Hi; I use automatic water devices for the pigs,rabbits and chickens and would like to know if anyone has used 'lixit' type water nipples for sheep. Thanks

-- ourfarm (ourfarm@nospam.com), July 03, 2001

Answers

We have discussed this before at a goat meeting. The consensus was that they are fine for single stomached animals. Rumenints, cattle, goats, sheep, llamas, cock their heads across the water trough to open a valve into another stomach, so water does not go into the rumen. With the amount of water my big Nubians need when in full milk, I would doubt they would get adequate amounts of water from a nipple. We did use them for the pigs. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), July 03, 2001.

I had a friend with a goat dairy who used them successfully. His alpines were on milk recording in Canada and he was always up on the leaders list. The only problem he found was in hot weather the goats would back into the nipples to have a shower and really messed up their individual pens. I used the small cattle waterers (soup bowl sized) with a float in it and they were very successful. Good luck!

-- tomas (bakerzee@hotmail.com), July 03, 2001.

We used the lixit nipples very successfully for about 10 years when we sold that farm and moved. It does get a little wet around the base as sometimes the goats would let cool water flow through their mouths. The real beauty was in winter. My husband rigged them with heat tapes and insulation, covering the whole business with 4" PVC pipes. The water was always cool, clean and readily available. Once we had a power outage in the middle of a cold winter. Only the tip of the lixit froze and when I thawed it from the heat of my hand, the insulation kept the water open until the power came back on.

We have a float valve in a galvanized wash tub and one of the bowl sized water fountains now. I'm constantly dumping them because of bird droppings and scrubbing out algae.

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), July 04, 2001.

Marilyn: How far North did you live and how cold did it get in the winter? We live in the Northwest and need a better set up for the goats in the winter. How many did you have per goat? Marie

-- Marie Fila (Mamafila@AOL.com), July 04, 2001.

We were just north of Columbia MO in zone 5. It could get pretty cold--down to -22o that I remember and other temps not quite so cold. This was also for several days at a time.

I think the greatest number of goats we had during that time was 28. Just as with eating, the dominant goats drank first then the lesser goats got their fill. Even kids learned to use it quickly.

We are about 30 miles from that farm now and plan to put lixit valves in before winter but we plan to put one in each of 3 pens including the bucks' pen to reduce the "waiting time."

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), July 04, 2001.

The question was about sheep, not goats.

-- mitch hearn (moopups1@aol.com), July 05, 2001.

I don't know about water nipples for sheep but a year ago I saw a cow drinking out of a rain bird on a neighbor's irrigated pasture, i wish I could get my steers to learn that trick.

-- Hendo (redgate@echoweb.net), July 06, 2001.

I have used them for sheep and found them to be satisfactory. Rather than have a bucket in the pen at our fair, I built a drinking device out of 6" PVC, with a cap on the bottom, a nipple in a drilled hole near the bottom, with rubber washers and a nut to keep it in place and from leaking. The tube was 4 feet tall, secured to the side of the pen with banding and kept the sheep supplied with adequate water when filled once a day. I did not use the lixit brand with the activator extending beyond the the end of the fixture but used another brand that has an oblique cut on the end so that the activator was not completely exposed. I think the Lixit brand and style would leak more when in use. Nasco catalog has

-- David A. (mncscott@ak.net), July 07, 2001.