Regular water troughs do not work for our Scottish Highland bull. He drank out of the Rubbermaid 100 gallon trough when he was a calf, though he always liked to push at it. Now that he is a full grown bull, and a daddy he has had enough of flexible troughs.
He split our trough by continually pushing up against it with his head and horns. We went down to Tractor Supply and asked them if there was any warranty on the Rubbermaid troughs, and they said bring it in and they would replace it, which was really nice of them.
So we got a brand new 100 gallon trough and we thought that maybe the other one was just defective, and this one would be able to take the abuse that our bull was going to give. We were mistaken. Within a week he had caused two cracks in the rim of the trough. We immediately took it out and consigned it to collecting rainwater from the roof of our garden shed. We had seen the same splits before on the old trough. However, with the old one we left it in a bit longer, and the cracks ended up going down to near the bottom of the trough, and that was the end of it.
After this we tried one of the smaller Rubbermaid troughs, I think it might have been about 50 gallons. We did not put it up against any posts or boards like the 100 gallon tank. We thought that the bull wouldn't bother with it if it didn't resist him. He did not crack this one, but he just continually flipped it over and up in the air with his horns. He pushed it against the electric fence, and I thought that he was going to break the wire with it. It acted as an insulator and kept the fence from shocking him. So that trough did not work.
We decided that our only option was to get an old cast iron tub and see what happens. So we found one on craigslist and hooked up the trailer and went on a journey. We bought an ancient tub that required four adults to load onto the trailer for $25 and brought it home.
We were kind of at a loss on how to plug it up to use for the cows. We thought about buying a solid rubber stopper and pounding it into the drain, but we were afraid the cows would somehow work it loose and end up eating it or choking on it.
What we ended up doing to plug the tub was to use PVC pipe and end caps. We cut an inch and a half pipe about four inches long. Then we glued an end cap to it using Oatey All Purpose Cement. It comes in a metal can with a brush attached inside on the lid. It is for PVC and CPVC pipes. We then slid the uncapped end up till the cap was flush with the bottom of the tub and then put the pipe cement on the pipe and slid another cap on top. We pushed it till it was about flush, but there was some wiggle room. Finally we caulked all around the top of the pipe between it and the top cap and all around the drain, about a quarter inch around the pipe. This was in the trough and would be underwater. We let it cure for a day or two.
We then framed in the tubs, we have two now, with wood posts and Poplar fence boards. This way we figured the Dun (what we call our bull) would realize that this tub wasn't going to give, and we hoped he would give up on bending and breaking it. This worked. We have used the first tub for over a year with no problems from the Dun and company. They do like to scratch on it, but it isn't going to break. The picture below is our first cast iron trough.
We just put a new one in today in another part of the field. We bought two tubs from a friend up the road, and we set up the stopper the same way. We had to put two pieces of 4x4 lumber underneath this one because it had smaller legs than the other one. We didn't want the bottom of the PVC cap to rest on the ground, because it might crack the caulking, and we would lose water. This tub is pink and we are hoping the bull won't mind. The cows haven't come down for a drink yet.
We just use five gallon buckets or the hose to fill these troughs. My son actually prefers the buckets and he is the one who waters the cattle. If your tub has a crack in the enamel just put silicone over the crack, even if it will be below the water level, and it will be fine. This prevents more of the enamel from coming off. This is just for cracked enamel/porcelain. We don't have any cracks in the cast iron, so we haven't had to figure out what to do about that. I wouldn't buy one with a crack in the cast iron unless I had to, though I imagine it could be fixed one way or another.
To clean it out every once in a while I just use an old plastic ice cream tub, Blue Bunny, to bail out the water when it gets low. I then use some rags to wipe it out, adding a bit of fresh water to clean it out. I then bail it out again, and wipe it dry. This is pretty quick and easy to do. I just wait till the cows drink it down pretty low.
These tubs seem to be pretty abundant and inexpensive around here in Western Pennsylvania. I bought 3 for $50, and I got another at an auction for $20, and that one was a nice claw foot tub with perfectly intact porcelain. Our cows will be moving up in the world when we put in that trough. I think we are going to put it up near the road so all the neighbors can see it.
