The Water Trough

In the pasture right next to the fence and adjacent to the garden, we have a 150 gallon water trough.  In the cool morning or late afternoon, the cows can always be found taking long, rejuvenating mouthfuls of water. One of the first things that I remembered learning when we purchased our cows is to never bother them when they are drinking water.  The book described their time at the water trough as "sacred time."

Cows, especially milk cows, need lots of fresh water.  Remarkably a Jersey cow drinks on average 30 gallons of water each day.  Apart from needing water for hydration just like you and me, she needs to drink 2 gallons of water to make one gallon of milk.  

At the water fountain

Looking at the cows lined up in front of the water fountain reminded me of standing in line at the water fountain in elementary school.  We'd come in from recess from playing football and we'd be all sweaty and smelling like dogs.  We would rush to the water fountain and stand in line waiting patiently for our turn.  The cool water was so refreshing.  I can remember it to this day.  We had three types of water fountains - one had a button that you would push down on to make the water come out, one had a foot pedal that you would stand on and another had a knob that you would turn to the right.

Some fountains would squirt the water higher than others and some fountains had water that was colder than others.  Those were the fountains that you wanted to drink from.  In other fountains the water would barely shoot above the nozzle, leading some people to almost put their lips on the nozzle.  Gross! We learned to steer clear of those.  Sometimes some uncouth people would spit their gum or other things in the drinking fountain drain, clogging up the works.  For some strange reason, and I guess it came from drinking long sips from the fountain while staring down into it, I can still remember the name of the drinking fountain as it was imprinted around the drain: Halsey Taylor.

Here is what I learned from the Halsey Taylor website (http://www.halseytaylor.com/about-ht.aspx):

In 1896, Halsey W. Taylor lost his father to typhoid fever caused by contaminated water. Years later, as a plant superintendent for the Packard Motor Car Company, Taylor noticed dysentery spreading quickly through the workers, and again suspected drinking water.

These personal experiences inspired Halsey W. Taylor to dedicate his life to providing a safe drink of water in public places. In 1912 he developed the Puritan Sanitary Fountain and began producing it at the original manufacturing site in Warren, Ohio.

That is very interesting.  Mr. Taylor had witnessed traumatic events caused by lack of clean, refreshing water and made it his life's work in supplying fresh drinking water for people, including young, sweaty boys waiting in lines after recess for a sip from a Halsey Taylor drinking fountain.  Thank you Mr. Taylor, my hat's off to you!

Now notice in the picture below, it is Rosie's turn to drink and she's standing there, no doubt annoying Daisy. She's also got some back-wash action dripping back into the trough from her mouth.  Not polite or sanitary, Rosie!

Gimme some water

When it gets above 85 degrees, the heat really saps the cows' energy.  You can watch them sitting in the shade panting.  They only eat in the early mornings and late afternoons after it has cooled off.  This will cause their milk production to fall off somewhat.  The heat really takes its toll on the old girls (me too!).  That is why it is so important to keep their water trough full of clean, fresh water.

Thank you for the water!

We make it a priority to fill the trough first with rainwater as long as we have it. We've experimented and believe it or not, the cows prefer rainwater to tap water and we theorize that they don't like the chlorination in tap water, so we sequester rainwater to fill the trough with.  Although they're not going to get the opportunity to drink from a Halsey Taylor drinking fountain like I did, we want to give them the next best thing.