How to Prevent Frozen Watering Bowls

Dealing with frozen watering bowls is a common issue that livestock producers and feedlot workers face every winter. Freeze-ups can happen unexpectedly due to the extreme cold and undetected issues with winter watering systems.

When the problem is caught early, you can typically get your water system up and running again quickly. However, the longer the problem goes unnoticed, the more stress it puts on you and your livestock.

For producers, major freeze-ups can result in:

• Hours of labour trying to thaw out the watering bowl and get the system running again.
• Thousands of dollars in repairs and replacement parts.
• The need to replace the entire watering system.

Frequent freeze-ups can also have long-term effects on livestock, which can impact your herd’s overall health and the profitability of your operation. Common problems include:

• Decrease in gains due to reduced water and feed intake.
• An increase in animal stress caused by crowding around water sources.
• Higher susceptibility to injury and illness.

Frequent inspections of watering bowls during the winter are key to preventing long-term water outages for your livestock, but some days, it can feel like a never-ending job. Not to mention, when you are busier than normal, it’s easy to miss the early signs of freezing.

One major setback to relying on physical inspections is that you don’t know what’s happening at your watering bowls in between checks. As you know, things can go wrong when you least expect them, and if you're not there to catch the problem right away, things can escalate quite quickly.

A More Efficient Way to Check Watering Bowls

With an increase in workload and a decrease in labourers, the livestock industry has been long overdue for a more efficient method for preventing frozen watering bowls. That’s why we created the HerdHand Temperature Monitor.

The HerdHand allows producers to:

• Monitor the temperature of the water and the internal compartment of their watering bowls from their phone.
• Receive real-time text message alerts when the temperature starts to drop, before freezing occurs.
• Set custom high and low alert set-points, so you receive alerts when it matters most.
• Receive alerts when your water system loses power.

With the HerdHand Temperature Monitor, you can protect your watering bowls from major freeze-ups and prevent long-term water outages for your livestock. This means you can spend less time worrying about your livestock’s water so you can focus more on other important jobs on your operation.

Want to use the HerdHand Temperature Monitor on your operation? Contact us today for more information and a free quote!