Author Topic: Water troughs - algae (Read 339 times)

SallyintNorth · « **on:** March 20, 2021, 05:40:12 pm »

We use the black plastic troughs in the grazing fields and I am bothered by the amount of algae growing on the water surface.

Should I be?

How do we prevent or control it? If we had only sheep, I could envisage "sunhats" for the troughs. but the cattle and ponies would just demolish anything I can think of...

landroverroy · « **Reply #1 on:** March 20, 2021, 07:18:04 pm »

Unless it's blue green I wouldn't bother. I'm sure there's more animals drinking out of troughs with algae in than are drinking crystal clear water. Nearly all my fields are watered by a large water bowser and they always have algae in after about a week and in 30 years it's never seemed to have any ill effects. I'm sure no one checks long standing puddles for algae before they let their animals drink. Algae has been around long before the advent of field troughs.

Scarlet.Dragon · « **Reply #2 on:** March 20, 2021, 07:26:15 pm »

I change and clean mine once a fortnight. You can add apple cider vinegar (if they're plastic not zinc) which helps prevent growth. Salt does the same thing but make sure you use the correct ratio so as not to harm the livestock if going down that route. I do have an abandoned concrete trough in one field that fills with rainwater... and yes, the nags do take that in preference to the clean water trough if they're closer!