 Hi, thanks for joining me for an overview of livestock drinking water quality. My name is Eve Brantley. I'm the Extension Water Specialist with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System and I'd like to thank Dr. Kim Mullinex who is a big part of putting this information together for the invitation to speak as part of the Animal Science and Forages webinar team series. As we get started I'd just like to say that of course water is one of the most important substances on earth and the quantity and quality of water influence not only our quality of life but also of our livestock and herds. If you have a concern that water is causing a health problem please contact your veterinarian to make sure that you get a correct diagnosis. As we get started with this webinar we'll talk about how much water to cattle need, to thinking about the quantity. Cattle need between 7 and 20 gallons per day. It's a pretty big range and it's because it depends on several factors which include forage dry matter, the season and the physiological state of the animal as well as the size. Green forage has higher moisture than dry forage so animals that are consuming primarily green forage won't require as much water as those that are primarily consuming dry forage. Of course temperatures have a lot to do with how much water needs to be consumed. Higher temperatures increase the amount of water that animals need but interestingly high humidity can reduce that daily consumption. When we think about the size of animal a 400 pound calf compared with a thousand pound steer and a mature cow you can see the difference in water needs. Also in those two columns you'll see the difference between a somewhat cooler day 50 degrees Fahrenheit compared to a 90 degrees Fahrenheit day. More than double the need for water between those cool days and the warmer days and then you'll see that the mature cow needs more water in those warmer days than the thousand pound steer. Continuing on with physiological state water consumption will increase with age, weight, pregnancy and lactation and if you're thinking about a plan for how much water your herd needs think about two gallons of water per 100 pounds of body weight each day. So now we've talked about how much water is needed. Let's switch gears a little bit and talk about the water quality. I mentioned earlier that water is one of the most critical substances on our planet and that quality of water that we consume we like to have clear water, cool water, good tasting water and livestock are no different. They prefer water that tastes good and that is cool. One interesting thing that I'll mention a couple times and we'll spend a couple minutes on is that the more water that livestock are able to drink means that they also have the ability to consume and process more feed and this equals increased weight gain. So thinking through that we want our animals to have access to clean water so that they can drink more of it to be able to graze more and increase their weight gain and again just like us if water tastes bad or has high levels of contaminants that might be a risk for their health they might tend to drink less of it which again translates to less potential weight gain. There was a study done that looked looking at clean water that is water from a well spring or river that was pumped to a trough comparing that with water pumped from a pond or directly drinking water from a pond and what was found is that the cattle that were offered clean water spent more time grazing and less time resting and loafing than the cattle that were drinking directly from the pond. So again on this theme of the more water consumption the more time that the animals will have to spend grazing and increasing their weight gain. So the characteristics of water then that are preferred by livestock include temperature. Cattle prefer water that's between 40 and 65 degrees Fahrenheit and if the water is very warm over 80 degrees Fahrenheit they will drink less of it. Besides the temperature of the water, taste of the water also comes into play. Total dissolved solids which is also a measure of salinity common items like sodium chloride, common salt, magnesium like epsom salt, calcium and sulfate can influence the palatability of that water. They also can have a health concern if salinity levels are greater than a thousand milligrams per liter you start to have potential concern with increased diarrhea and as well as limited water intake. A pollutant of concern is nitrate. Safe drinking levels for nitrate are below 100 milligrams per liter. Nitrate levels that are above 300 milligrams per liter can result in severe health problems and even death. It's important to be aware of balancing nitrate levels not just in water that's being consumed but to be aware of the amount of nitrate in feed that's being consumed so that you can have that balanced diet and not exceed the safe nitrate levels. Why are we concerned about nitrate? It's reduced to nitrite in the rumen and nitrite can limit the ability of red blood cells to carry oxygen so your animals will actually be starving for oxygen because they have no ability to carry it. In humans this condition is known as blue baby syndrome and if you do a quick internet search you'll find pictures of people with blue lips and small children with blue lips who have had excess nitrate in their diet and it limits that oxygen supply so this is of course a real health concern for cattle and again just going back to the need to be aware of balancing not only the nitrate that's in water but in feed. During times of drought certain forages can accumulate high concentrations of nitrate and you'll see those listed here um summer annual grasses Bermuda grass Johnson grass if they've had high nitrogen fertilization so in times of drought another opportunity to be aware of concerns with increased nitrate consumption. Pathogens are another concern for herd health pathogens are disease causing organisms that can be introduced by untreated animal waste. As you might imagine consuming untreated animal waste can lead to health problems. Untreated animal waste plus nitrate and and other nutrients as it enters into a water body can also lead to concerns with harmful algal blooms. Last summer we heard a lot about harmful algal blooms especially as it relates to blue-green algae that produce toxins called micro systems these can lead to severe health concerns and death. Well what are some steps we can take as we consider livestock drinking water sources and understanding the quality of the water that that you may already have. Well one easy thing to do is to have your water tested annually if you have a concern about it. Auburn University of course many of you are familiar with the soil and forage lab well they also have the water testing lab there and they can screen a water sample for 16 parameters that includes some of the things we've talked about nitrates total dissolved solids and pH and others. In fact you can go to their webpage and pull down their water sample form and see that the w1 analysis will test for calcium magnesium potassium phosphorus copper iron manganese zinc boron aluminum cadmium chromium lead sodium nickel as well as pH soluble salts and nitrate in nitrate nitrogen. On the right side of your screen is just an example of what that form looks like as it comes back with the different elements and parameters that have been evaluated and just as an example in this particular sample the nitrate was very low five milligrams per liter and total dissolved solids was also low and 103 milligrams per liter parts per million. So this is a nice screen again if you have concerns you can send a water sample there for a quick screen. If you have an algal bloom in one of your ponds and you are worried that it might be a blue-green algae that may release some of the toxins described earlier Dr. Allen Wilson has a service lab that can test that algae you can visit this webpage get more information on how to send in a sample and learn more about what he has to offer very very helpful service lab he's at Auburn University. All right so we can test our water understand more about the quality that it is right now but we can also be proactive in protecting drinking water and protecting our herd health. So one way to do it is to consider limiting the opportunity for livestock to loaf in ponds or around ponds and in wet soils. Those wet soils the longer that cattle loaf in them and are exposed to them means that there's an increase in opportunity for soil-borne bacterium like foot rot to be transmitted so keeping them in areas away from ponds and standing in those wet stagnant soils can be beneficial for other health concerns too. We can also think about managing livestock access to ponds and streams only allowing access at certain times or in certain locations where you have a reinforced substrate to keep them from loafing or from having contact with wet soils for long periods of time. Another recommendation is to keep a healthy streamside forest those healthy streamside forests help filter out any concerns or pollutants before it reaches into the streams. We can also think about the watershed that area of land in your farm that will be contributing water to a pond or to a stream and just being mindful of the amount of chemicals and maintaining the correct levels that we want to put out so that they aren't transported to a stream or to a pond and away from where you want them. The study we mentioned earlier about water being piped from a clean source whether it was a spring or a well can also be put into place with piping water to a water trough or another type of waterer. Freeze-proof troughs like the kinds with floating balltop waters do a great job in cold weather of keeping the water from freezing so that livestock have access to it and year-round they're beneficial they keep water cool in the summer and they also keep water relatively clean and free of debris that might be dropping off animals mouths and limiting the sunlight like these balltop waters do means that it decreases the amount of algae that can grow. So speaking of algae, what if you have a trough that needs a good scrubbing? Well, working with several of our extension colleagues in the Animal Science and Forges team, we've put together a Lessons Learned and Cleaning Trough Tips that you can find at this website to learn more about recommended bleach amounts. We even talk about opportunities to goldfish and then just some suggestions on maintenance schedules and just keeping that water trough clean so that the water that your animals come to drink is that high quality good tasting water that means it's good for them so that they can process more of their time grazing and putting on weight. So as always, there's more information at the aces.edu slash beef systems website to learn more about how all of these topics fit together for productive farm that is good for your animals good for us and really just puts together a nice overall system for livestock production. I really appreciate your time and if you would like to learn more there's more information on drinking water quality and quantity for livestock that's at the Alabama cooperative extension website aces.edu if you do a search for livestock water quality and as always don't hesitate to reach out and ask us questions and we'll be very happy to help answer them. Thanks so much for your time and have a great day.