As the summer develops, so does algae and bacteria in many water sources, both natural and artificial.
From an outside perspective, it may just be unappealing to see green slime in a water trough or algae blooming in a pond, but there is a lot more to it than just being an eyesore when you raise livestock.
First, algae and bacteria-infested water are not palatable. If a calf goes to the pond or water trough to take a drink and sucks up a big clump of stringy algae, or the water has an off taste or smell, I doubt very much they will go out of their way to make extra trips to the water source to consume water.
Water is essential for many reasons. You want animals to WANT to drink water. If they are not happy with the source, they will only drink as much as they absolutely need to. Decreased water intake can cause issues like reduced feed intake, reduced gain, illness, and dehydration.
Secondly, stagnant water is the perfect place for bacteria to grow and is also the optimal place for diseases to spread. If bacteria are growing in the water, there is an opportunity for a calf to pick up diseases like cryptosporidium, salmonella, and E. Coli. While in some cases, it may just cause scours, these diseases, paired with the right environmental conditions, could lead to death.
How do I manage it?
EASY! DK-ll.
DK-ll is safe for all animals, on land or otherwise. You can also use significantly less product by using DK-ll!
One gallon of DK-ll will treat a MINIMUM of 500 gallons of water. BUT by no means is this the maximum.
I will explain why.
We treated our pond in May. See photos of the pond before we added the DK-ll. It was FULL of algae. I went around and dumped 1 gallon (ONE!) into our ~ 30,000-gallon pond, and over the next week, the algae slowly disappeared! We were so excited by the outcome, we had to share. We couldn’t believe that such a tiny amount of product did so much work!
It is now almost August, and we have not added any more product to the pond, and it is continuing to stay clean and free of algae. We have ducks, frogs, dogs, and any other critters that find their way into the water, and there has been no issue for any of them. The frogs sing all night, the ducks quack all day!
Why not just use a chlorine product?
Previously, when we treated the pond with chlorine, it wiped out almost the entire frog population. Along with the fact that it killed the frogs, there was also 4-5x the amount of product used to do the same job initially, but it didn’t last nearly as long.
That is just one application! We also add it to all of our outdoor water troughs (via an injector pump that adds DK-ll to all of the barn water). They have not had to be cleaned out from algae and slime a single time this year. The water is always fresh for the calves outside, and they consume MUCH more water and feed because of it. Try it out! Your calves and wallet will thank you!
**** These are NOT claims made by the manufacturer of this product. This is how we have used the product on-farm ONLY.****