LIVESTOCK WATER DURING BOIL WATER ADVISORY

LIVESTOCK WATER DURING BOIL WATER ADVISORY Artesia recently had a boil water advisory for city water. I received a few phone calls on what should I do with my livestock water? This is a good question obviously; it could be difficult to boil 15 to 25 gallons of water per head per day. First of turn off the water supply to the livestock tanks if possible. \ If you know your tank, size most small horse tanks are about 125 gallons it is a lot easier. For horses the University of Minnesota Extension Service, make the following recommendation. After the bleach treatment, let the water stand for at least an hour, before allowing the horse to drink. If the water is cold (less than 10°C or 50°F) increase the waiting period to two hours. If you are treating water that may be contaminated with chlorine-resistant parasites from animal droppings, double the amount of bleach and wait for 2 hours before allowing your horse to drink. Strict adherence to recommended levels of bleach and the subsequent waiting time need to be followed in order to avoid over application, which can lead to toxicity. Table 1. Amount of bleach needed to disinfect water Gals. of water to disinfect Amount of bleach needed* 1 2 drops 5 11 drops 50 1 3/4 tsp. 100 3 1/2 tsp. 500 6 Tbs. *Will produce water with about 2 parts per million of chlorine. To sanitize the water for ruminant livestock be commiserative. The microflora of the rumen are subject reduction or killing by chlorine according to Dr. Marcy Ward livestock Specialist New Mexico Cooperative Extension. If you have a large storage tank you may have to calculate the volume of the tank of water. Google will actually do that for you if you put in the detentions of the tank. The first step is to determine the amount of water to be treated. This can be done using the following formulas. For vertical cylinder tanks Water volume in gallons = D2×H x0.78×7.48 Where D = the diameter of the tank in feet H =standing height of the water in feet.0.78 = a constant of pi (π) 7.48 = gallons per cubic foot (Note: This formula is not accurate for cylinder tanks positioned horizontally). For square and rectangular tanks Water volume in gallons = L×W×H×7.48Where L = length of tank in feet W = width in feet H = standing height of water in feet 7.48 = gallons per cubic foot 1. (Extension Water Resource Specialist, Department of Extension Plant Sciences, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces). Example: The volume of water in a six-foot-diameter vertical cylinder tank where the water stands at eight feet is: 6×6×8×0.78×7.48 = 1,680.31 gallons For practical purposes, this can be rounded to the nearest hundred, in this example, 1,700 gallons. You will need this information for a couple of things. Divide the gallon by the number of gallons need per head per day and that will tell you how many days of water you have on hand. If the advisory is lifted before your storage is gone, you don’t have to worry about the second part. If the advisory continues and your storage is low, you will need to know how many gallon of water you need to treat. If your storage is low you will have refill the storage, turn off the water so you do not keep adding water and diluting the sanitized water with contaminated water You will have to let your storage deplete then calculate how much water is left. Calculate how much contaminated water you will be adding to your sanitized water. Refill and add treatment to the volume you added. This recommendation is not for human use! Please go to our web site and read the following publications. http://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_m/M116/welcome.html ; http://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_w/W-101.pdf for more information. Of course, there are some other alternatives, which are discussed in the above publication. If you have the capabilities, you can get water from outside the advisory area and transport it to your livestock. If you have livestock who have loose bowel movement or show, symptoms of distress contact your local Veterinarian as soon as possible. The Subscribe to Eddy County Ag news at: http://nmsueddyag.blogspot.com/ Eddy County Extension Service, New Mexico State University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and educator. All programs are available to everyone regardless of race, color, religion, sex, age, handicap, or national origin. New Mexico State University, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Eddy County Government Cooperating