Hi I’m Mike, each winter we fight the elements.
The Cold, wind and the snow, but its not only us, its every living animal here on the ranch
that has to deal with it too and its our job to make their life as easy as possible, no
matter how hard it makes ours.
But we do have our little tricks.
Today, we are taking a look at stock water on the ranch and how we, like the best bartender
on the prairie, make sure that everybody can wet their whistle, on Our Wyoming Life.
Welcome back to Our Wyoming Life, and thanks for helping us explore the ranch life and
escape the ordinary.
There are things on the ranch that are done one way, well, because they have always been
done that way.
Everyone has dealt with this.
No one thinks much about it or questions it.
A decision was made years ago, usually by someone else and that’s the way it is.
Today we are going to question the norm a little bit.
And if my father in law Gilbert was still around, this is the type of thing that would
really tick him off.
Not because it may prove him wrong, but because it took extra work to get to that conclusion.
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Like I was staying.
Sometimes we do something one way because, well that’s the way we do it.
And this year I have been slowly trying to change one little thing that means more work
for me, but could save the ranch thousands of dollars.
And I’ve had to do it without anyone noticing.
Ya see, after Gilbert passed away, Erins mom is still here of course and she has the final
say in most things here on the ranch.
Shes been around long enough to know how Gilbert did things and sometimes, I have to do the
old side shuffle, to save the ranch money by changing how things have been done for
years.
And sometimes it’s as simple as water.
H20, is the life blood of the ranch.
Without it in the form of rain and winter run off their would be no grass growing, no
reservoirs, and no underground aquifers.
Each cow drinks about 10% of her body weight in water per day.
About 20 gallons of water.
The closer she gets to calving this goes up and she will double it during lactation.
Water consumption is also dependent on climatic conditions, feed types, production level and
salt intake.
This time of year, as the temperatures drop, she will be reducing her intake to about half
of normal.
About 10 gallons per day.
With around 150 cows out here, that means we have to be able to deliver 1500 gallons
of water per day.
But that really isn’t the challenge, we have wells.
We have electricity and all you have to do is pull a lever and you have water.
The challenge is keeping the water – water.
For the month of January our average high is 31 degrees, our average low is 10.
Our record low for this month was -36 back in 1930.
With temperatures rarely getting above freezing for the month, frozen water is definitely
an issue.
Cows can lick ice, they can eat snow.
But the water they are going to take into their systems doing it that way, could actually
outweigh the amount of energy they are expending.
So keeping water open for the cows is essential.
Gilbert, always kept tank heaters in each water tank.
These heaters are usually electric, but they can be propane powered and their job it to
heat the water to above freezing, but they do cost money to run.
Up until this point I have been trying to save the ranch money by breaking open water
tanks each morning and afternoon.
Busting ice and scooping it out, making sure that the tanks are open for animals to drink.
They will refreeze everynight, an inch maybe of ice will form.
And my favorite tool for breaking ice is this.
A trenching tool, that can be sharpened to break through easily.
Careful though, the last thing we want to do it put a hole in a tank.
We have 5 different water tanks that we are going to be looking at today.
The cows main tank, the horse and steer tank that they share, the bull tank and the 2 heifer
tank, located behind the barn and in the corrals.
Each tank is cleared, just like we do every morning but today we are going to put in tank
heaters and see how well they work to keep the water from freezing.
Today the temperature is in the low 30’s, the sun is shining and the water is warming
up.
Water temp today is in the high 30’s.
It won’t refreeze today, but it will again tonight so the sooner we get tank heaters
in the better.
I have found 4 tank heaters from last year.
Two of these are sinking heaters and two are floating heaters.
First thing we do is inspect them for any damage, they all look good, except for this
sinking heater, which has exposed wires.
That is no good, and it will not be used again.
Those wires could actually electrocute or shock animals as they come in to drink.
The other 3 are tested, each working and the heating elements getting to over 200 degrees.
Since we are short a couple of heater now, time for a trip to town to Govens feed and
ranch supply where we can pick out two new heaters and head back home to get them installed.
These heaters are 1500 watt heaters, using the same amount of power as about 33 laptop
computers or the same as charging 300 cell phones.
With 5 different tanks and 5 tank heaters running that can be a lot of power, and a
huge expense for the ranch.
Gilbert used to tell me, don’t ever figure out what this costs.
But I cant help it, obviously knowing where your money is going is going to be your best
bet and ignoring it will only cause trouble somewhere down the line.
So lets do the math and figure out how much these tank heaters actually cost to run.
Lets start out with the cost of the heaters themselves.
I just got two of theme, they run 50$ each.
So that’s where we start.
We already have 250$ into the deal.
Now for power.
Our electricity rate here is really low, last I looked we were ranked 46th and our rate
here is about 9 cents per Kilowatt hour.
1 Kilowatts hour is 1000 watts consumed in a 1 hour period and a 1500 watt heater then
uses 1.5 kilowatts per hour.
At 9 cents it then costs 13.5 cents per hour to run.
If it runs constantly 24 hours a day then its 3.24 cents per day to operated.
These heaters do have a thermostat that turns them off and on, so lets say they only run
75% of the time and round it to 2.50 per day per heater.
Take that by the month and that’s 75$ per heater for a total of 375$ per month to keep
the water open for cows to drink.
Keep in mind I’m rounding some numbers here, so I don’t get the comments that say its
actually its 376.65.
Ok so up until this year, I had to put out heaters in December, they ran until the end
of March.
That’s 4 months of power at 1500$, add in the cost of the heaters and we are at 1750$.
The next morning, no tanks are frozen.
The heaters did their job.
In fact, even though we had a low down into the low 20s last night, the tanks are at over
50 degrees.
No doubt about it they work, but are they worth it.
I told you that I have put off putting tank heaters in this year to save the ranch some
money.
Actually I only saved about 375$ by not running heaters for the month of December.
Lets figure out if it was worth it.
On average I spend maybe an hour a day breaking ice and clearing tanks.
We figured out earlier that each tank heater uses about 2.50 worth of power per day.
By my math, the time that I spend breaking ice is worth about 12 bucks per hour.
That’s not too bad, more than I make haying per hour, or shoveling manure, cleaning stalls
and it really is a tangible way to help save money on the ranch.
Is it easier to drop in a tank heater and walk away and not have to worry about breaking
ice, heck yea it is.
But these are some of the decisions we have to make.
We might only leave the tank heaters in for the coldest of months, next month our average
low is up to 15 degrees and it feels like palm springs compared to January.
Thanks for coming out today and taking another look at a bit of the economics of the ranch,
I know its not the most exciting subject in the world but its one that we have to look
at almost everyday.
Is it economical to heat water or more cost effective to go and break it out.
These questions are asked with every decision made around here, from buying a new tractor
to mowing the ditches.
When profit margins can be tight, a little elbow grease can really help out.
The money saved by not running a few tank heaters for a few months, may just buy a new
tire, or oddly enough, repair a well, that we just cant do without.
Be sure to subscribe, and feel free to comment, where have you been able to make things work
by doing it the old fashioned way.
Was it better in the long run?
Or did you end up needing rotator cuff surgery from breaking all that ice?
I’ll see you again soon, but until then have a great week and thanks for joining us
in our Wyoming life.