# Reccomentations for Winter Hog Waterer?



## jkleven (Feb 28, 2016)

I've got water (flowing well) and electricity in place at a concrete pad in what will be my winter pig pasture. Can anybody recommend a suitable hog waterer that will work through a Minnesota winter? Temps can get way below zero for extended periods here so I'm thinking an insulated and heated watering device might be the way to go.


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## odieclark (May 11, 2016)

Any kind of waterer/or system that can withstand subzero temps?

Following...:rock:


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## jkleven (Feb 28, 2016)

This Mirarount 3410 sounds promising if it's claims hold true;

https://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=30e07cfe-7b6a-11d5-a192-00b0d0204ae5 

*"Now a waterer that requires no electricity, so it saves 100% of your energy costs. University testing showed that the fountain worked when temperatures were at -100 degrees wind chill and never required any external energy source."*


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## gjhinesjr (Jun 28, 2014)

Tires.

I live in south eastern south dakota. I put in a tractor tire waterer and it works pretty well. Much better than the galvanized stock tank I had before. Drop in a simple submerged heater and it's been great. The hogs can't knock it around, the rubber never gets so cold and wet that it peels at their skin, and the black absorbs heat.

If I wanted to fancy it up, I'd bring up a water line from underneath and put the whole thing on a fill valve.

Plus I like that it's an open water source, and not a small hole for their mouths like an automatic style. I've had some big breeding hogs that had a hard time getting their heads into those small access holes.


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

We use running water from a spring that flows through black plastic pipes to 65 gallon plastic drums set in the ground with an opening at the top. During the worst cold we use a cover at night. Wind block is important.

http://sugarmtnfarm.com/2012/12/27/winter-whey-water/

http://sugarmtnfarm.com/2014/12/15/winter-waterer-shroud/

We're in the central mountains of northern Vermont. It gets a bit cold here. USDA Zone 3.

http://sugarmtnfarm.com/2016/02/14/off-the-charts-at-90f-and-colder-than-hell/

Probably like MN.

-Walter


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## meiere (Dec 17, 2014)

http://smidley.com/products/hog_bars.html
This is What we use and we are in MN as well. We have 20 of them and have never had one freeze up


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

Good to put your location in the text but please also add it to your profile as it is important to many questions and discussions. See:

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/livestock-forums/pigs/505485-please-fill-location-info.html

-Walter


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## odieclark (May 11, 2016)

$433. for the Mirafount model, and unsure of the price of the Smidley hog bars? 

I guess for someone only raising a few pigs, this seems like too much to spend.


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## jkleven (Feb 28, 2016)

odieclark said:


> $433. for the Mirafount model, and unsure of the price of the Smidley hog bars?
> 
> I guess for someone only raising a few pigs, this seems like too much to spend.


I agree that it is a lot of money to water 6 pigs but my goal is to get up to more like 20 in the near future. And, I bet that after carrying water twice a day in subfreezing temps for a few months it would seem like a bargain! (if it works)


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## meiere (Dec 17, 2014)

I think our waterers were about 350 but those were 4 hole ones. Check Craigslist. Even if the heaters are shot you can go online and get new elements and thermostats if they need them. Very simple to repair. The stainless will last forever


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## edwardsonfarm (Feb 3, 2015)

This is what we have. Its a regular 100 gal. ( i think) poly stock tank that has a trough that fills with water by gravity (pic 2). It also has a place directly across from the float assembly for a plug style deicer. We just got it this year so haven't tried it in winter yet, but love how it works so far. Two things you have to remember is to keep the trough fairly clean as sediment will clog the reservoir and to keep it as level as possible for good fill. We have 5 pigs and they are never out of water and they even use it as a scratching post without knocking it over. Here is the link for Fleet Farm as that's where we got ours. Hopefully you have one close to you! http://www.fleetfarm.com/detail/freeland-100-gal-poly-tuf-stock-tank-with-hog-waterer/0000000033230 Hope this helps!


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## meiere (Dec 17, 2014)

Those big tanks with the hog trough work with a tank heater work but are a huge pita to keep clean to stop the float from hanging up


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

I don't use float valves because they are unreliable and jam up.

I also don't clean troughs. That's a job for pigs. Dirt in the bottom dissolves putting minerals into the pigs.

-Walter


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## westernco (Aug 30, 2015)

I've been using a 55gallon drum with nipple waterer and floating heater for years. Colorado high country, Zone 4. In the winter i fill it to half, i have also spray painted the drums black. Drum $35, nipple $15-$25. The only bad part is the monthly heating bill about $15-$20 per month for two heaters running. Never had a freeze up yet.


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## odieclark (May 11, 2016)

highlands said:


> I don't use float valves because they are unreliable and jam up.
> 
> I also don't clean troughs. That's a job for pigs. Dirt in the bottom dissolves putting minerals into the pigs.
> 
> -Walter


So, you use this without the use of the float? Is that what you are saying?

We have one of these too and seemed to have big problems with the float and also the tank not being or staying level.

Maybe i don't understand how it works, as I have not had anything to do with them other than feed them, and refill the water.


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

I use 65 gallon drums, 55 gallon drums, 100 gallon cattle troughs, 300 gallon cattle troughs and the bottom parts of barrels. I set them in the ground typically to reduce the lip height for the pigs and I put rocks in the bottom so the pigs can get out if they fall (get pushed) in. The water simply flows in from a pipe (1", 2", 4") and overflow flows out to the next trough or barrel. This creates a watering hole that stays full - the pig's point of view. They don't know or care about the engineering. 

-Walter


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## isaaccarlson (Oct 7, 2013)

jkleven said:


> I've got water (flowing well) and electricity in place at a concrete pad in what will be my winter pig pasture. Can anybody recommend a suitable hog waterer that will work through a Minnesota winter? Temps can get way below zero for extended periods here so I'm thinking an insulated and heated watering device might be the way to go.


I know this post is older, but I made a few pig waterers for our farm and they work well. They hold almost 300 gallons and can be moved by hand. They do require 110v, but they don’t use much power. I cover them in 1/2” plywood to protect them from the pigs. The tank and cup are heated.


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## odieclark (May 11, 2016)

isaaccarlson said:


> I know this post is older, but I made a few pig waterers for our farm and they work well. They hold almost 300 gallons and can be moved by hand. They do require 110v, but they don’t use much power. I cover them in 1/2” plywood to protect them from the pigs. The tank and cup are heated.


WOW!

That is an impressive hog water set up! That looks awesome! Heated besides! Have you put it into use?


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## isaaccarlson (Oct 7, 2013)

We have been using them for two years. The electric bill hardly changes. The tanks sit out under a lean-to behind the barn. No ice, no hauling water, just run the hose every couple of weeks.


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## odieclark (May 11, 2016)

WOW! This seems awesome. We had problems with our water set ups. Mainly because we had to bring water to them, as we don’t have running water at our property where we had space for them. Also felt we would have so many issues with winter freezing even if we did have water. 

Thanks for sharing a great idea!


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## bobp (Mar 4, 2014)

I found a cool idea for a permanent pen.

My problem is I need mine to be mobile. I truly try to rotationally manage my pasture.


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

Nice design in many ways. In our winters though that will freeze up and in the rest of the year it will fill with mud so it would be important to have a way to clean it out, both the trough and the cistern as well as access to the float valve and mechanism. I also find it is a good idea to be able to easily snake a flexible PEX pipe into other pipes incase they freeze up so build in clean-out points and I would avoid metal piping but rather go with PEX.


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## odieclark (May 11, 2016)

PEX is great!

We had a water set up and the cheapest part of the operation was the float! Ugh, most important part. Mud did clog it up at the base as well.


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## bobp (Mar 4, 2014)

I finally broke down and bought two of the side drinker stock tanks. We moved the boar/sow tractor pen close to power and ran power to them and down to the Piggy's on pasture and put in a couple floating heaters. We'll just use them as long as necessary as I prefer the nipples and clean tank water..


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## odieclark (May 11, 2016)

Winter and freezing temps are challenging on Livestock and their keepers! How hard is it to keep weight on the pigs in the winter? 

Pigs we never wintered over 

Rabbits for awhile but the water was a challenge with freezing as well

It has been sub zero here for much too long-this year


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## bobp (Mar 4, 2014)

I really don't know....We don't have much true winter weather here, atleast what folks up north call winter.

We have roughly a month of HOT weather, a month of COLD and everything else is in the middle.

Mine are gaining weight.... But we're giving all the extra care we can...


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## krackin (Nov 2, 2014)

All they do in winter is eat, drink and sleep mostly. I dump a lot of organic matter for them to root through as they please but they don't all that much when it is very cold. They make themselves comfortable and lay in the sun. When it is cold like this past episode I give 1 to 1.5# cracked corn per head along with the normal ration.


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

Winter is definitely the hard season up here in the north country but it is manageable. Start with good stock fit to the environment, or spend a decade or two gene selecting. Then give them a good dry bedding pack with a wind block and plenty of ventilation. Don't close them in. Boost the calories. There are some benefits to winter, it kills parasites, ticks, gators, politicians and a lot of nasty people. My theory is that long hard winters make it so that people had to learn to socialize better - nasty people got ostracized and died. Less so today but historically. Same works for pigs. Eat mean people.


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## krackin (Nov 2, 2014)

Ventilation is very important. I leave shelters with plenty of organic matter which they will move as they please. They don't seek comfort like we humans or even canines. I see them out in zero weather huddled in a nest, frosted snow covered backs, when they could be in 50* shelter. Have feed out before they get up or be able to toss it right in, they will challenge a fence and farmer come cold mornings. 

Don't trust an electric fence to ground well when everything is frozen. I just swapped out energizers this morning. Warmer weather and rain is coming so 10KV is going to be a real surprise when I cut back feed a tad to re-educate.


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

I've done temperature readings off of our pigs and I suspect that because they have a thick layer of fat, thick skin and frayed hair that traps a microclimate of warm air around them they do fine. Outdoors it might be in the deep negative temps, their hair is around 30°F, their skin is 50°F to 70°F and their internal temperature is 103°F. This contrasts with our dogs who have a surface fur temperature of the same as the ambient temp in the deep negatives but their skin temp is far higher around 90°F and their internal temp is about the same as the pigs. We apes have it bad - we still need time to evolve. Working hard helps. That is probably the other part of the dogs's secret - they burn huge numbers of calories.

-Walter


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## rstokes2676 (3 mo ago)

isaaccarlson said:


> I know this post is older, but I made a few pig waterers for our farm and they work well. They hold almost 300 gallons and can be moved by hand. They do require 110v, but they don’t use much power. I cover them in 1/2” plywood to protect them from the pigs. The tank and cup are heated.


 Where did you buy the heated water cup? Or can you explain how you heated the cup.


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## isaaccarlson (Oct 7, 2013)

We stick a katz 50 watt heater on the bottom of the cup.


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## rstokes2676 (3 mo ago)

isaaccarlson said:


> We stick a katz 50 watt heater on the bottom of the cup.


Could you share where I may find that heater? Google search comes up with drop in heater for stock tanks.


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## isaaccarlson (Oct 7, 2013)

You can find it all over. Kat's 24050. We just replaced the heater on our cup yesterday because it was damaged from either chewing or having something shoved under it by the pigs. I made a stainless steel shield to hopefully prevent future damage.


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