Mike, I am a H.S. Science teacher, and I am going to be showing this video to my Physical Science class - we're starting to look at the basic steps for experimental design, and you're doing a good job of showing us a great example of how its done in 'the real world'. I even made up a worksheet that follows your steps, the design, and the results from the first night of testing. Great video, keep up the good work.
Our best way to keep tanks open turned out to have *4 feet*. One particular horse learned how to lift ONE front foot and tap repeatedly until she found out just the right "hardness" necessary to break the ice..and never got the feathering on her leg wet! Definitely some draft blood in that girl, her legs had some pretty good feathering, and her head was definitely NOT "refined"...but one of THE best horses I've had the honour to have owned and known! Might not have been pretty, but wasn't a prettier or better jumper in our province! She'd size up a fence(construction didn't matter) then canter away from it, make a large circle in the field, take a bead on where she intended to jump and set forth, scared the bejesus out of me once, set a bead on a point where the place intended, the takeoff point was coming UP a hill(good 60 degrees gradient) putting her takeoff point at LEAST 12 feet back from the fence(4 feet high, and littered with nasty junk pile on the landing side) and the wee wench took off from that stupid point anyways, made it into what had to be a good 9' vertical jump and at least a 20 some foot spread to clear that junk, centered away as though it were a sunny day in the clover patch, I spent 45 minutes trying to catch her before she took it into her head to wander onto the road for further giggles.. and then put her into another pasture! This time with 6' fences. Figured THAT should at least keep her busy for long enough that I could figure out a "safe" solution for her near term housing that would let me sleep at night. Next thing I know, she's jumped back into her old pasture to be with her buddy. An older gelding, Olympic level jumper who has always been her"uncle". Inseperable. *Obviously more* than I'd realized. So, given there's not a fence on any property that can hold *him* if he really chooses, it's *into the barn with both of them*... kept them there for two weeks. Unless there was a human attached. Or on top of. THAT'S the worst part when you have an animal demonstrative of that caliber. *Insurance demands.* Coverage is dependent upon, "unless under human control" or its deemed null and void. ALL insurance. Including that of "if a car is driving down the road" and pretty horse jumps out in front, car either swerves to avoid, and goes into ditch, or doesn't and is wrecked because it hit pretty horse...horse's owner is liable for ALL DAMAGES! UNLESS HORSE'S OWNER WAS IN CARE AND CONTROL, OR VERIFIED out of commission, "by act of God" etc. 🙄😉🤦♀️ good luck with THAT one! Unless you've got an angel willing to come and swear on a stack of bibles, giving a wing feather as proof of realism...🙄🙄🙄💔 you're pretty much out of luck! And up Schitt's Creek! Without that proverbial paddle, let alone the boat!
A Kansas rancher taught us to let an ice cap form over the full tank then poke at foot wide drinking hole for the horses and cattle to drink from (I remove that ice). Each morning we check the hole but the animals usually are drinking frequently enough to keep it open. When we fill the tank we add water to just under the ice cap. This has been a great system just south of Kansas City.
Your Father-in-law would like a joke I used in teaching people in industry about change. A woman cut both end of the roast off and tossed then in trash. Her husband asked why, here response was " That is the way my mother always did it". That weekend his in-laws were over for dinner on Sunday. He asked his mother-in-law why she cut the ends of the roast off. Her response was the same as his wife, "That's the way my mother did it". About two weeks later they were visiting the wife's grandmother. He ask her why she cut the end of the roast off. She said, " Oh, that's easy. The pan was to small!". A side note, my design of experiments background kicked in and said You should have randomized the sequence of tanks to assure there bias based on location. LOL. Great video, I enjoyed it. Also remember to keep smiling even when it is below zero.
When I put my floating heater on a timer it burned out because the cattle drank the water level down leaving the float frozen in a layer of ice hanging above the water. Now i only use sinking heaters. Great Video!
Feel very comfortable watching these videos I'm not a farmer or rancher but my thought process seems to be in line with this guy. He just seems to be smarter than I. Is all. Luca
I realize here in Missouri we don't have the prolonged cold Wyoming does, however we do have extremely cold days and yet we've been successful in keeping our water tanks ice free. We do it by using 4ft in diameter by 4ft tall man hole casings. We add a 2ft extension to this because we bury the 4ft tall casing in the ground having only the 2ft extension above the ground. Only on the coldest of days are the tanks frozen over. But it's not thick ice. It tends to be thinner and the cows are still able to poke through it with no problem. We've got more water than we can use on our farm so many of our tanks run continuously. Just a little water movement makes a huge difference.
Mike, I am new to your You Tube channel and in the last two week have covered almost the whole two years of videos. I stumbled across your channel while looking for cattle ranching info, now I am hooked. Excellent content and insight into the cattle ranching business in every detail of the numerous tasks in your day to day life. Thanks for the honest look at what it takes to be a cattle rancher!!
There is a way to keep the stock waterers open, would be to construct a large compost pile having approximately 800 foot of black poly pipe used to move water. You will have the pile supplying the heat. The only downfall would be the volume used. Larger the pile, the longer it will last. There are videos on UA-cam about this.
Th bubbler couldn't keep a pail of water from freezing. The one that I mentioned that Northern Farmer uses in Alberta is a pond bubbler. It's a ceramic disk that rests on the bottom of a tank or pond. It is powered by compressed air from an outside pump. Good Luck on the experiments! Congratulations on two years young!
Great move, getting sponsored and all that! Once again, your presentation, performance of the task, and real results! Almost $5 a day adds up in a hurry!
Reflector - white glossy paint, on north side of tank. Sun hits, reflects back, hits water, melts ice. Also, insulate the tank with?? Maybe a floating (plastic) clear cover, with 1/3 cut ouut of it to allow animal to drink - other 2/3 would greatly reduce heat loss, create a greenhouse effect.
There are 300 comments so I have not read through them all to see if some one already mentioned it. My neighbor only has a solar powered well but no other power to his tank. To keep it from freezing up he uses an old 100 gal propane tank that he fills up with air from an air compressor on his truck. He then sets the value to bubble. This keeps a nice pocket that the cows can drink from. If he has it set right it will run for a few days. We were getting -20 (actual temp) last year and is still held that pocket open. And it only costs you time to fill it up and the price of the propane tank.
Your video was just suggested to me Jan 18 2020. An old passive nonelectric method is to (in warm weather) dig a dry well 4-5 feet deep. The diameter should be about 2 feet less than the diameter of the stock tank. A grate or cattle catcher is placed over the dry well to support the weight of the water. The ground seal should be air tight. Blocking is used the keep the stock tank from moving. That's it. The heat from the earth from five feet down (below the frost line) radiating up to heat the water will greatly extend the time of ice free water. It works here in north Idaho.
Ontario study says, and I find effective. I use old tires for water tanks and then put a light mat over itb The cattle can lift it up. The water stays thawed. It probably not work in Minnesota, but sure it would help the heater.
Experimenting is what I have done for the last two years. Good on you, sir. Solar is awesome in summer, not so much in winter which is why I have had to keep my batteries charged with a generator these days. Nice video Mike, thanks.
I live in norhern Alberta. If you get lost in the bush and need to sleep, what do you never do? NEVER sleep on the ground! You lose heat constantly from being in contact with the ground. Put a whole bunch of evergreen branches on the snow and like down on them. We get lots of snow in Alberta. I am planning on using an old metal bathtub as a watering trough. However, I will absolutely NOT put it directly on the ground. I will put 4"x4" boards underneath it. As soon as we get enough snow, I plan to use the snow blower or a shovel to "bury in in snow all around. I will cut a path to the long edge of each side of the bathtub so the cows can access it. In any case, I wonder if you couldn't save some heating cost by simply making a foundation for you water tubs. I could be make with 2x6's and insulated. Just a thought!
We use some oval shapped stock tanks for horses and we cover about half with a partial sheet of plywood with a hole large enough to run the heater cord through. Do it to keep the heater in the stock tank, horses were throwing it out, but I think it keeps the water warmer longer and allows the tank heater to stay off longer, might be wishful thinking. Might be an interesting modification on your heater with the timer on it.
Wow this is awesome guys! I've always struggled with water and heaters and keeping my tubs open all the time and saving money! Please keep doing this guys! I will share this with everyone I know!
I know this video is a year old but might be of interest to someone. You may have heard of this idea before. I haven't tried it but read about it years ago. You dig a hole 8ft deep and stand a good size culvert up in it. So you have an open air space in the culvert. You put you're stock tank over the culvert. The earth temperature is supposed to keep the tank from freezing. An idea would be for people who have shallow wells bored is to have the well company bore your hole while they are out boring your well. It's very rocky here in most places so would be difficult to try. All of our wells are also drilled not bored, but I have lived places where bored wells 30' to 50' were common. We mostly have freeze proof tanks feed from our ponds. They have a small opening with most of the tank buried into a berm. But I have one cement tank up by the barn I have to deal with. Usually just bust ice and remove it. I use a manure fork like you use for horse stalls to scoop the ice. Didn't like using a shovel.
I use a non floating heater that has a protective cage, and put it inside our covered double open end insulated winter tanks. Only time I have to chop ice is when it’s -60 with a 40+ mph wind. I’ve tried it with the floating kind, but it only heats the inside and not where the critters can drink.
I haven’t read all the comments so i dont know what everyone has said; i live in Southwest North Dakota and we use tire tanks with drink holes in them and it will have to get below zero before be have to remove ice from the drink hole and if you do have to remove ice it would be an inch at the most and in our corrals we use thermal-sink waterers they are energy free and it has to be way below zero before they get ice on them with cattle drinking out of them daily; bull-tuff tanks makes an insulated fiberglass lid for open top tire tanks you can put on in the winter or leave them on year round; we have tried bubblers and have never got one to work even tried it with solar; I agree with what you say about solar we have a solar well that works great but it is cost prohibitive to make solar work in our cold climate and short days in the winter
We have a 9ft tire tank with 1 drink hole in it that we are using to water 45 bred hfrs right now; i have that tank surrounded by dirt with a wood fence around it; and i have never had to chop ice in that tank in 10 years; if you set up a tire tank correctly and size it to the amount of cattle that will be drinking they will stay open in sub zero temps
At our farm we use to have three stock tanks to fill during the winter and we have switched to three ritche omni founts3 and it was the best thing that we have done on our farm. Before we got the ritche waterers we had to check the stock tanks two times a day and weight 20-30 mins in the cold to fill each tank and hope that you dont accidently overfill them. With three tanks to fill we would some times run the well low on water after running for a hour or more. With the ritche waters we have, they have a 10 gallon trough that is on a float and we only have a 525 watt heater compared to 1500 heaters. They also use ground heat also and if you think about it if they drink water out of the tank it is getting replaced with 50 degree water and with only 10 gallons it is easier to heat then 200 gallons tanks that they replaced.
Mike great job, I'm new to your UA-cam channel... I can only imagine how many Ranchers you are helping.. You have helped me understand how difficult being a rancher really is and hope you stay vigilant and enjoy knowing you are making a difference... God bless my friend....
Great video!! Owning a small ranch ,my wife and I are always looking for new ideas and ways to improve for both us and the animals .Cheers from northern BC Canada!!
Mike, we used to use propane as bubblers in ponds that were remote with no access to electricity. we would set a 20 pound propane tank with a regulator and a hose and a weight on the end of the hose, drop the hose in the pond and turn the valve and regulate the flow to a slow bubble. The bubbling action would bring warmer water from the bottom of the pond up to the surface and keep the pond clear of ice in that immediate area of the bubbles.
Are you saying you actually pumped the PROPANE into the ponds to make bubbles? Or was the propane what powered some other bubbler that you set in the pond?
LOVE math and science experiments like this!! In our area of the California Sierra most of us have solar for barns that have water tanks. Even in winter with snow on the ground as long as its a clear day the batteries store power.
Years ago I read an article about heating a water tank by placing a 6 ft. pipe under it vertically. Seemed to me that it worked pretty well. All I could find was the following: Folks around here use a heat well. Auger a hole as deep as possible in the ground and place the tank above. The ground will heat the air in the hole and it will rise up to heat the tank. Insulation around the tank helps, just don't insulate the bottom. I'm not sure how cold a climate this will work in by itself, but might be part of the solution.
I was thinking of placing a water carboy next to the rank and covering it with rock wool insulation batts andthen covering it with dirt (so cows don't eat the insulation) OR bury the water carboy underground with an electric heater, the water would stay warm enough not to freeze and pump the water into the feed tank during the day using a simple solar panel for energy and or wind turbine (how often does the wind no blow and sun not shine ?). Water would freeze at night on very cold nights in the exposed feed tank but if the water inlet is above the tank it would put fresh water on top of the ice for cows to drink. Maybe a BLACK feed tank would heat up during the day ??? Anyway I am assume you will deliver water to the insulated water carboy on a regular basis.
Happy 2nd Anniversary Mike and Erin. You've come a long ways since I found you guys and it's been an adventure. Now all aboard the 100k Subscriber Train.
Have you considered an insulated tank? We have a farm supply store here that sprays 2-3 inches of foam on the regular plastic tanks. If you could cut your heating costs in 1/2, it pays for itself over the winter. I have a small herd of Highlanders and I use old chest freezers from the dump. I think the big ones are around 225 gallons. I live in Alaska and we have long cold winters. I remove the lid and then install a plywood top encasing 2 inches of blue board. I cut that in half and install two 4 inch hinges and attached the one side down. Now I have a lid that I can open and close to seal off the tank. With the one side open, the opening is around 24 in x 36in. I was thinking that if it got really cold, like -30 to -40 I could close the lid at night and open it in the morning to try and keep my costs down even more. I installed a sinking 1000 watt heater way in the back so the bull cant snag the power cord with his horns. The temp has been averaging -20 at night all this week and I have not bothered to close the hatch. My water temps are running 40 degrees and I am guessing that the warmer water does not chill them down as much.
Mike just my thoughts I have switched to a thermostatic bung heater. Have cut costs by about a 1/16th do to heat rises. Just my thoughts and tests. Take it out each year and clean with vinegar and you can get four years out of it. Most heaters if not cleaned that I have used make it two to three if you are lucky. Great video
I know we down here in Alabama don't have any thing like your COLD temperatures. However I have had to keep a dog pen water supply free from ice 24-7, with zero power available. My solution was to bury a tall bucket so the bottom was well below the frost level. The natural circulation keep the water supply ice free all winter, the only power required was digging the hole.
It gets alot colder in Wyoming than oklahoma where we are but have you ever heard of putting 2 liter bottles in the tank, with alittle bit of sand? The wind blows them around just enough to break the surface and keep tanks from freezing, works good here but again not nearly as cold
Through trial and error I've found that the Ritchie ECO water two hole fountain works the best for me. After the first Wyoming winter it more than paid for itself. I was trying to heat 150 to 300 gal rubber made tubs a total of 5. I even wrapped them with insulation and a black tarp. The Ritchie water is not without its faults, the single hole ECO fountain is impossible to get into to wire if your not some contortionist, and the clothe rubber coated heat tape only last about one year before it shorts out and lights you up when your running the wire with your ohm meter. The bright side though is the heat tape from your local ACE ward ware store works great and is cheaper. The other thing I did was put split fuel hose on any edge of the tank that touches the wiring. In all if you install the water fountain as shown in their video it works great the other benefit to the RITCHIE ECO fountain is its made of a durable plastic petex material with rounded edges and thus the bulls don't have any sharp corners to scratch themselves on, be sure also to get the proper copper ground cord to place in the 6 inch concrete pad that you poor. All said and done they are well worth it your heating 1 to 2 gallons at any one time and it automatically refills. I even used two 2 hole fountains at one area just put in a "T" in your supply line and the number of animals that drink at anyone time is handled perfectly. I've even tried taking a 150 gal rubber made tube to my local spray on insulation dealer and had him spray 4in.on the tube and top. I then painted the whole tube and top a dull black, but the problem of having to fill with a hose still exists and the fact the cost of heating 150 gals of water and your dollars are floating right up in the air, (the open surface area and quantity of water that your heating just kills ya). Another benefit of the RITCHIE ECO fountain is the floating disc in the opening, it decreases the surface area of the water that's exposed and also the fact your only heating 2 gals at any one time. I hope my experience is of some benefit to someone.
I worked for a gentleman in SD many years ago who went around to construction sights and picked up bunches of scraps 2x4sand trimmed them to length then stood them up around the tank so they where touching then used a banding tool to secure them all together. It worked like an insulated tank. He said it saved a fortune. Just so you know there is a massive cold air mass leaving AK right now. I believe it is about 800 miles wide. I was just east of Fairbanks last week and saw some brutal cold temps.I hope it misses you.
It has been many years ago- I read a article about a Wyoming Rancher(if my memory serves me) Who had the issues of stock tanks freezing in the winter. He took a section of 12” culvert. I believe was 6 to 8 feet long. He dug a hole that deep. Placing the culvert on end. Then refilling with rocks and then backfilling and leveling. He then placed the stock tank back over the culvert. Using the earth’s thermal heat to heat the tank. Claiming the tank never entirely froze over even in Wyoming’s harshest weather. Not all of our tanks had electricity near by so they were thawed manually by some cowboy every morning
Two whole years, kinda crazy isn't it? Thanks for putting out quality content Mike & Erin. As far as the testing goes, I'm kinda surprised the bubbler didn't work better. My parents use a similar in concept if not scale system to keep the lake ice from damaging the dock at their house in New Hampshire.
lol I’m sorry for being a smart ass with the comment about Pumping the extra water that is wasted when u throw out the ice. I’m also a rancher in Wyoming along with a water well driller and pump setter so I thought I should just throw out the info on the pump running I’m glad yr doing the experiments !! We don’t run tank heaters all of our tanks are just 6-8 foot long and 2-4 foot around black culverts placed in the ground vertically with a Jobo valve in them placed about arm length down to kick the water on and off and the heat from the ground dose keep it from freezing unless it snows on them or gets way below 0 out. Then it’s just a matter of Breaking the ice and it will warm up during the day and melt. Didn’t mean to be a pain it the ass just my thoughts 💭 may not be worth much but there you go have a great time with the experiments
Thank you Mike for another enlightning and informative blog. I think you will like the solar tank heaters as my uncle has three of them and he just loves them. Take care my friend
Hi here in Saskatchewan Canada I think we have the same weather. We have some of the same issues but on the farm we found that a pile or 2’x20’ hole in the ground underneath a insulated water tank and 2” of styrofoam cut to fit the tank is all you need and we had a heat tape on the water line
Just a thought. The bubbler you bought doesn't seem to actually be agitating the open water surface from what I can see. Maybe this is why it froze. The ones I've seen work are like a simple aquarium or pond aerator with a hose that rests either on the bottom or down under the surface. The air coming from the hose rises unobstructed and agitates the surface, keeping the tank open, at least where the air is released. The bubbler has to be big enough to pump enough air for the size of your tank. Small ones work for 100 gallon galvanized tanks here in single and double digit temps, but we don't have sub zero temps very often so I can't say how they'd work under those conditions.
They type of bubbler that uses a remote pump seems to work quite well. Northern farmer has a few videos on his. He uses his to keep his ponds open and the water not to stink.
I ranch near Trinidad, Co. it gets really cold here. Use large tire tanks set on concrete with at steel casing buried under it about 6 ft. Water lines come up the casing along with geothermal heat. I bury the tire over half it’s height and cover half of it with insulation overed by a board. Water stays open even at 0. I set a remote game camera that sends me 3 pics a day so I know it’s open.
I have installed insulated fountains like the Mirafount Lilspring with a 250 watt donut heater. It was zero this weekend and absolutely no ice. They are a lot less headache than stock tanks which I keep on hand as backups.
An interesting test that you pulled into the barn in the tub, The saved ice. We never dump the ice out of the tank. Water in any form is useable. The tests are interesting but if your electricity is not available at other pastures where you have livestock you still need to open any ice that has formed. But the various tests are interesting to see results.
When it's cold out I try to run my water heaters all the time and it seems to work for me also good to know u have reached the 2 year mark on utube and hope u have many more years keep up the wonderful videos
I've had good luck with a gold fish pond pump sized at a gpm larger than the tanks volumn and getting the outlet high enough to the surface that it has some turbulence. The only draw back is you need to pull it once a week to remove the cattle hair and hay that plugs/reduces the inlet. Got idea from a Neil Denis video (late grazer from Canada)
Thanks for all of you hard work.Given me tons of ideas.im trying to live off the land and my well went dry.How to keep the water tank. with water from the river frim freezing?I think.ill get a heater for it.Living off grid with a deisal generator
Hi Mike and Erin , I also have an experiment going on tonight . The forecast is -25 with a -30 to -40 wind chill tonight. We have a large poly tank with heater mounted in the drain hole . This sits in an insulated plywood box. I'm hoping that I will not end up with one big ice cube.
You need to check what the ground temperature is underground (over winter times). To store heat. Check 24” deep, 36” and 48”. Find a 24” layer that does not freeze or highest temperature. Fresh warm water from wells can help. (The big point here is not to expose all water to eliminates to freeze. Just the smaller water source needs to be warm to feed live stocks. Some may need to wait in line) Can you pump warmer fresh well pumps to provide water to live stock? Even if wasted? Or stored in a side pond area as overflow? (Stop trying to keep exposed 500 gals warm, we need to keep a source hole warm at ground level) (Look up 'Geosolar Systems' for homes. Apply to feed water to live stocks) If it does not freeze. Two ways to do this. My choice. (all by cheap solar energy) Cheap solar pool water heaters panels above ground that heats the water and ground area by sun underground. The underground area needs soil prep to store heat cheap. It will heat by day all day using daylight solar. To power it, use solar generator to do all work pumping the water by solar to heat underwater feeder. 12v battery by night. And to heat insolated water tank/tub during the day. The pump does not need to be big. Point is to fully power by solar. Whatever ground level top water feeder needs to be insulated on all sides and bottom to retain heat. Test one with exposed water on top. Test one insolated covered top with holes that will freeze. To see how thick the water freezes under the covered water tub feeder. The point is verity the tub does not fully freeze under the cover feeder tub. Put in 2 or 3 -18" trash cans by sides that are wrapped in insolation perforated at the water level that does not freeze. Or ever 4 inches top to bottom. You will need the power to run a pump to pump water from underground slowly into feeder water cans over night. 12v 2-3 gallons per hour per 18" can. Need to test rates based on water temps overnight. With a return to underground for overflow. To only warm the can and new water from tub as needed. We want to heat can water and replacement water after feeder is used. Not the whole ground level tub. But can adjust to warm it some in the middle. 1. Solar pool water heating panels. New 80 buck for 48x98. Used are cheaper. Place panel to collect the best sun and on an angle to slide off the snow. As stored warm water running in the morning will make snow slide off. 2. Solar panels need, run calcs. And tap into ones not used etc. 3. You can use many types of underground rigid insulation like for basements. And you can make it cheaper yourself.
Make an insulated cover for the top, Cut holes for drinking. The water in the tub. Can use those low water stop freeze thing in buckets. It will get covered by snow make sure to put support in so not to sink and push out waters. Dig the pit out twice the size of water feeders tubs. Layer bottom, sides with Insulations. Run cheap pipes @ 14” apart to heat area. on top bottom insolations so the heat goes up into isolated mass. Option two is to use under Compost pile. Larger ones will be way warmer under it to warm water heat storage area..
You can call me if you want me to explain in detail. Rob
So.... First congrats on this mile stone. And when you were announcing the winner of the grand prize I got excited. Because I'm from Eugene Oregon and my name is Mark. Once I heard that I paused it out of disbelief and excitement. But then I watch the rest of it...... Haha
What's been working for us is a smaller tank (150 gal. or so) and Farm Innovators 500w Cast Aluminum stock tank heaters. It has an internal thermostat that comes on at 35 degrees, but we only plug them in about 2 hours before night fall and unplug them after sun up, unless it's a cloudy day and stays below freezing. Either way, winter costs.........
I propose a solution to try, evacuated solar tubes, typically used for solar hot water systems for houses. They are very efficient solar heating tubes made of glass. Perhaps a low watt pump circulating the water threw a tube or array of tubes. I think you could use different pumping techniques as well to lower the power usage even further like a air siphon pump in conjunction with the evacuated solar tubes. Another thing I would try is insulated containers, not totally enclosed insulation but bottom and perimeter insulation. Maybe like the way hot water heaters are wrapped in fiberglass with aluminum sheet metal, or something like that, I bet makes a huge difference.
One of the means of heat loss is through black body radiation Black body radiation is proportional to the temperature difference to the fourth power. At night on cloudy days the sky temperature is close to air temperature. On clear nights the sky temperature is close to that of space, ie absolute zero. On clear nights you will loose a lot of heat. If you place sheet metal over your water containers, it will act as an effective thermal shield at night. During the day the sheet panel would act as a thermal solar panel. During the summer the covering will reduce your evaporative water loss in the container
I enjoy your videos. I also like to try to figure out solutions for problems like the the one you have now, freezing water tanks. Obviously, the tanks would retain heat better if they were insulated. This may include covering the tanks but leaving, maybe, five or six holes around the perimeter for the cows to drink. They are not drinking from the center anyway. The heater, I think, should be in the bottom of the tank. Heat rises. Warming the water on top, allows the water towards the bottom to be cold. I'm not sure of the scientific explanation, but I think water in a lake freezes from the bottom up. The water below the surface has to be at freezing temperature before the surface will freeze. If the heat added to the water could be towards the bottom and the heat loss controlled better, I think it would cost less for the electric to warm the water so it does not freeze. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your experiment, Scott
We had trouble with the sinking heaters not keeping open water. I think it was because the heat wasn’t near the ice.. The floaters heat the water where the ice is.
interesting experiment, my eye caught the bike helmets in the back seat, in stark contrast to the hardhats in my truck. I also noted the empty room to work in? what's that like? heated workspace in the house, WoW !!!!
We insulated our water tank with a wooden box, lined with free (6") insulation panels from a walk in freezer, and the key was limiting the access on top with another panel to keep the wind off of it, as well as a roof overhead to keep snow off it... they may need to take turns but it keeps the ice away bay.
The bubbler might work well for an area where during the day is well above freezing and only drops below freezing during the coldest part of the night but I can't imagine it ever working well in a Wyoming winter. Eventually once it's cold enough the machine itself will freeze up like a pond aerator that was left on.
I use a sump pump in my koi pond and it keeps the water open pretty good and does not use as much energy that I know of. I'm in West Virginia close to Maryland
If you go to the UA-cam site Northern Farmer you can find multiple air bubblier units used to keep outdoor "dugouts " or farm ponds in Northern Alberta Canada open. I am sure here would share the information on his systems and he had shown its success even in colder temperatures than yours.
I don't know about comparison to the bubbler, but there's a product called water moover. Circulates the water. They look like they would work really well. You've got a pretty informational channel. Was looking at your video with the Stull feeder going on a trailer is how I found it.
Water that you pump in is above freezing, so just dont fill the tanks all the way. Ideally so that they are about empty during the night. Filling it up in the morning would thaw the ice. Or do they want to drink during the icy night? Never really used big tanks tho, as our little farm has watering bowls that only deliver water when animal wants to drink. Not heated tho, and did freeze a few times. Even tho its inside a closed barn with about 10 cows inside.
Our stock tank water runs our electric cost up by $10 per month. We just judge it by the increase in our electric bill according to the amounts our elec bills had been previously. In my opinion it is worth the cost to ensure our animals have water whenever they want it.
Mike, I am a H.S. Science teacher, and I am going to be showing this video to my Physical Science class - we're starting to look at the basic steps for experimental design, and you're doing a good job of showing us a great example of how its done in 'the real world'. I even made up a worksheet that follows your steps, the design, and the results from the first night of testing. Great video, keep up the good work.
Keith Knapp I wish I had you as my teacher when I was in high school !
Our best way to keep tanks open turned out to have *4 feet*. One particular horse learned how to lift ONE front foot and tap repeatedly until she found out just the right "hardness" necessary to break the ice..and never got the feathering on her leg wet! Definitely some draft blood in that girl, her legs had some pretty good feathering, and her head was definitely NOT "refined"...but one of THE best horses I've had the honour to have owned and known!
Might not have been pretty, but wasn't a prettier or better jumper in our province! She'd size up a fence(construction didn't matter) then canter away from it, make a large circle in the field, take a bead on where she intended to jump and set forth, scared the bejesus out of me once, set a bead on a point where the place intended, the takeoff point was coming UP a hill(good 60 degrees gradient) putting her takeoff point at LEAST 12 feet back from the fence(4 feet high, and littered with nasty junk pile on the landing side) and the wee wench took off from that stupid point anyways, made it into what had to be a good 9' vertical jump and at least a 20 some foot spread to clear that junk, centered away as though it were a sunny day in the clover patch, I spent 45 minutes trying to catch her before she took it into her head to wander onto the road for further giggles.. and then put her into another pasture! This time with 6' fences. Figured THAT should at least keep her busy for long enough that I could figure out a "safe" solution for her near term housing that would let me sleep at night. Next thing I know, she's jumped back into her old pasture to be with her buddy. An older gelding, Olympic level jumper who has always been her"uncle". Inseperable. *Obviously more* than I'd realized. So, given there's not a fence on any property that can hold *him* if he really chooses, it's *into the barn with both of them*... kept them there for two weeks. Unless there was a human attached. Or on top of. THAT'S the worst part when you have an animal demonstrative of that caliber. *Insurance demands.* Coverage is dependent upon, "unless under human control" or its deemed null and void. ALL insurance. Including that of "if a car is driving down the road" and pretty horse jumps out in front, car either swerves to avoid, and goes into ditch, or doesn't and is wrecked because it hit pretty horse...horse's owner is liable for ALL DAMAGES! UNLESS HORSE'S OWNER WAS IN CARE AND CONTROL, OR VERIFIED out of commission, "by act of God" etc. 🙄😉🤦♀️ good luck with THAT one! Unless you've got an angel willing to come and swear on a stack of bibles, giving a wing feather as proof of realism...🙄🙄🙄💔 you're pretty much out of luck! And up Schitt's Creek! Without that proverbial paddle, let alone the boat!
A Kansas rancher taught us to let an ice cap form over the full tank then poke at foot wide drinking hole for the horses and cattle to drink from (I remove that ice). Each morning we check the hole but the animals usually are drinking frequently enough to keep it open. When we fill the tank we add water to just under the ice cap. This has been a great system just south of Kansas City.
Your Father-in-law would like a joke I used in teaching people in industry about change. A woman cut both end of the roast off and tossed then in trash. Her husband asked why, here response was " That is the way my mother always did it". That weekend his in-laws were over for dinner on Sunday. He asked his mother-in-law why she cut the ends of the roast off. Her response was the same as his wife, "That's the way my mother did it". About two weeks later they were visiting the wife's grandmother. He ask her why she cut the end of the roast off. She said, " Oh, that's easy. The pan was to small!".
A side note, my design of experiments background kicked in and said You should have randomized the sequence of tanks to assure there bias based on location. LOL.
Great video, I enjoyed it. Also remember to keep smiling even when it is below zero.
When I put my floating heater on a timer it burned out because the cattle drank the water level down leaving the float frozen in a layer of ice hanging above the water. Now i only use sinking heaters. Great Video!
Until one of those burns to the bottom of the tank.😉
Feel very comfortable watching these videos I'm not a farmer or rancher but my thought process seems to be in line with this guy. He just seems to be smarter than I. Is all. Luca
I realize here in Missouri we don't have the prolonged cold Wyoming does, however we do have extremely cold days and yet we've been successful in keeping our water tanks ice free. We do it by using 4ft in diameter by 4ft tall man hole casings. We add a 2ft extension to this because we bury the 4ft tall casing in the ground having only the 2ft extension above the ground. Only on the coldest of days are the tanks frozen over. But it's not thick ice. It tends to be thinner and the cows are still able to poke through it with no problem. We've got more water than we can use on our farm so many of our tanks run continuously. Just a little water movement makes a huge difference.
Thx for the effort this cancels my bubbler plans starting off with a 250 watt tank heater and increase from there thx again
Mike, I am new to your You Tube channel and in the last two week have covered almost the whole two years of videos. I stumbled across your channel while looking for cattle ranching info, now I am hooked. Excellent content and insight into the cattle ranching business in every detail of the numerous tasks in your day to day life. Thanks for the honest look at what it takes to be a cattle rancher!!
Live above the Montgomery bar for a couple of year back in 2005 6 working in the patch and for paint brush services. Don't miss the wind
Congrats to the winners, and Happy Birthday to Our Wyoming Life!
There is a way to keep the stock waterers open, would be to construct a large compost pile having approximately 800 foot of black poly pipe used to move water. You will have the pile supplying the heat. The only downfall would be the volume used. Larger the pile, the longer it will last. There are videos on UA-cam about this.
Th bubbler couldn't keep a pail of water from freezing. The one that I mentioned that Northern Farmer uses in Alberta is a pond bubbler. It's a ceramic disk that rests on the bottom of a tank or pond. It is powered by compressed air from an outside pump. Good Luck on the experiments! Congratulations on two years young!
Great move, getting sponsored and all that! Once again, your presentation, performance of the task, and real results! Almost $5 a day adds up in a hurry!
Reflector - white glossy paint, on north side of tank. Sun hits, reflects back, hits water, melts ice. Also, insulate the tank with?? Maybe a floating (plastic) clear cover, with 1/3 cut ouut of it to allow animal to drink - other 2/3 would greatly reduce heat loss, create a greenhouse effect.
There are 300 comments so I have not read through them all to see if some one already mentioned it. My neighbor only has a solar powered well but no other power to his tank. To keep it from freezing up he uses an old 100 gal propane tank that he fills up with air from an air compressor on his truck. He then sets the value to bubble. This keeps a nice pocket that the cows can drink from. If he has it set right it will run for a few days. We were getting -20 (actual temp) last year and is still held that pocket open. And it only costs you time to fill it up and the price of the propane tank.
2 years. I've been here from the beginning!
Your video was just suggested to me Jan 18 2020. An old passive nonelectric method is to (in warm weather) dig a dry well 4-5 feet deep. The diameter should be about 2 feet less than the diameter of the stock tank. A grate or cattle catcher is placed over the dry well to support the weight of the water. The ground seal should be air tight. Blocking is used the keep the stock tank from moving. That's it. The heat from the earth from five feet down (below the frost line) radiating up to heat the water will greatly extend the time of ice free water. It works here in north Idaho.
Congratulations on 2 years looking forward for many more.
Thanks Paul - Mike
Ontario study says, and I find effective. I use old tires for water tanks and then put a light mat over itb The cattle can lift it up. The water stays thawed. It probably not work in Minnesota, but sure it would help the heater.
Experimenting is what I have done for the last two years. Good on you, sir. Solar is awesome in summer, not so much in winter which is why I have had to keep my batteries charged with a generator these days. Nice video Mike, thanks.
I live in norhern Alberta. If you get lost in the bush and need to sleep, what do you never do? NEVER sleep on the ground! You lose heat constantly from being in contact with the ground. Put a whole bunch of evergreen branches on the snow and like down on them. We get lots of snow in Alberta. I am planning on using an old metal bathtub as a watering trough. However, I will absolutely NOT put it directly on the ground. I will put 4"x4" boards underneath it. As soon as we get enough snow, I plan to use the snow blower or a shovel to "bury in in snow all around. I will cut a path to the long edge of each side of the bathtub so the cows can access it. In any case, I wonder if you couldn't save some heating cost by simply making a foundation for you water tubs. I could be make with 2x6's and insulated. Just a thought!
We use some oval shapped stock tanks for horses and we cover about half with a partial sheet of plywood with a hole large enough to run the heater cord through. Do it to keep the heater in the stock tank, horses were throwing it out, but I think it keeps the water warmer longer and allows the tank heater to stay off longer, might be wishful thinking. Might be an interesting modification on your heater with the timer on it.
Wow this is awesome guys! I've always struggled with water and heaters and keeping my tubs open all the time and saving money! Please keep doing this guys! I will share this with everyone I know!
What a great experiment and a true way to find out what works and what does not
Congrats on 2 years on UA-cam! Keep the videos coming!
Thank you very much - Mike
I know this video is a year old but might be of interest to someone. You may have heard of this idea before. I haven't tried it but read about it years ago. You dig a hole 8ft deep and stand a good size culvert up in it. So you have an open air space in the culvert. You put you're stock tank over the culvert. The earth temperature is supposed to keep the tank from freezing. An idea would be for people who have shallow wells bored is to have the well company bore your hole while they are out boring your well. It's very rocky here in most places so would be difficult to try. All of our wells are also drilled not bored, but I have lived places where bored wells 30' to 50' were common. We mostly have freeze proof tanks feed from our ponds. They have a small opening with most of the tank buried into a berm. But I have one cement tank up by the barn I have to deal with. Usually just bust ice and remove it. I use a manure fork like you use for horse stalls to scoop the ice. Didn't like using a shovel.
Congratulations to your winners. And Congratulations for 2 years on UA-cam.
I use a non floating heater that has a protective cage, and put it inside our covered double open end insulated winter tanks. Only time I have to chop ice is when it’s -60 with a 40+ mph wind. I’ve tried it with the floating kind, but it only heats the inside and not where the critters can drink.
Congratulations on your two years!
Thank you very much - Mike
I haven’t read all the comments so i dont know what everyone has said; i live in Southwest North Dakota and we use tire tanks with drink holes in them and it will have to get below zero before be have to remove ice from the drink hole and if you do have to remove ice it would be an inch at the most and in our corrals we use thermal-sink waterers they are energy free and it has to be way below zero before they get ice on them with cattle drinking out of them daily; bull-tuff tanks makes an insulated fiberglass lid for open top tire tanks you can put on in the winter or leave them on year round; we have tried bubblers and have never got one to work even tried it with solar; I agree with what you say about solar we have a solar well that works great but it is cost prohibitive to make solar work in our cold climate and short days in the winter
We have a 9ft tire tank with 1 drink hole in it that we are using to water 45 bred hfrs right now; i have that tank surrounded by dirt with a wood fence around it; and i have never had to chop ice in that tank in 10 years; if you set up a tire tank correctly and size it to the amount of cattle that will be drinking they will stay open in sub zero temps
You are very lucky to have Meanders as when I go to the Veteran’s Hospital in MN that is where I shop also
At our farm we use to have three stock tanks to fill during the winter and we have switched to three ritche omni founts3 and it was the best thing that we have done on our farm. Before we got the ritche waterers we had to check the stock tanks two times a day and weight 20-30 mins in the cold to fill each tank and hope that you dont accidently overfill them. With three tanks to fill we would some times run the well low on water after running for a hour or more. With the ritche waters we have, they have a 10 gallon trough that is on a float and we only have a 525 watt heater compared to 1500 heaters. They also use ground heat also and if you think about it if they drink water out of the tank it is getting replaced with 50 degree water and with only 10 gallons it is easier to heat then 200 gallons tanks that they replaced.
Mike great job, I'm new to your UA-cam channel... I can only imagine how many Ranchers you are helping.. You have helped me understand how difficult being a rancher really is and hope you stay vigilant and enjoy knowing you are making a difference... God bless my friend....
Great video!! Owning a small ranch ,my wife and I are always looking for new ideas and ways to improve for both us and the animals .Cheers from northern BC Canada!!
THAT'S COLD!🥶
Mike, we used to use propane as bubblers in ponds that were remote with no access to electricity. we would set a 20 pound propane tank with a regulator and a hose and a weight on the end of the hose, drop the hose in the pond and turn the valve and regulate the flow to a slow bubble. The bubbling action would bring warmer water from the bottom of the pond up to the surface and keep the pond clear of ice in that immediate area of the bubbles.
I agree with you Chuck. the water is warmer at the bottom, his current bubbler is not going deep enough and not enough volume.
Are you saying you actually pumped the PROPANE into the ponds to make bubbles? Or was the propane what powered some other bubbler that you set in the pond?
LOVE math and science experiments like this!! In our area of the California Sierra most of us have solar for barns that have water tanks. Even in winter with snow on the ground as long as its a clear day the batteries store power.
Awesome, thanks Beth - Mike
Years ago I read an article about heating a water tank by placing a 6 ft. pipe under it vertically. Seemed to me that it worked pretty well. All I could find was the following: Folks around here use a heat well. Auger a hole as deep as possible in the ground and place the tank above. The ground will heat the air in the hole and it will rise up to heat the tank. Insulation around the tank helps, just don't insulate the bottom. I'm not sure how cold a climate this will work in by itself, but might be part of the solution.
I was thinking of placing a water carboy next to the rank and covering it with rock wool insulation batts andthen covering it with dirt (so cows don't eat the insulation) OR bury the water carboy underground with an electric heater, the water would stay warm enough not to freeze and pump the water into the feed tank during the day using a simple solar panel for energy and or wind turbine (how often does the wind no blow and sun not shine ?). Water would freeze at night on very cold nights in the exposed feed tank but if the water inlet is above the tank it would put fresh water on top of the ice for cows to drink. Maybe a BLACK feed tank would heat up during the day ??? Anyway I am assume you will deliver water to the insulated water carboy on a regular basis.
Happy Anniversary to Our Wyoming Life! Here’s to a great future.
Thanks for the experiment. I live in Meeker Colorado temps can drop to -30 at times. I use a float heater 24\7 to keep the tanks open.
Happy 2nd Anniversary Mike and Erin. You've come a long ways since I found you guys and it's been an adventure. Now all aboard the 100k Subscriber Train.
Have you considered an insulated tank? We have a farm supply store here that sprays 2-3 inches of foam on the regular plastic tanks. If you could cut your heating costs in 1/2, it pays for itself over the winter. I have a small herd of Highlanders and I use old chest freezers from the dump. I think the big ones are around 225 gallons. I live in Alaska and we have long cold winters. I remove the lid and then install a plywood top encasing 2 inches of blue board. I cut that in half and install two 4 inch hinges and attached the one side down. Now I have a lid that I can open and close to seal off the tank. With the one side open, the opening is around 24 in x 36in. I was thinking that if it got really cold, like -30 to -40 I could close the lid at night and open it in the morning to try and keep my costs down even more. I installed a sinking 1000 watt heater way in the back so the bull cant snag the power cord with his horns. The temp has been averaging -20 at night all this week and I have not bothered to close the hatch. My water temps are running 40 degrees and I am guessing that the warmer water does not chill them down as much.
Mike just my thoughts I have switched to a thermostatic bung heater. Have cut costs by about a 1/16th do to heat rises. Just my thoughts and tests. Take it out each year and clean with vinegar and you can get four years out of it. Most heaters if not cleaned that I have used make it two to three if you are lucky. Great video
I know we down here in Alabama don't have any thing like your COLD temperatures. However I have had to keep a dog pen water supply free from ice 24-7, with zero power available. My solution was to bury a tall bucket so the bottom was well below the frost level. The natural circulation keep the water supply ice free all winter, the only power required was digging the hole.
It gets alot colder in Wyoming than oklahoma where we are but have you ever heard of putting 2 liter bottles in the tank, with alittle bit of sand? The wind blows them around just enough to break the surface and keep tanks from freezing, works good here but again not nearly as cold
Through trial and error I've found that the Ritchie ECO water two hole fountain works the best for me. After the first Wyoming winter it more than paid for itself. I was trying to heat 150 to 300 gal rubber made tubs a total of 5. I even wrapped them with insulation and a black tarp. The Ritchie water is not without its faults, the single hole ECO fountain is impossible to get into to wire if your not some contortionist, and the clothe rubber coated heat tape only last about one year before it shorts out and lights you up when your running the wire with your ohm meter. The bright side though is the heat tape from your local ACE ward ware store works great and is cheaper. The other thing I did was put split fuel hose on any edge of the tank that touches the wiring. In all if you install the water fountain as shown in their video it works great the other benefit to the RITCHIE ECO fountain is its made of a durable plastic petex material with rounded edges and thus the bulls don't have any sharp corners to scratch themselves on, be sure also to get the proper copper ground cord to place in the 6 inch concrete pad that you poor. All said and done they are well worth it your heating 1 to 2 gallons at any one time and it automatically refills. I even used two 2 hole fountains at one area just put in a "T" in your supply line and the number of animals that drink at anyone time is handled perfectly. I've even tried taking a 150 gal rubber made tube to my local spray on insulation dealer and had him spray 4in.on the tube and top. I then painted the whole tube and top a dull black, but the problem of having to fill with a hose still exists and the fact the cost of heating 150 gals of water and your dollars are floating right up in the air, (the open surface area and quantity of water that your heating just kills ya). Another benefit of the RITCHIE ECO fountain is the floating disc in the opening, it decreases the surface area of the water that's exposed and also the fact your only heating 2 gals at any one time. I hope my experience is of some benefit to someone.
I worked for a gentleman in SD many years ago who went around to construction sights and picked up bunches of scraps 2x4sand trimmed them to length then stood them up around the tank so they where touching then used a banding tool to secure them all together. It worked like an insulated tank. He said it saved a fortune.
Just so you know there is a massive cold air mass leaving AK right now. I believe it is about 800 miles wide. I was just east of Fairbanks last week and saw some brutal cold temps.I hope it misses you.
It has been many years ago- I read a article about a Wyoming Rancher(if my memory serves me) Who had the issues of stock tanks freezing in the winter. He took a section of 12” culvert. I believe was 6 to 8 feet long. He dug a hole that deep. Placing the culvert on end. Then refilling with rocks and then backfilling and leveling. He then placed the stock tank back over the culvert. Using the earth’s thermal heat to heat the tank. Claiming the tank never entirely froze over even in Wyoming’s harshest weather.
Not all of our tanks had electricity near by so they were thawed manually by some cowboy every morning
Two whole years, kinda crazy isn't it? Thanks for putting out quality content Mike & Erin. As far as the testing goes, I'm kinda surprised the bubbler didn't work better. My parents use a similar in concept if not scale system to keep the lake ice from damaging the dock at their house in New Hampshire.
Running say in my family is we do our best thinking while milking our cows Thanks for the video mike
lol I’m sorry for being a smart ass with the comment about Pumping the extra water that is wasted when u throw out the ice. I’m also a rancher in Wyoming along with a water well driller and pump setter so I thought I should just throw out the info on the pump running I’m glad yr doing the experiments !! We don’t run tank heaters all of our tanks are just 6-8 foot long and 2-4 foot around black culverts placed in the ground vertically with a Jobo valve in them placed about arm length down to kick the water on and off and the heat from the ground dose keep it from freezing unless it snows on them or gets way below 0 out. Then it’s just a matter of Breaking the ice and it will warm up during the day and melt. Didn’t mean to be a pain it the ass just my thoughts 💭 may not be worth much but there you go have a great time with the experiments
Thank you Mike for another enlightning and informative blog. I think you will like the solar tank heaters as my uncle has three of them and he just loves them. Take care my friend
Hi here in Saskatchewan Canada I think we have the same weather. We have some of the same issues but on the farm we found that a pile or 2’x20’ hole in the ground underneath a insulated water tank and 2” of styrofoam cut to fit the tank is all you need and we had a heat tape on the water line
Just a thought. The bubbler you bought doesn't seem to actually be agitating the open water surface from what I can see. Maybe this is why it froze. The ones I've seen work are like a simple aquarium or pond aerator with a hose that rests either on the bottom or down under the surface. The air coming from the hose rises unobstructed and agitates the surface, keeping the tank open, at least where the air is released. The bubbler has to be big enough to pump enough air for the size of your tank. Small ones work for 100 gallon galvanized tanks here in single and double digit temps, but we don't have sub zero temps very often so I can't say how they'd work under those conditions.
They type of bubbler that uses a remote pump seems to work quite well. Northern farmer has a few videos on his. He uses his to keep his ponds open and the water not to stink.
Great video Mike! Thanks......getting ready to install a bunch of tanks on the farm...watching this again!
Great video!
Congratulations on 2 years
I ranch near Trinidad, Co. it gets really cold here. Use large tire tanks set on concrete with at steel casing buried under it about 6 ft. Water lines come up the casing along with geothermal heat. I bury the tire over half it’s height and cover half of it with insulation overed by a board. Water stays open even at 0. I set a remote game camera that sends me 3 pics a day so I know it’s open.
I have been watching for a few months. But I just Subscribed I enjoy the heck out of this show. Great Job!!
I have installed insulated fountains like the Mirafount Lilspring with a 250 watt donut heater. It was zero this weekend and absolutely no ice. They are a lot less headache than stock tanks which I keep on hand as backups.
We use Richie waters with stainless steel water bowls tanks hold to much water to keep unthrawed
Kieth, what is the water in ?
@@grantdubridge7995 The model waterer I use has a 14 gallon capacity but it has a float so that it refills.
An interesting test that you pulled into the barn in the tub, The saved ice. We never dump the ice out of the tank. Water in any form is useable. The tests are interesting but if your electricity is not available at other pastures where you have livestock you still need to open any ice that has formed. But the various tests are interesting to see results.
When it's cold out I try to run my water heaters all the time and it seems to work for me also good to know u have reached the 2 year mark on utube and hope u have many more years keep up the wonderful videos
Try a more aggressive bubbler or small pond fountain? More testing to come i hope
Mmm thanks
I've had good luck with a gold fish pond pump sized at a gpm larger than the tanks volumn and getting the outlet high enough to the surface that it has some turbulence. The only draw back is you need to pull it once a week to remove the cattle hair and hay that plugs/reduces the inlet. Got idea from a Neil Denis video (late grazer from Canada)
We have a Ritchie water fountain that has 2 250 watt heaters on it and it works really well for us in North Dakota.
congrats on the anniversary! may you have more prosperous life!!!!!!!
I've followed you scince the beginning. I'm so happy your channel has blossomed. Your channel reminds me of home.
I get that, thank you very much - Mike
Congrats on 2 years. You’ll do a great job. Have a good one
Congratulations on two years‼️‼️‼️ Love the videos and seeing the ranch👍❤️❤️‼️‼️
Thanks for all of you hard work.Given me tons of ideas.im trying to live off the land and my well went dry.How to keep the water tank. with water from the river frim freezing?I think.ill get a heater for it.Living off grid with a deisal generator
Hi Mike and Erin , I also have an experiment going on tonight . The forecast is -25 with a -30 to -40 wind chill tonight. We have a large poly tank with heater mounted in the drain hole . This sits in an insulated plywood box. I'm hoping that I will not end up with one big ice cube.
You need to check what the ground temperature is underground (over winter times). To store heat.
Check 24” deep, 36” and 48”. Find a 24” layer that does not freeze or highest temperature. Fresh warm water from wells can help.
(The big point here is not to expose all water to eliminates to freeze.
Just the smaller water source needs to be warm to feed live stocks. Some may need to wait in line)
Can you pump warmer fresh well pumps to provide water to live stock? Even if wasted? Or stored in a side pond area as overflow?
(Stop trying to keep exposed 500 gals warm, we need to keep a source hole warm at ground level)
(Look up 'Geosolar Systems' for homes. Apply to feed water to live stocks)
If it does not freeze. Two ways to do this. My choice. (all by cheap solar energy)
Cheap solar pool water heaters panels above ground that heats the water and ground area by sun
underground. The underground area needs soil prep to store heat cheap. It will heat by day all day using daylight solar.
To power it, use solar generator to do all work pumping the water by solar to heat underwater feeder.
12v battery by night.
And to heat insolated water tank/tub during the day. The pump does not need to be big. Point is to fully power by solar.
Whatever ground level top water feeder needs to be insulated on all sides and bottom to retain heat.
Test one with exposed water on top. Test one insolated covered top with holes that will freeze. To see how
thick the water freezes under the covered water tub feeder. The point is verity the tub does not fully freeze
under the cover feeder tub. Put in 2 or 3 -18" trash cans by sides that are wrapped in insolation perforated at the water
level that does not freeze. Or ever 4 inches top to bottom. You will need the power to run a pump to pump water from
underground slowly into feeder water cans over night. 12v 2-3 gallons per hour per 18" can. Need to test rates based on water temps overnight.
With a return to underground
for overflow. To only warm the can and new water from tub as needed. We want to heat can water and replacement water
after feeder is used. Not the whole ground level tub. But can adjust to warm it some in the middle.
1. Solar pool water heating panels. New 80 buck for 48x98. Used are cheaper.
Place panel to collect the best sun and on an angle to slide off the snow. As stored
warm water running in the morning will make snow slide off.
2. Solar panels need, run calcs. And tap into ones not used etc.
3. You can use many types of underground rigid insulation like for basements.
And you can make it cheaper yourself.
Make an insulated cover for the top, Cut holes for drinking. The water in the tub.
Can use those low water stop freeze thing in buckets.
It will get covered by snow
make sure to put support in so not to sink and push out waters.
Dig the pit out twice the size of water feeders tubs. Layer bottom, sides with
Insulations. Run cheap pipes @ 14” apart to heat area. on top bottom insolations
so the heat goes up into isolated mass.
Option two is to use under Compost pile.
Larger ones will be way warmer under it to
warm water heat storage
area..
You can call me if you want me to explain in detail.
Rob
Congratulations on your 2 year anniversary so thank you for sharing you lives with us all.....🍾🍾🍾🍾🎉🎉🎉
Happy anniversary to you both
Congrats on the 2 years :) Hope the work you put in making the videos is worth the rewards.
Congrats on 2 years 🎊 Here is to many more
congratulations to the winners. Thank you mike for the video . looking forward to the next video.
Great video as per usual and congratulations on 2 years on UA-cam.
So.... First congrats on this mile stone. And when you were announcing the winner of the grand prize I got excited. Because I'm from Eugene Oregon and my name is Mark. Once I heard that I paused it out of disbelief and excitement. But then I watch the rest of it...... Haha
What's been working for us is a smaller tank (150 gal. or so) and Farm Innovators 500w Cast Aluminum stock tank heaters. It has an internal thermostat that comes on at 35 degrees, but we only plug them in about 2 hours before night fall and unplug them after sun up, unless it's a cloudy day and stays below freezing. Either way, winter costs.........
I propose a solution to try, evacuated solar tubes, typically used for solar hot water systems for houses. They are very efficient solar heating tubes made of glass. Perhaps a low watt pump circulating the water threw a tube or array of tubes. I think you could use different pumping techniques as well to lower the power usage even further like a air siphon pump in conjunction with the evacuated solar tubes. Another thing I would try is insulated containers, not totally enclosed insulation but bottom and perimeter insulation. Maybe like the way hot water heaters are wrapped in fiberglass with aluminum sheet metal, or something like that, I bet makes a huge difference.
Congratulations Mike and Erin. The last 2 years have been awesome. Can't wait to see what the future brings.
One of the means of heat loss is through black body radiation
Black body radiation is proportional to the temperature difference to the fourth power. At night on cloudy days the sky temperature is close to air temperature. On clear nights the sky temperature is close to that of space, ie absolute zero. On clear nights you will loose a lot of heat. If you place sheet metal over your water containers, it will act as an effective thermal shield at night. During the day the sheet panel would act as a thermal solar panel. During the summer the covering will reduce your evaporative water loss in the container
Great video....a little science on the ranch.
I enjoy your videos. I also like to try to figure out solutions for problems like the the one you have now, freezing water tanks. Obviously, the tanks would retain heat better if they were insulated. This may include covering the tanks but leaving, maybe, five or six holes around the perimeter for the cows to drink. They are not drinking from the center anyway. The heater, I think, should be in the bottom of the tank. Heat rises. Warming the water on top, allows the water towards the bottom to be cold. I'm not sure of the scientific explanation, but I think water in a lake freezes from the bottom up. The water below the surface has to be at freezing temperature before the surface will freeze. If the heat added to the water could be towards the bottom and the heat loss controlled better, I think it would cost less for the electric to warm the water so it does not freeze. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your experiment, Scott
We had trouble with the sinking heaters not keeping open water. I think it was because the heat wasn’t near the ice.. The floaters heat the water where the ice is.
interesting experiment, my eye caught the bike helmets in the back seat, in stark contrast to the hardhats in my truck. I also noted the empty room to work in? what's that like? heated workspace in the house, WoW !!!!
Congratulations on two years. I would try wrapping the tanks with insulation.
We insulated our water tank with a wooden box, lined with free (6") insulation panels from a walk in freezer, and the key was limiting the access on top with another panel to keep the wind off of it, as well as a roof overhead to keep snow off it... they may need to take turns but it keeps the ice away bay.
Good test I'll be waiting to see final results
The bubbler might work well for an area where during the day is well above freezing and only drops below freezing during the coldest part of the night but I can't imagine it ever working well in a Wyoming winter. Eventually once it's cold enough the machine itself will freeze up like a pond aerator that was left on.
I use a sump pump in my koi pond and it keeps the water open pretty good and does not use as much energy that I know of. I'm in West Virginia close to Maryland
Happy Birthday to Our Wyoming Life!
Happy two year utube anniversary Mike and Erin !!! 🎉🎊🎂🍰🏆👍
Thanks Calum - Mike
Congrats to Mike, Erin, AND the Kiddos!!!
Congratulations to the winners.
Don't give up Mike,help us out😉
Congratulations Mike, keep up the good work .
If you go to the UA-cam site Northern Farmer you can find multiple air bubblier units used to keep outdoor "dugouts " or farm ponds in Northern Alberta Canada open. I am sure here would share the information on his systems and he had shown its success even in colder temperatures than yours.
I don't know about comparison to the bubbler, but there's a product called water moover. Circulates the water. They look like they would work really well.
You've got a pretty informational channel. Was looking at your video with the Stull feeder going on a trailer is how I found it.
Water that you pump in is above freezing, so just dont fill the tanks all the way. Ideally so that they are about empty during the night. Filling it up in the morning would thaw the ice. Or do they want to drink during the icy night?
Never really used big tanks tho, as our little farm has watering bowls that only deliver water when animal wants to drink. Not heated tho, and did freeze a few times. Even tho its inside a closed barn with about 10 cows inside.
Happy Anniversary Guys! May you continue to grow and prosper!😎❤
Our stock tank water runs our electric cost up by $10 per month. We just judge it by the increase in our electric bill according to the amounts our elec bills had been previously.
In my opinion it is worth the cost to ensure our animals have water whenever they want it.