Hard water softening

[fa2070]

Hi,

Just one question.
How can I soften hard water so as to make it viable for cattle consumption?
The predominant salt in the water is CaCO₃ (Calcium Carbonate) and I'd like to know, out of all available methods, which one is the most convenient from the economic and practical points of view.
For a sense of the scale, I'm speaking about treating/demineralizing 100,000 liters/day. The quality of the resulting water must be "good enough" for cow consumption. Unfortunately, I don't have a water analysis to share here in the forum to provide more insight.

Thanks in advance.

 

[GarySCWSVI]

Never recommend any form of water treatment without knowing what the water to be treated analysis is.

Many cattlemen soften their water by ion exchange water softeners. There may be other constituents in the water such as Sulfates that will require something other than water softening. The list of those "others" is a long one.

Gary Schreiber, CWS VI
The Purolite Co.

 

[fa2070]

Thanks!
I'll see if I can get a detailed analysis.

 

[bimr]

The USEPA has no policy regarding the hardness of public water supplies, so it is unlikely that water hardness would be issue with cattle.

Hardness is actually caused by calcium and magnesium. Softening the water through exchange of calcium and magnesium with sodium may cause problems if water is already high in salinity.

When there is a significant amount of calcium in water from a limestone source, it should be considered as a part of the total mineral intake. However many mineral salts are relatively insoluble and pass through the body without being absorbed. Even in hard water, the amount of mineral ingested from the water is not likely to be substantial.

CaCO3 (calcium carbonate) is also not the predominant salt in any water supply. Calcium carbonate has a somewhat limited solubility in water, and therefore it is not possible that large quantities of calcium carbonate would be present in water.

Suggest that you contact the local extension service for the water quality requirements for livestock. Here is a few examples of what you will expect

http://beef.osu.edu/library/water.html

http://extension.missouri.edu/xplor/envqual/eq0381.htm

By the way, where did you come up with the idea that water hardness would affect livestock?

 

[GarySCWSVI]

A little more input here. Farmers have told me that when the soften the water to cattle the cattle drink more of it. That is a good thing as far as the Farmer is concerned. Their theory, not mine, theirs, is that the cattle drink a lot of rain water and shy away from hard water. Idea is that rain water is naturally soft.

Gary Schreiber, CWS VI
The Purolite Co.

 

[bimr]

"Farmers have told me that when the soften the water to cattle the cattle drink more of it."

No disrespect, but it sounds like an old wives tale.

My own observation is that the livestock will drink water in proportion to the volume of food eaten, naturally regulating the water intake.