Common questions answered

We use a vibratory plow, which cuts a narrow slit in the ground and pulls the line through behind it, so there is no trench to open and backfill. We manage the project from planning through to the finished run and keep disruption to your property to a minimum, so the pasture returns to use quickly.

Yes. We set the tank, plumb it, and tie it into the line, and we plan the placement around how your ground drains, how your livestock move through it, and how the tank will be reached for service.

The vibratory plow installs the line quickly and leaves your ground largely intact. We size each run for the flow it has to carry and the distance it has to cover, so the water arrives where you need it without a field to repair afterward.

Often, yes. Missouri runs a Soil and Water Conservation Cost-Share Program through the county districts, and the federal programs run through your USDA Service Center. Pipeline and watering tanks fall under the grazing system water distribution practice, and wells and ponds fall under water development. The sequence matters more than the paperwork does, and the mistake that costs people their contract is starting construction before the district board approves it. We have written out how the process runs and listed the district office for each of the seven counties we work in.

University of Missouri Extension advises that cattle should not have to walk more than 700 to 900 feet to reach water, because grazing distribution falls off once the walk gets longer than that. Herds start to camp near the water and graze the far corners of a paddock lightly or not at all. That distance is the figure we plan a run around, and it is usually what decides how many tanks an operation needs rather than how much pipe it needs.

Line size comes from the flow the system has to deliver and the distance it has to cover. University of Missouri Extension puts peak demand at 30 gallons per day per 1,000 pounds of live weight at 90 degrees, and the line should be able to deliver that in 12 hours or less. At the tank the figure is 2 gallons per minute for every head that can drink at once, which is roughly the rate a cow drinks. We work back from those numbers, the length of the run, and the elevation change to settle on a diameter.

It depends on how far the tank sits from where the herd grazes. University of Missouri Extension recommends about a third of the daily requirement in tank volume when water is more than 800 feet away, and as little as one fiftieth of it when the tank is closer than that, since a nearby tank refills faster than the herd empties it. Access matters as much as volume, and the guidance there is about 15 inches of tank edge per animal drinking at one time.