Managing Water for
Dairy Goats

Water Supply:

You need to make sure you have enough water to ensure the goats have sufficient water to meet their needs.  The amount required will vary according to the age and stage of lactation a goat is in, along with external weather factors and the amount of moisture in the diet.  As a guide you should allow a minimum of 4 litres per day for dry goats and young stock and up to 15 litres for lactating does in the peak of summer.

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The water supplied to your goats must be free excess sediment and of bacterial contaminants such as e-coli.

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Ideally your water system should supply cool water, so avoid having delivery lines lying above ground where they will heat up in the sun.  Burying your lines will also help prevent your lines from freezing solid if you experience cold winter temperatures.

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Ensure you have a system for getting water to the goats in the event of a power cut or other disruption to your water reticulation system.  Because there is not the reservoirs of water in other troughs, such as in neighbouring paddocks like you would available in a dairy cow situation, you need another method of ensuring you can continue to supply water.  Options to consider are generators to provide backup electricity or petrol pumps that you can hook into your water system to deliver water to your tanks and troughs.

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Preventing Leaks:

In an indoor situation, preventing water leaks is essential, not only to conserve water, but to avoid ponding and excessive dampness in the bedding.  Leaking tends to come from two main sources - damage to the trough itself and damage to the water line feeding the troughs.

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Trough Damage

Troughs with a ballcock system should have the main components protected so they can't be 'played with' by the goats. Despite this, over time the working components of the ballcock system may fail, resulting in the water not shutting off fully, causing the trough to continually overflow.  Goats jumping on the trough and changing its level can also cause the trough to continually overflow. In this case you can either tighten the wall attachments to readjust the level of the trough or you can adjust the float level of the ballcock system.

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Troughs without ballcock systems will have a nipple with a valve which will allow water to flow when nudged by the goats noses.  If the value wears out or the spring inside the nozzle system breaks, water will continuously flow until repaired.

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Having taps on the inlets to your troughs allows you to isolate a particular trough in the system until it is repaired or replaced without affecting the supply to the other troughs.  Removing the tap handles will prevent the goats turning them on and off for you - just remember where you put the handles so you can access them when you need them!

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Water Pipes:

Keep a supply of water fittings on hand so that any leaks can be fixed quickly.  Fitting taps on either sides of main junctions allows you to isolate main lines as soon as a leak is discovered. Leaks that are not fixed quickly have the potential to create a lot of water entering your housing barns in a short space of time. Having a written map of where your water lines, taps and junctions are located is a handy tool that can save a lot of time in the future as memories fade and staff come and go.

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Nipple based systems result in less algal buildup as                                Always clean your troughs regularly to avoid

only a small amount of water is left sitting in the bowl                             the build up of debris and bacteria.

between animals drinking.

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Protecting Your Water Supply:

Water Contamination:

Due to the fact goats like to climb on everything, this occurs easily as a result of debris from their hooves.   Water can also be contaminated by food particles from their mouths as they drink, bird faeces, and algae build up.  Cleaning your troughs regularly is important to prevent bacterial build up from contamination or the refusal of goats to drink the water.

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Barn maintenance, particularly topping up bedding (adding fresh shavings) frequently causes additional debris to settle in the troughs. Ensure you check and clean your troughs after completing such tasks.

 

Physical Damage:

In addition to goats liking to nibble and chew on anything in their environment, troughs will be subjected to frequent pressure from the goats putting their hooves up on them and rubbing up against them with their bodies and their heads.  Troughs in our buck pens need constant monitoring and reattaching as their heavier body weight loosens the screws or breaks the boards they are attached to.  Recessing your troughs into the walls of your housing barn is an effective way to reduce this problem.

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Rats have been known to chew through water pipes, creating drips and leaks.  This can be a common issue where rat bait is used as it increases the rats desire for water.

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Keeping your water lines and connections as inaccessible as possible to the goats is a further step that should be taken to protect your water supply from physical damage.  Running your connections inside the walls of your housing barn is an effect way to achieve this - although it does make it more difficult to fix the pipework if you do have issues.

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Trough Installation:

Trough Type:

We have found that nipple-based systems such as the Delaval C5 water bowls are  more ‘goat proof’ than ballcock based troughs.  The nipple-based troughs are also easier to keep clean - instead of a reservoir of water sitting in the bowl via a contained ballcock system, the C5 water troughs have a special valve that only releases water into the bowl when the goats push on it and activate the flow.

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Barn Care:

In addition to the comments above regarding the importance of reducing water leaks in the barn environment, you should also pay attention to the areas around your troughs as they will be high traffic areas.  Adding extra bedding in this area will help or you can add a raised solid standing area such as covered pallets or rubber matting.

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Trough Height:

The physical size of the animals in your herd and in each pen will determine the best height for your farm.  barns designed specifically for raising kids can permanently have the troughs installed at a lower height whereas pens predominantly used for mature animals will need to be higher. If troughs are too high, smaller animals will struggle to reach them but if they are too low, you will experience increased contamination and downward pressure on the attachments from goats putting their feet on the edges.  One way of getting around this is to include protruding beams or wooden steps under each trough. This way, smaller animals have something to stand on to reach the trough whilst still keeping the toughs at a suitable height for larger, more mature animals.

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Trough Location:

The location that works best for each farm will vary depending on their particular barn setup.  In barns with scrape lanes, placing the troughs on the back walls of the pens has the advantage of keeping the them out of the way of your scrape bucket and the water lines can be tucked inside the barn wall.  Goats typically look for water after feeding, so in barns without scrape lanes, it can be common to find troughs located near the feed lanes.

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Young stock and dry animals have lower water requirements than lactating does so you can get away with less troughs in their pens. However, a good trough:milking doe ratio is approximately 1:30.

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