Water

Part of a series of 7 articles about CowSignals ® to improve

health production and welfare of your cows

THIS IS A SERIES OF 7 ARTICLES ABOUT COWSIGNALS® TO IMPROVE HEALTH PRODUCTION

AND WELFARE OF YOUR COWS. CONTENT 7 ARTICLES: FEED, WATER, LIGHT, AIR, REST, SPACE
AND HEALTH.

THIS TIME THE ARTICLE ABOUT WATER.

Author: Joep Driessen is a Dutch dairy vet with 15 years experience in advising dairy farmers
in 45 countries. His Vetvice team is active in CowSignals training, Barn Design and Dairy
management. www.cowsignals.com

The CowSignals Diamond: what is the weakest

spot in your dairy?

Does the cow get the 6 freedoms of the pasture,

also offered in the barn?
In the middle number seven:Health.
Do you see curved backs, empty rumens,
wounds or infection?

Look, Think, Act, do something to make your

cows and yourself happy!

CowSignals training center – Hoekgraaf 17a – 6617 AX Bergharen – The Netherlands

www.cowsignals.com – info@cowsignals.com - + 31 (0) 487 745 041

CowSignals® is a member of the Vetvice® Group

HALF OF THE COWS IN EUROPE ARE DRINKING DIRT AND SHIT...

You can achieve maximum water intake

with good quality clean water and easy
access to the drinkers. Over 85% of milk is
water. The more water your cows drink, the
more milk you get. Water light and air are
the cheapest feed!
In a survey we found that half of the farms
have very poor quality shitty water.
Because of not regular cleaning or because
of bad systems with communicating
drinkers where the low connecting pipeline
is full of dirt. On this bad half of the farms
they found too many bacteria, high iron,
sulphate etc. The solution is again very Low drinker, from two sides available
simple: clean your troughs every Monday,
Wednesday and Friday after milking as a routine. Also use a brush to clean it properly,
because the slimy rims are growing many bacteria. This is how the better farms assure
water intake. And again, this cleaning time is paid back in litres milk…

COWSIGNALS: DO THEY DRINK ENOUGH WATER?

Look at the coats of the cow. Shiny smooth coats is a sign of good water intake. Elastic skin
is a good sign: lift up a piece of skin from the side of a cow’s neck and it should pop back in
place within half a second. If the wrinkle stays there after releasing it is a sign of
dehydration. What are the eyes telling
you? Lively and round big eyes are good
signs. If eyes are sunken deep in the skull
it means this cow did not drink today…. If
a calf looks like this you better start
running to call the vet to save her life.
On a farm in Scotland and some in
Ireland I found heifers and weak cows
with very stiff manure. This was on farms
with only one big drinker for over 100
animals. One “big mama” is ruling the
place and she likes to spend several

Too high hours in front of the drinker to show

everybody that she is the boss. Cows do
not get enough chance to drink. There is always another cow chasing you away. The best
half will still be OK, but the weakest 50% are suffering. We advise one open trough drinker
per 20 cows, or a double fast drinker per 20 cows well spread over the area.

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How do cows behave at the drinker?
Are they scared? For other cows or for
stray voltage? Are they looking around
before drinking? Are they sniffing and
not drinking? Are they passing the first
drinker and walk to the next one? Are
they sticking the tongue in first, to
check the water temperature? Do you
hear them making sucking noises: that
means there is not enough water
pressure or the drinker is too small.
Can the cows reach the water or is the
rim too high? Do they touch the rim of
the drinker? We advise to have wide
Easy to empty
passages and put the drinkers on 60
cm high only. Many are placed at 110
cm height and you see that cows can hardly drink. Try it yourself; drink water while you push
with one finger in your throat. This is not a good feeling and makes the cows drink less.

HOW MANY LITRES WATER DO THEY NEED?

Cows like to drink 10-15 times a day around 10 litres. In hot summers a high yielding 10.000
litre cow can drink 200 litres per day. The normal drinking speed of a cow is about 20 litres
per minute so cows like to drink a minimum of 10 times a day for a half a minute. The more
drinkers you put in, the better chance that your heifers will drink enough water. For a nice
drink the cows like to have a water depth of at least 7 cm. They have to dip their mouth in
without sucking air at the sides of their lips. Then if you talk about “fast drinkers”, you need
a water flow of 20 litres per minute to serve the cow. That means that you need 5
atmosphere pressure, a 30 mm wide tube and a large inlet opening in the drinker. Many
commercially available drinkers are useless, because engineers don’t know much about
cows and farmers. Check the details and test it with a big bucket: do they bring 20 litres per
minute? Are they easy to clean? Do they have nice round edges, so there are no risks of
wounding the cow? Are they wide enough so a cow can stand straight and drink
comfortably?

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TIP TANKS, OPEN DRINKERS WITH QUICK PLUGS, DOUBLE FAST DRINKERS

They are all good systems but

they all need attention. Tip tanks
need to be tipped. Many farmers
don’t do this often enough for
many bad reasons. One is they
don’t like to have too much
water in the manure… Most of
the systems are difficult to clean.
Shallow tanks with a slope and
an easy plug are excellent
because you can clean ev ery
corner with a brush easily. Fast
drinkers need high pressure.
Then they will give your cows a
fresh drink every time. The cows
will drink most of the food
particles stuck to their nose and Double fast drinker: Nico and Joep can drink, Jan has to wait….
washed off in the water
themselves during the same
drink, so they stay rather clean all the time.

DRINKERS IN THE MILK PARLOUR?

It is better to make excellent water supply in your cow house then in your parlour where
they can only use it twice a day for 15 minutes. If you have a very bad water supply in your
barn, parlour drinkers can be a cheap way to improve water intake.

TEMPERATURE OF THE WATER?

Don’t worry about the temperature. As long as it stays above zero. First make sure you have
clean water. Second make sure you have enough drinkers, Thirdly: check the pressure so
they will be always full.
Then if you have these major 3 things assured, you can start to worry about the ideal
temperature of around 17 degrees Celcius. Cows drink more in winter time when you
supply warm water.
Cooling water from the milk cooler can be used to water the cows. Just beware: if you don’t
clean the drinkers cows will only drink less water in summertime, because of rapid bacterial
growth. So warm water in winter is ok, in summer it is risky. For cooling the cow in heat
stress we prefer cold water.
In the very open buildings that we nowadays advise with our vetvice barn design team, it is
necessary to have a good winter proof water system that cannot freeze. A ring line with
constant circulation does the job. For below 5 degrees Centigrade we also need a heater on
the system, and electric heaters on the water tanks, or a special circulating system that
leads the warmer ring line water through the open troughs.

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SHITTING IN THE DRINKERS

If you place a drinker in a narrow collecting

area: shit happens. If you place it behind the
eating cows in the cow lane, you see that when
they back out of the row of eating cows they
end up shitting in the tanks. So the position of
the drinkers is critical. If you have narrow
passages I prefer the double fast drinkers in
every passage. The advantage is that cows
drink in the same direction as the cows resting
in the double row of cubicles. This leaves space
open for a passing cow.
Cows always like to drink when they come and
go from the feeding table. So a passage
without a drinker is not a good idea.
Easy to clean with a brush, also around the swimmer.

POSITION IN THE BARN

With 60 cows and 3 passages to the feeding table we normaly put a big drinker in the front
and 2 double fast drinkers in the 2 other passages.
In small groups try to always give them 2 drinkers. It is good to put them on both sides of
the fence so two groups can use the same drinker.
Don’t put any concrete blocks under the drinkers as a step stone. It is a risk for wounded
legs while fighting for water or when cows are in heat. They do this to prevent cows from
shitting in it. If you place drinkers in a good position and make the passages wide enough
there is very little risk of shitting in the tank.

WATER IMMEDIATELY AFTER CALVING

After calving we advise unlimited lukewarm water to get the cow back in shape and let her
eat as soon as possible. Some cows will drink 100 litre in the first hour.

If you have a straw pack for a fresh cow group and precalving group which is highly
recommended, than put the drinkers on the concrete cow lane area and not in the straw
pack. This will always be a messy spot. Only in your calving pen will you have to put the
drinker in the straw pack.