Leading Cows away from Water

Cattle like to stay near water. That’s an environmental problem, because cattle out on the range tend to overgraze the grass near the streams, compact the soil in the creek valleys, and waste the feed value in more distant parts of the range. The cattle manure is concentrated, thereby short-changing the soil fertility in the outlying tracts of grass.

The beef cattle on my 70 acres of pasture like to visit the water tank at least twice a day, and often three times in hot weather. So did the cows on the dairy farm where I grew up. We assumed that the cows needed water that often.

The water requirement for cattle has been a particular problem for the U.S. government, responsible for administrating millions of arid public acres in Western states. For decades, eco-activists have demanded the end of grazing on these public lands, charging that the cattle inevitably overgraze key parts of their ranges—especially creek bottoms.

Now, studies show we have a technical fix—a “cattle magnet” that can spread the grazing more equally, even in rough terrain.

Blocks of dehydrated molasses can keep cattle happily grazing—away from the water source—for up to a day and a half. The Ridley Company of Mankato, MN has patented its version of the “cattle magnet.” They make a low-moisture molasses block (encased in an open tub) that not only attracts the animals but also supplements their nutrition with trace minerals, crude protein, and vitamins. The blocks last about two weeks for two dozen cattle, because the cattle can only lick the dense stuff (like an all-day sucker), not break it off and chew it up. When it’s finally gone, the rancher puts out a new block in a different spot.

The U.S. Patent Office knows the Ridley product as “A Method of Expanding Grazing Range and An Animal Feed Supplement for Use Therein.” The patent grant cites the block’s palatability, portability, and nutritional quality as key elements of the invention.

Tests (with cattle wearing Global Positioning Satellite collars) show that the animals will stay near the block—and away from the water source—for a day or more at a time. They visit the block repeatedly, while eating lots of the grass around it. Periodically, they zig-zag back to the water source, grazing as they go. In the process, they deposit their wastes broadly, adding fertilizer to broad expanses of the pastureland.

University testing shows that the low-moisture blocks improve grass utilization by up to 40 percent on moderately rough grasslands, and by up to 20 percent even on more difficult terrain. Trampling of the grass near the water sources is substantially reduced. During fall and winter, the tests found the low-moisture blocks were actually more attractive than water!

The blocks are good for the cattle, too. Another study demonstrated that low-moisture blocks increased both digestibility and energy intake for cattle on low forage crude protein. The block improves the bacterial environment inside the cow’s rumen for the tough work of breaking down the cellulose in grass.

The low-moisture blocks should permit ranchers to sustainably graze the huge tracts of U.S. rangelands that are too dry for crops, but well-watered enough to produce millions of tons of valuable forage. Leaving the grasslands ungrazed would force us to clear more wildlife habitat somewhere else for meat production. It would also leave the rangelands to burn spectacularly whenever lighting struck their heavy loads of dry grasses.

It’s just one more demonstration of technology supporting conservation in modern agriculture.

This article appeared in the Knight-Ridder Tribune on August 28, 2002, and is reprinted with permission.