Water in Rotational Grazing

[wstevenl]

I posted this on some other boards but I thought some of you might have some experience with rotational or MIG...

I'm about to have some water lines put in down the middle of a pasture that is aprox. 900' x 400', perfect rectangle, and all flat with no trees. I'll have a semi permanent fence straight down the middle and the lines will be up against it with Quick connects underground for hooking up our trough's hose. I'm starting with 6 head of cattle (Dexters) and will do MIG but can't for the life of me decide how close to put the quick connect hook ups, nor how long of a hose to plan on using. The shorter the hose the better, but I don't want to have way more connection points than I need (especially when the herd/paddocks get bigger). The guy installing it advised us to put a culvert down to a quick connect valve every 150 ft down the field... we're thinking every 100ft or so.

Have any advice?? Has anyone done rotational grazing where you watered in the field and didn't have a lane back to the barn? -Thanks

[Cloverbell]

We break our pasture up as wedges originating from the same point so the waterer remains in one place and services them in whatever paddock they're in for the day. Basically the water is surrounded by a "square" of t-posts and we un-hook the portion that is part of the paddock used for that day. Is the 900x400' your only pasture for 6 animals? The longest I've been recommended to have cows have to walk to get water is 1000 feet or so. You seem covered if that's the right distance.

[wstevenl]

This rectangle is about 8 out of 10 acres, the other 2 acres are 200' wide and are connected to the 8 on the end.
I started out wanting to have a central waterer, but it's such a long pasture 1300' total that there would end up being lanes to get to water and I'd rather not do that.

This is basically our only pasture for 6 animals... one calf is coming in a month or less and 3 more later in the year.

[Cloverbell]

Going down the middle and having that many connection points should definitely cover you - maybe more than you'll actually need in the long run - but you'll have lots of options at least! I like to have a paddock just for expectant mothers and new mothers myself. Can you set aside one end for them? I also like to use square wire there to keep the calves from sneaking away or, god forbid, coyotes/dogs from getting in (at least easily). My pasture I break up the way I described is long and narrow too. Some of the paddocks are narrow triangles at the ends.