Water quality an important factor as weather heats up

Aug 04, 2022

Water quality is one of the many factors that go into properly raising livestock, and can be especially important during the hot and dry summer months.

To that end, farmers often need to keep a track of the water their livestock is drinking, since many subsist on groundwater from sloughs.

Maintaining water quality and the health of cattle often needs the help of experts who test the water to check for mineral content.

Saskatchewan Livestock and Feed Extensein Specialist Catherine Lang details what they look at during those tests.

"Here in our office, when you bring in a water sample we're measuring conductivity and conductivity measures water's ability to carry electricity. If you remember way back to your chemistry classes, different minerals carry different charges. Those charges add up together to make ypur conductivity."

"When we measure conductivity, we've seen enough samples here that we're able to make some assumptions based on that number," said Lang, "So sulfate makes up about 50% of the conductivity, and we know that TDS, or total dissolved solids, can account for probably 85-90% of the conductivity number."

Lang tells people that while they may have TDS meters on hand that can be useful, many are calibrated for water not from Saskatchewan and as such will display incorrect results.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.