done, we can all look back and say that there are no
limits to what we can achieve.
Quick side note, thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday on Facebook and Instagram
this week.
It was a little overwhelming and a whole lot humbling but because I couldn't reply to
everyone, I just want to say thank you.
Have a great week and thanks for joining us in our Wyoming life.
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