Homemade cattle waterer

[wigg]

Has anyone made their own automatic waterer? I saw the tire set up that was referred to on the rotational grazing link, and wondered if anyone has made a waterer of their own. Maybe different sized plastic barrels to allow for insulation? Maybe for a half dozen head of cattle it might be more trouble than it's worth?

[jirwin]

I just use 1/2 barrels when rotating. In winter you can bust them with a sledge hammer and they dont break.

[francismilker]

Down here in the South winter freezing isn't a big problem. We do have to break ice on the troughs every morning so I just use a floating stock tank heater that can be picked up at a farm supply store for under $30.
I've got several tanks made to put in small pens made out of a half plastic barrel. They work great and are manageable to dump and clean. Only problem is sometimes an overzealous young bull or steer likes to dump them out and root them around the lot. (causing me to have to wade through the muck to get at it) For this reason I sometimes drill a hole in them and mount a 3/8" eyebolt through it and wire it to the lot fence. They may still beat on it and turn it over, it's just contained to the fence so I don't have to wade for it.