Remote Watering Systems Protect Water Quality

One was a beacon system (light) and the other was a trail camera system that sent pictures of the trough to the producer’s cell phone throughout the day.

As a Watershed Stewardship Group, the CRVWA is always looking for ways to protect and improve the water quality within the Carrot River Watershed.

Remote watering systems offer an opportunity to protect water quality by limiting access while providing a clean, reliable water source. Livestock with direct access to water sources, such as dugouts or wetlands, threatens water quality through direct deposit of waste (manure and urine) and increased erosion along banks from their hooves.

Remote watering limits those environmental challenges and can also increase production. Research from the Western Beef Development Center has demonstrated that calves from cows that drank from a trough gained an average of 0.09 pounds per day more than calves from cows that only had direct access to a dugout.

However, reliability of a remote watering system is sometimes questioned by livestock producers. The potential that a remote water system may fail, leaving livestock without a source of water until the problem is discovered, is a valid concern from many producers.

To offset this concern, producers generally make at least one trip a day out to check on their watering system. This takes time away from other farm duties and increases their cost of production. A remote monitoring system can help alleviate or even remove that concern.

The systems used in the ADOPT project by the CRVWA both had monitors which alerted producers of any issues with the remote watering systems.

Results: The beacon system (light) required that the producer be within eyesight of the light, and therefore likely still requires a trip to the pasture. This does not lead to an overall reduction in labour costs.

However, the camera system reduced labour costs for the producer through the reduction of trips to the pasture. Receiving photos of the trough straight to the producer’s phone helped monitor the functionality of the watering system.

The remote monitoring system with a camera system was synced to the producer’s cell phone, sending photos of water quantity throughout the day.

This way the producer could see whether or not the system was working.

Now that the ADOPT research project is complete, the All-in-One solar watering system used in the project, constructed by SunDog Solar, is set to be auctioned off by the CRVWA on February 28, 2019. More information on the watering system and the auction can be found by calling the office at 306-752-1270.

by Lynette Manuel, MSEM Watershed Technician - Carrot River Valley Watershed Association Inc.

Remote Watering Systems Protect Water Quality

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