The Casual Cattle Conversations Podcast: Test Water Quality Before It’s Too Late

Test Water Quality Before It’s Too Late

The grass is ready, fence is fixed and water sources are full, but that doesn’t mean it’s time to turnout pairs. Testing water quality should be a routine part of the spring checklist for ranchers across the country.

“I recommend testing water at a minimum prior to turning animals into a pasture or pen…,” says Miranda Meehan. When we're in a drought situation, we should be looking at things more frequently because those levels of the salts and sulfates in particular are going to become more concentrated as water evaporates as a result of that drought.”

Meehan is an Extension Livestock Environmental Stewardship specialist at North Dakota State University who doesn’t underestimate the impact water quality has on both animal health and a rancher’s bottom line.

“If we have poor water quality, that's going to influence intake, which then is going to result in lower performance of those animals,” explains Miranda Meehan, Extension Livestock Environmental Stewardship specialist at North Dakota State University.

Lower performance can show up in a variety of areas including reduced weaning weights, body condition scores and abortions. Knowing which sources to test starts by understanding regional geology.

“It’s really going to depend on the geology of that source,” shares Meehan. “Especially in the Northern Plains, we have a lot of high amounts of natural occurring salts, sulfates being one of those salts that can influence the quality of our water.”....



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