Agri Vehicles Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: Water troughs - algae  (Read 3258 times)

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Water troughs - algae
« 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...
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

landroverroy

  • Joined Oct 2010
Re: Water troughs - algae
« 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. :thinking: 
Rules are made:
  for the guidance of wise men
  and the obedience of fools.

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Water troughs - algae
« Reply #2 on: March 20, 2021, 08:35:10 pm »
Thanks both, I shall sleep now...   And get some apple cider vinegar on Monday :)
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

naturelovingfarmer

  • Joined May 2021
  • Ohio River Valley
Re: Water troughs - algae
« Reply #3 on: May 04, 2021, 08:22:14 pm »
Chicken waterers had some brownish algae in them, I just wiped them off with a damp cloth. No ill effect. Animals seemed to prefer the ones I hadn't cleaned yet. Oh well. Some kinds of algae are edible. There's little fish you can buy that will eat it out of tanks. There's also an aquatic snail that eats algae. They usually put the snails in ponds and the fish in tanks. If I had a big stock tank instead of little feed pans I'd throw a couple of these little critters in there to deal with it for me.
Turn your problem into a solution. Learn new things. Adapt as you go. Plans should be fluid and subject to change. I start planning for things years in advance and by the time I do them they have usually changed radically.

"Fall down 7 times, stand up 8" ~Bodhidharma

 

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