I needed to have a way to get clean water to pigs that fit with our mobile pens and use of hog panels. So I worked out a simple waterer that I built with 1/2" galvanized pipe.
I chose steel pipe because it's very tough and will stand up to the pigs pushing on it. I built this waterer out of pre-threaded nipples from the local hardware store. Heres's the material list:
Side outlet elbow 2
1/2" pipe caps 4
12" pipe nipples 8
1/2" pipe T 3
stainless hog drinking nipples 2
1/2" 30" pipe nipple 1
1/2" Street elbow 1
1/2" PT to gardon hose female 1
All of the parts cost about $50 new. A jar of pipe thread and we're ready to put it all together.
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| Side-outlet elbow, forms end of the unit and supports legs |
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| bad picture of garden hose hookup at top |
The advantage of this waterer is that it can be put inside a pen and tied or wired to the panel that forms the pen wall. It's strong enough to stand up to the pigs, and will provide them clean water without any additional labor. So $50 may seem like a big cost now, but over the course of a year or two it'll save many tens of hours of labor. Well worth the cost.
Nice.
ReplyDeleteI also just came across this one somebody built to achieve much the same end - http://www.farmhack.org/tools/tough-inexpensive-pastured-pig-waterer
I'm trying to work out the best way to get whey distributed around my pastures... maybe a float valve (one of the mega flow ones from Jobe that open really wide) and a 50 gallon trough. I'm just worried they'd flip the trough and drain the big tank of whey. Another potential problem is the thicker dairy solids at the bottom of the tank... I don't know they'd flow far enough even with my substantial elevation changes.