Raising animals requires an impressive amount of coordination. You have to create a plan for feeding, watering, health checks, exercise, and housing. When you have several animals – or several different types of animals – to plan for, it becomes important to be as efficient as possible in your choices for care, while still ensuring that your animals will receive what they need to thrive.
Livestock watering troughs solve several problems at once. Designed to allow multiple animals to drink at the same time, they’re an effective way to make it easy for animals to drink whenever they want. They safely contain the water your animals need to stay hydrated, but they also eliminate a lot of logistical problems that you may encounter farther down the road.
Why Plastic Livestock Watering Troughs are Your Best Bet
Lighter & Easy Installation
There are plenty of different styles of troughs available, and at first glance, you may be tempted to opt for a metal or concrete model. While certainly robust, they’re not as easy to install or move as a plastic watering trough. As animals congregate around the trough, they may wear down the ground, especially in rainy seasons. The lightness of a plastic trough means you can easily move it to a better spot when necessary, making it much more versatile than a heavier model.
Safer & Cleaner for Animals
Metal watering troughs can corrode over time, tainting the drinking water with different minerals, but plastic watering troughs bring no such concerns. You can be confident that the water in the trough will remain just as fresh and safe for your animals as when you first put it in. Since troughs shouldn’t hold water for more than three days (you want to make sure it doesn’t have a chance to grow algae or collect insects), you’ll notice another benefit of plastic when you go to clean the trough.
Unlike metal or concrete, which can grip onto grime, plastic is an absolute breeze to clean. You’ll usually need no more than a rinse and perhaps a light scrub. This means that, instead of spending hours trying to pry green gunk off a concrete wall, you can instead get back to the tasks of the day. If your watering trough will be fixed in location, a watering trough in a tiptank style makes the cleaning process even easier.
Recyclable
When a metal or concrete watering trough reaches the end of its life, it’s usually so badly degraded that the only place for it to go is the dump. Plastic watering troughs, by contrast, are 100% recyclable. This allows you to reduce your impact on the environment around you, and avoid contributing any harmful materials into the soil after disposal.
Where to Find Livestock Watering Troughs
If you’re ready to make watering easy, quick, and convenient, then it’s time to start looking for plastic livestock watering troughs. At SPI Plastics, we have several varieties of energy-free waterers, including tiptanks and insulated extra-large troughs. Not sure what kind of waterer you need? No problem – our staff will be able to recommend an appropriate product based on your animals, environment, and watering requirements.
For more information on SPI’s range of livestock watering troughs, including energy-free, frost-resistant waterers, give us a call at (519) 935-2211. You can also contact us online or browse our digital catalogue of energy-free waterers.