This will be my 3rd winter with a float from Russ. It's works very well down to the low 20's. The only issue I have had is the copper tubing broke off but it still works without it. The only other down side is having a place for the overflow to go away from the herd. Enjoy the gained free time now that you don't have to manually water!
Thanks for the video! It’s getting colder here too. We got snow on the ground now. They said up to 3” of snow. I bought my bigger electric fence charger the other day. It was on sale so I was super happy. It was 25% cheaper than what it has been. I’ve been watching the prices for a few months every day at different websites. When I try to buy something that I need in the future, I try to get a deal on it so I watch prices for a few months especially if I don’t need it right away. I’ve saved a lot of money doing this. Sometimes I watch for 6 months but I watch prices about twice a week at most. It takes me about 15 seconds a day to look it up since I have each website under favorites.
With a solid wind break the wind will hit it and go up and over the top and come back down on the Lee side. With only about 50% solid the wind goes thru the slats but the velocity is drastically reduced. I use free pallets for my windbreak and they work amazingly good. The reduced wind area is about 10 times the height of the windbreak. I’m in the middle of a 240 turbine wind farm so it’s windy here !
Clever solution! What is happening: Water reaches its maximum density at 4 DEG C. Water colder than 4 DEG C rises to the surface and overflows out of the container before it has the chance to freeze.
During the winter to water my chickens I have an IBC tote circulate water through 1 1/4” PVC about 1700 gallons per hour with a 250 watt heated element
I love watching your videos, mostly for educational purposes. Thank you for what you do. Sadly, there is much you say that I can not hear because of the background noises.
Could drop the overflow water into a small French drain type of arrangement to be tidy. Like a septic leach field line. My dad used to adjust his float valves so they would leak like that in the winter to prevent freezing. We get into the single digits here in the winter. Nowadays have installed frost free.
A pint a minute is roughly 180 gallons a day... but running water doesn't freeze. (pick your battle) On another channel, they used an old tire and a bucket that fit snug in the center, then dug a hole under the entire thing. The heat from the earth rises up, but stops at the tire, which creates a double walled sort of insulation for the top of that bucket. Depending on your exact location the hole in the ground will vary in depth, but the idea is sound enough that heat rises... and the ground will be over 40 degrees once you go below the frost line. This is how they deal with buried water meters in my area. Meter is under a cover about 6 inches below grade, but the pit below is 4 feet deep. Ground temp is around 45 degrees when it's 10 below zero here.
@@Marilou-g5t the channel where I saw the comment was not the channel where the idea originated. IOW, a poster explained that they saw it elsewhere. It was a homesteading channel as I recall. I'm sure you could find many ideas if you search cattle water freezing issues.
@@rupe53 I found "Geo Thermal Water System" channel Rob Davis , a 3 foot diameter hole 10 feet deep lined with culvert pipe, fed by inflow pipe deep down. ua-cam.com/video/HDeBq51kdZg/v-deo.html Not much help if bedrock is too close to the surface.
Folks here are the actual numbers: Here are the facts from water just being measured over 12-hour period: 24 gallons was measured on the water meter at the road. For a 24-hour period that equals 48 gallons of water usage. Our water cost at the county water district is 38 cents per 100 gallons. That equates to 3.8 cents per gallon. 3.8 cents x 48 gallons = 18.2 cents per 24 hours of keeping tank from freezing. That's $5.47 a month, that's assuming you left it on all day which we don't if the weather is nice. That's money well spent when you are on a leased farm and don't have to spend thousands on a frost-free tank to provide quality water to livestock.
First 24 hours was 270 gallons used, this includes what 26 bulls drank during that period. I turned down the volume yesterday by 75% and it was not froze this morning.,
Thanks greg. Would love to know how this does come bitter cold and if you're happy with the design. Have to wonder however, if you're using Rural Water with that much overflow if it wouldn't quickly pay for itself to install a frost-free automatic waterer
Here are the facts from water just being measured over 12-hour period: 24 gallons was measured on the water meter at the road. For a 24-hour period that equals 48 gallons of water usage. Our water cost at the county water district is 38 cents per 100 gallons. That equates to 3.8 cents per gallon. 3.8 cents x 48 gallons = 18.2 cents per 24 hours of keeping tank from freezing. That's $5.47 a month, that's assuming you left it on all day which we don't if the weather is nice. That's money well spent when you are on a leased farm and don't have to spend thousands on a frost-free tank to provide quality water to livestock.
@gregjudyregenerativerancher thanks. Im shocked it's that little. I'll do the math on my water cost and may chane my aapproach on a couple places. Good info
Good video Greg and a heck of a good tool. I hope someone comes with something similar to retrofit a tire tank with something like this. I regret not putting overflows in at least a couple of my tire tanks when I installed them. 😢
I wonder if there is a way to have 1) the inlet source (which has a shut-off float attached to it) feed the trough, that 2) has an overflow that 3) goes into another tank, that 4) has a pump, that 5) sends the overflow back into the initial tank to reduce water waste. Over engineering? Too many stop-points could increase freeze-up?
Sounds like you have to many items that can freeze or break. When your talking about a very minimal flow of water to keep it from freezing with this setup, keeping it simple goes along ways!
Hey Greg, I seemed to recall another video of yours where you run a 1” or so diameter of poly tube out of the side of the tank and then have a steady flow of water siphoning out of the tank through that tube to keep the tank constantly in a refill state. Is that method still effective with keeping the water in the tank from freezing?
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher more expensive than letting the water pump run? Just trying to learn here. I didn’t realize they are that expensive to power. They are all over VA.
Your house water heater tank that supplies your house is 30 to 40% if your monthly electric bill. Having a Ritchie water tank with a electric heater in the bottom of it just gave you another water heater monthly bill. This water is supplied by county pressurized water, no pump or electricity is needed to use it. Just hook onto it and your in business.👍
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher gotcha. That won’t work here. I have to pump my water. Also, for the record a water wont be heating to 120F. It wont heat at all during the day as it is almost always above freezing here. It wont use nearly the electricity that a water heater will. Thank you for the help Greg. I always learn from watching.
I'm surprised you don't just use a solar or plug in water pump down in the bottom of the tank to keep water circulating - I'd think you'd save money by moving the water inside the tank.
I also heard about the salt water trick - Put 1/4 cup salt in a 20 oz plastic water bottle, fill to the top with water. Float this salt water bottle inside your waterer. Salt water has a much lower freezing point (it has to get really cold for a really long time for ocean inlets to freeze).
Moving water actually freezes rather quickly. We've experimented with pumps and such you have to somehow circulate warmer water and not just run a pump or it freezes . I've frozen many running water sources lol
Very smart but a bit of waste at the end, thats money and you could gravity activate a water wheel to make power for airpumps for the water quality... why not save that and let it power a waterwheel (easy to diy with an old washer) connected to an air pump with manifold.. it would increase oxygen to the water (low wattage even solar could power super cheaply) and i use this to water crops using rain for pennies per crop. Oxygen bubbles keep ice from forming... alternative and increased oxygen also helps the animals, while improving water quality longterm, reducing your water check and cleaning labor (my expertise heh)
It's not a waste at all when you don't have to spend an hour a day waiting for two 400-gallon water tanks to fill up each morning. I adjusted the water flow on the petcock yesterday to 1/4 pint per minute coming out the overflow. When you have numerous farms, time is money and you don't want to waste valuable time.
I drink water out of that tank all the time, nice clean water. That brown color is from oxidation of the plastic material over 30 years of use. It is part of the tank now!!
I gotta tell you I don't think this was well explained at all other than you have a constant flow of water going in from the bottom and a constant flow being drained off the top. I hope it works for you but unless you increase that flow significantly when it's 0 degrees it is going to freeze and then you will just have a lot of water going on the ground. I would hate to have to reach into the bottom of that tank every day or so to adjust the flow. Good luck
It should work fine in this context. I've used similar setups. It may not work as well in Minnesota eh. As Greg said increase the flow overnight if expecting extreme cold and turn down during the day. Get a few long plastic sleeve gloves to keep your arm dry.
@@BruceClithero you could use a piece of pipe and put a slice in the end to fit that valve. That way you'd have a long tool so never have to put your hand in the water.
Aye - I think I would figure something out that would permanently attach to that petcock or could be easily slipped over it, assuming the water stays clear enough, so that the flow adjustment could be done without having to reach in that cold cold water. That does not appeal to this child. I'm sure they will sort it out.@@BruceClithero
Time will tell, I have already made a tool to reach into the water that fits the petcock valve handle, thanks to one of my UA-cam subscribers idea. No cold wet arms for me! I absolutely love this valve so far; it's been 20 degrees and not a single sliver of ice formed on tank. I sure don't miss standing around waiting on 2 400-gallon tanks to fill to water our bull mob for 24 hours.
1/4” stream of water at 40psi adds up to the thousands of gallons in no time at all. That’s an expensive way to get water to cattle for months at a time. Either a geothermal or electric water trough is money spent on a front end. But it’s better than money spent slowly during cold weather and having to spend same amount on back end as spent on front after wasting money slowly during the winter. It’s kinda like renting after you rent for years you still have nothing. And now you have to buy something you’ve been paying for anyway and not owning it.
You are off in outer space with your water calculations and costs! Here are the facts from water just being measured over 12-hour period: 24 gallons was measured on the water meter at the road. For a 24-hour period that equals 48 gallons of water usage. Our water cost at the county water district is 38 cents per 100 gallons. That equates to 3.8 cents per gallon. 3.8 cents x 48 gallons = 18.2 cents per 24 hours of keeping tank from freezing. That's $5.47 a month, that's assuming you left it on all day which we don't if the weather is nice. That's money well spent when you are on a leased farm and don't have to spend thousands on a frost-free tank to provide quality water to livestock.
Russ is quite the innovator and just a super good guy! Always willing to help or give advice
This will be my 3rd winter with a float from Russ. It's works very well down to the low 20's. The only issue I have had is the copper tubing broke off but it still works without it. The only other down side is having a place for the overflow to go away from the herd. Enjoy the gained free time now that you don't have to manually water!
Thanks for the video! It’s getting colder here too. We got snow on the ground now. They said up to 3” of snow. I bought my bigger electric fence charger the other day. It was on sale so I was super happy. It was 25% cheaper than what it has been. I’ve been watching the prices for a few months every day at different websites. When I try to buy something that I need in the future, I try to get a deal on it so I watch prices for a few months especially if I don’t need it right away. I’ve saved a lot of money doing this. Sometimes I watch for 6 months but I watch prices about twice a week at most. It takes me about 15 seconds a day to look it up since I have each website under favorites.
Snowed here last night, about 3 inches.
Hats off to Russ Wilson it's a brilliant solution! Thanks for this great video Greg.
I love russ' videos - he hasn't done so much recently but sure gets you thinking.
It was -7 this morning but cows are looking great
Nice job Mr. Judy and Mr. Wilson. I got me one, gotta put it in. Thanks
With a solid wind break the wind will hit it and go up and over the top and come back down on the Lee side. With only about 50% solid the wind goes thru the slats but the velocity is drastically reduced. I use free pallets for my windbreak and they work amazingly good. The reduced wind area is about 10 times the height of the windbreak.
I’m in the middle of a 240 turbine wind farm so it’s windy here !
I was sitting behind the solid panel shooting this video, very little wind was observed. 50% warmer to!!!
For a moment I thought you were going to teach us how to perfectly poach eggs. Such intro picture!😮😂
Clever solution! What is happening: Water reaches its maximum density at 4 DEG C. Water colder than 4 DEG C rises to the surface and overflows out of the container before it has the chance to freeze.
Thanks for sharing that with us, did not know this info!
During the winter to water my chickens I have an IBC tote circulate water through 1 1/4” PVC about 1700 gallons per hour with a 250 watt heated element
I love watching your videos, mostly for educational purposes. Thank you for what you do. Sadly, there is much you say that I can not hear because of the background noises.
The transcript might be helpful, if you have that on your device...
Could drop the overflow water into a small French drain type of arrangement to be tidy. Like a septic leach field line. My dad used to adjust his float valves so they would leak like that in the winter to prevent freezing. We get into the single digits here in the winter. Nowadays have installed frost free.
Water bowls, buckets were frozen the last few mornings in north central PA. Supposed to be above freezing tonight. Have a blessed day.
A pint a minute is roughly 180 gallons a day... but running water doesn't freeze. (pick your battle) On another channel, they used an old tire and a bucket that fit snug in the center, then dug a hole under the entire thing. The heat from the earth rises up, but stops at the tire, which creates a double walled sort of insulation for the top of that bucket. Depending on your exact location the hole in the ground will vary in depth, but the idea is sound enough that heat rises... and the ground will be over 40 degrees once you go below the frost line. This is how they deal with buried water meters in my area. Meter is under a cover about 6 inches below grade, but the pit below is 4 feet deep. Ground temp is around 45 degrees when it's 10 below zero here.
Please do you recall the channel? Have a blessed day!
@@Marilou-g5t the channel where I saw the comment was not the channel where the idea originated. IOW, a poster explained that they saw it elsewhere. It was a homesteading channel as I recall. I'm sure you could find many ideas if you search cattle water freezing issues.
@@rupe53 thanks!
@@rupe53 I found "Geo Thermal Water System" channel Rob Davis , a 3 foot diameter hole 10 feet deep lined with culvert pipe, fed by inflow pipe deep down. ua-cam.com/video/HDeBq51kdZg/v-deo.html Not much help if bedrock is too close to the surface.
Folks here are the actual numbers:
Here are the facts from water just being measured over 12-hour period:
24 gallons was measured on the water meter at the road. For a 24-hour period that equals 48 gallons of water usage. Our water cost at the county water district is 38 cents per 100 gallons. That equates to 3.8 cents per gallon. 3.8 cents x 48 gallons = 18.2 cents per 24 hours of keeping tank from freezing. That's $5.47 a month, that's assuming you left it on all day which we don't if the weather is nice. That's money well spent when you are on a leased farm and don't have to spend thousands on a frost-free tank to provide quality water to livestock.
That flow is pretty strong. I am going to estimate you are running over 300 gallons per day.
First 24 hours was 270 gallons used, this includes what 26 bulls drank during that period. I turned down the volume yesterday by 75% and it was not froze this morning.,
great setup. @@gregjudyregenerativerancher
👍 Russ Wilson!
Have you tried a Freeze Miser?
I just ordered one ☝🏼
What is the best time to put the rams with the ewes for breeding? With a small operation is it ok to leave them together all the time?
Thanks greg. Would love to know how this does come bitter cold and if you're happy with the design. Have to wonder however, if you're using Rural Water with that much overflow if it wouldn't quickly pay for itself to install a frost-free automatic waterer
Here are the facts from water just being measured over 12-hour period:
24 gallons was measured on the water meter at the road. For a 24-hour period that equals 48 gallons of water usage. Our water cost at the county water district is 38 cents per 100 gallons. That equates to 3.8 cents per gallon. 3.8 cents x 48 gallons = 18.2 cents per 24 hours of keeping tank from freezing. That's $5.47 a month, that's assuming you left it on all day which we don't if the weather is nice. That's money well spent when you are on a leased farm and don't have to spend thousands on a frost-free tank to provide quality water to livestock.
@gregjudyregenerativerancher thanks. Im shocked it's that little. I'll do the math on my water cost and may chane my aapproach on a couple places. Good info
Good video Greg and a heck of a good tool. I hope someone comes with something similar to retrofit a tire tank with something like this. I regret not putting overflows in at least a couple of my tire tanks when I installed them. 😢
I wonder if there is a way to have 1) the inlet source (which has a shut-off float attached to it) feed the trough, that 2) has an overflow that 3) goes into another tank, that 4) has a pump, that 5) sends the overflow back into the initial tank to reduce water waste. Over engineering? Too many stop-points could increase freeze-up?
Sounds like you have to many items that can freeze or break. When your talking about a very minimal flow of water to keep it from freezing with this setup, keeping it simple goes along ways!
Not so sure that would work in northern Mn
Probably not.
I’ve got to ask Greg where did you get that tank from? It looks like it’s tough and not brittle like a Rubbermaid that I’ve been using
Can’t find these tanks anymore. This one was purchased from Kentucky Graziers Supply which is no longer in business.
Would a small pond pump/aerator keep it from freezing?
Hey Greg, I seemed to recall another video of yours where you run a 1” or so diameter of poly tube out of the side of the tank and then have a steady flow of water siphoning out of the tank through that tube to keep the tank constantly in a refill state. Is that method still effective with keeping the water in the tank from freezing?
Yes, it works very well but uses much more water than the valve we got from Russ.
How much water does it use approximately?
HI Greg, when you have fed your sheep protein in the winter, what do you feed for protein?
Molasses tubs
Thanks Greg, I found some.@@gregjudyregenerativerancher
I assume you have no electricity there in that location? This is why you didn’t install a Ritchie waterer?
Ritchie waterers are very expensive to buy and the electric bill to operate them will break your bank account. Not for me.
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher more expensive than letting the water pump run? Just trying to learn here. I didn’t realize they are that expensive to power. They are all over VA.
Your house water heater tank that supplies your house is 30 to 40% if your monthly electric bill. Having a Ritchie water tank with a electric heater in the bottom of it just gave you another water heater monthly bill.
This water is supplied by county pressurized water, no pump or electricity is needed to use it. Just hook onto it and your in business.👍
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher gotcha. That won’t work here. I have to pump my water. Also, for the record a water wont be heating to 120F. It wont heat at all during the day as it is almost always above freezing here. It wont use nearly the electricity that a water heater will.
Thank you for the help Greg. I always learn from watching.
Richie Waters add $80+ a month.
I've heard plants that are hydrated withstand the cold better...
Too bad can't redirect the overflow into some other reservoir.
I'm surprised you don't just use a solar or plug in water pump down in the bottom of the tank to keep water circulating - I'd think you'd save money by moving the water inside the tank.
I also heard about the salt water trick - Put 1/4 cup salt in a 20 oz plastic water bottle, fill to the top with water. Float this salt water bottle inside your waterer. Salt water has a much lower freezing point (it has to get really cold for a really long time for ocean inlets to freeze).
Or adding molasses in to keep the water from freezing.
@@leelindsay5618 a coworker tried this and it did not do anything.
Moving water actually freezes rather quickly. We've experimented with pumps and such you have to somehow circulate warmer water and not just run a pump or it freezes . I've frozen many running water sources lol
@@simplynatural100 water coming out of a well is usually about 50 °F, isn't it?
Very smart but a bit of waste at the end, thats money and you could gravity activate a water wheel to make power for airpumps for the water quality... why not save that and let it power a waterwheel (easy to diy with an old washer) connected to an air pump with manifold.. it would increase oxygen to the water (low wattage even solar could power super cheaply) and i use this to water crops using rain for pennies per crop. Oxygen bubbles keep ice from forming... alternative and increased oxygen also helps the animals, while improving water quality longterm, reducing your water check and cleaning labor (my expertise heh)
It's not a waste at all when you don't have to spend an hour a day waiting for two 400-gallon water tanks to fill up each morning. I adjusted the water flow on the petcock yesterday to 1/4 pint per minute coming out the overflow. When you have numerous farms, time is money and you don't want to waste valuable time.
The white bucket holding the water, it looks dirty. I think you need to replace it with a new clean one.
I drink water out of that tank all the time, nice clean water. That brown color is from oxidation of the plastic material over 30 years of use. It is part of the tank now!!
I gotta tell you I don't think this was well explained at all other than you have a constant flow of water going in from the bottom and a constant flow being drained off the top. I hope it works for you but unless you increase that flow significantly when it's 0 degrees it is going to freeze and then you will just have a lot of water going on the ground. I would hate to have to reach into the bottom of that tank every day or so to adjust the flow. Good luck
It should work fine in this context. I've used similar setups. It may not work as well in Minnesota eh. As Greg said increase the flow overnight if expecting extreme cold and turn down during the day.
Get a few long plastic sleeve gloves to keep your arm dry.
@@BruceClithero you could use a piece of pipe and put a slice in the end to fit that valve. That way you'd have a long tool so never have to put your hand in the water.
Aye - I think I would figure something out that would permanently attach to that petcock or could be easily slipped over it, assuming the water stays clear enough, so that the flow adjustment could be done without having to reach in that cold cold water. That does not appeal to this child. I'm sure they will sort it out.@@BruceClithero
Time will tell, I have already made a tool to reach into the water that fits the petcock valve handle, thanks to one of my UA-cam subscribers idea. No cold wet arms for me! I absolutely love this valve so far; it's been 20 degrees and not a single sliver of ice formed on tank. I sure don't miss standing around waiting on 2 400-gallon tanks to fill to water our bull mob for 24 hours.
I like that idea a lot, thanks for that tip!!!!
1/4” stream of water at 40psi adds up to the thousands of gallons in no time at all. That’s an expensive way to get water to cattle for months at a time. Either a geothermal or electric water trough is money spent on a front end. But it’s better than money spent slowly during cold weather and having to spend same amount on back end as spent on front after wasting money slowly during the winter. It’s kinda like renting after you rent for years you still have nothing. And now you have to buy something you’ve been paying for anyway and not owning it.
You are off in outer space with your water calculations and costs!
Here are the facts from water just being measured over 12-hour period:
24 gallons was measured on the water meter at the road. For a 24-hour period that equals 48 gallons of water usage. Our water cost at the county water district is 38 cents per 100 gallons. That equates to 3.8 cents per gallon. 3.8 cents x 48 gallons = 18.2 cents per 24 hours of keeping tank from freezing. That's $5.47 a month, that's assuming you left it on all day which we don't if the weather is nice. That's money well spent when you are on a leased farm and don't have to spend thousands on a frost-free tank to provide quality water to livestock.