01/30/09 No more ice

A good drink of water for livestock is just as important in winter as it is in summer. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be back after this quick break to tell you about our ranch's experience with winter water. Water is important anytime of year for livestock, but sometimes it doesn't seem quite so essential in winter months. Well, I think it is a prominent part of most winter-feeding situations for range cows. Many years ago my dad and granddad wintered the cows mainly on dry land wheat straw with snow as their main source of water. As the economics of cattle production changed the herd was moved to a lower elevation canyon on the ranch where more nutritious hay could be hauled to the cows. This canyon had a small creek running where the cows were wintered, but that stream froze over most years. That meant chopping ice to make drinking holes, which is not the most pleasant way to spend part of your winter day. Mom remembers riding the horses to the river once a day for a drink the year the creek froze solid. Two major floods totally destroyed the existing streambed and the water stopped flowing in winter months. Dad decided to try to find the missing creek and had a water witch locate the best place to dig. In those years dig meant hand dig. Dad had dug about six feet when water flooded the hole and ran out down the canyon. Dad didn't hit the main creek, he found something totally different  that water never freezes and we have cows that always top off their daily feed with plenty of water. I'm Jeff Keane.