Temperatures are set to rise over the coming days.

As temperatures rise, cattle will need more water and will frequent drinking troughs more often.

Drinking water should be clean and troughs should have a quick refill.

Cows that are queuing to drink is a sign that the trough is either too small or too slow to refill with water.

Clean

If drinking water is dirty or the trough is soiled with debris or algae, it should be cleaned out. Dirty water will reduce cattle intakes and, as a result, milk yield and liveweight gain will suffer.

A spring-calving suckler cow with a calf at foot can drink between 50 and 60 litres/day of water.

As temperatures rise above 20C, daily water intakes can increase by another five to 10 litres/cow.

If cattle are being fed concentrate for finishing off grass, meal will also increase the animal’s water intake by around five litres per kilo of meal fed.

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