Increase the ROI of Your Watering System
Shaye Koester 00:38
Hey, hey, it’s Shaye Koester and I’m your host for the Casual Cattle Conversations podcast where we connect you to ranchers and beef industry enthusiasts who can help you build a more profitable operation and improve your lifestyle. Are you looking for a community of ranchers who support and challenge you to be more profitable and proactive? Then sign-up for our monthly RancherMind events. RancherMinds are mastermind events for ranchers to come together once a month and find solutions for their own and the industry's challenges. Do you want ranch management advice, RIGHT NOW? Sign up for my weekly newsletter and I’ll send you a pdf with 22 Ranch Management Tips from the ranching gurus who have been on my show. Follow @cattleconvos on Facebook and Instagram and message me what topics you want to hear more about and book me as a speaker for your next event. With that let’s see who our guest is today and connect you to a new resource to improve your own operation and lifestyle.
Shaye Koester 03:10
Well, to start off, thank you both for being on the show today. I'm excited to have you on here and to connect with our listeners. So what I would really like to do is have each of you introduce yourself. So Kyle, would you please start and talk about what your role in the beef industry is today.
Kyle Mayberry 03:29
Well, thank you for inviting me to be here with you today. Really looking forward to the opportunity. My name is Kyle Mayberry. I'm the Director of Agriculture for the Biltmore company in Asheville, North Carolina. Some of your listeners may have varying knowledge of Biltmore, certainly a large tourist attraction in the southeastern United States, Biltmore is the largest home in America and was founded and built by George Washington Vanderbilt and opened its doors in 1895. To really establish this oasis country estate in the mountains and Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. We keep that legacy alive today we are an 8000-acre property, of course, still houses that massive home. That is the central focus of our business. And in my role at Biltmore as the Director of Agriculture, we have a very diverse agricultural operation. We're a cow-calf producer. We're a Berkshire pork producer, we're Dorper sheep producer, and then we're also in the row crop business pretty extensively as well. My role up above agriculture involves the natural resource management, some pollinator habitats, a lot of different aspects and then of course, a big part of it is agritourism. We have around 1.7 million guests coming onto our property every year. So we get a really unique opportunity to engage our guests about the food that they eat, how that food is produced and tell that story in a really, really fun way. And then of course, we have America's most visited winery. And we have several, nearly 100 acres of viticulture, and a variety of grapes where we produce wines here on the property that our guests get to enjoy. So that's the big picture view of some of what we do.
Shaye Koester 05:29
Sounds like you have your hands full with a lot of diversified livestock species, but just diversified ag in general. So that's pretty cool and I'm glad to have you on here. How about you, Josh? What's your role in the beef industry today?
Josh Skinner 05:46
Yes, ma'am. Thank you Shaye for having me today. My role is with Gallagher Animal Management. I'm a territory manager for North Carolina and Virginia. My role specifically to beef is helping producers with their livestock fencing needs as well as their livestock watering needs, as well as their scales and weighing needs. Also included in that I am fortunate enough to work with producers like Kyle here. But all kinds producers from small to big from commercial to purebred.
Shaye Koester 06:21
Well, awesome. And for those of you listening, today, we're going to talk about watering systems. So I'm excited to talk about that and gain both of your perspectives. And so we know that fresh water is really important to cattle and how they perform and just their overall animal health. But what's one of the main challenges you see producers face with their watering systems, Josh?
Josh Skinner 06:48
So one of the main challenges I see is the convenience of watering for one thing, how they're currently doing it, whether it's hauling buckets out every day or using a little float valve in a Rubbermaid tank. So convenience is a huge factor that plays into your watering needs on your operation. As well as you know simply quality of life, what do you want to spend your time doing? Do you want to spend your time hauling buckets or hauling tractor buckets full of water out to the field? Or would you rather be doing other things that you might use more important? So I think that's about it. I kind of rambled there for a second.
Shaye Koester 07:32
No, I think that I think you really hit the nail on the head there because it does matter kind of what your operational goals are, how much time you have, and what's available to you in your environment. Kyle, would you talk a little bit about kind of how your watering systems are set up? And what that looks like on your operation?
Kyle Mayberry 07:50
Yeah, sure. So we, you know, we like a lot of beef systems, especially in this part of the world. Western North Carolina and the southeast in general, where we have predominantly a cow-calf operation. You know, we are unique. And I'll talk about the uniqueness a little bit and why maybe we've taken the approach we have in watering systems. We are an 8000-acre property, we have cattle at the furthest point of each of those boundaries of that 8000-acre property. And so, water infrastructure, time to get to those pastures, there are a lot of constraints that we have to consider. Certainly don't have water lines ran to all these different areas at certain points. And so there's, you know, various aspects of challenges with water. But what I guess we know, in terms of conventional beef systems, we are a family farm, we're still family owned and operated. But we are, of course, our family is not really involved in the day-to-day labor aspects of our beef business. And labor is our biggest cost. We're in one of the toughest labor markets and this part of western North Carolina. And so anytime our people are spending time doing something, we've got to understand the ROI of that labor expense and for us and actually help with Gallagher and Josh a few years ago, really set out on understanding how much we were spending water in cattle, how much productivity loss we were experiencing with our cattle because of water proximity, amount of waters per pasture systems. And we quickly learned that the implementation of a little more advanced watering systems really had a really strong ROI for us that we could really make sense of in terms of what our labor costs was. There are so many ways we can look at watering systems, the economics of it, the cow comfort aspects of it. And so we you know, we set out on this on this journey to really understand that and really understand the economics of what we're doing.
Shaye Koester 09:52
So do you want to talk a little bit more you know, you said you looked into advanced watering systems. So how did that look different from what you were doing before now that you've made those changes?
Kyle Mayberry 10:02
Sure, yeah, absolutely. So, you know, previously, we like I said, we have a lot of cattle on the periphery of this property. And our property can take, you know, as much as an hour to drive across all state on the property, because the way the property is set up by one of the largest rivers in this part of the part of North America that runs right through the middle of our property, so we have one bridge. So you're gonna need to be right across the river and have to go all the way around the part of the property, but we had previously been using tank waters that we were filling up with a water truck, daily, twice daily, depending on the system. And then, you know, we're in the mountains of western North Carolina and winters are certainly not near as harsh as you all experience in the West, but still, you know, have certain decent amounts of period of freezing weather, where we won't get above freezing for 7-10 days at a time. So in the wintertime, we were spending immense amounts of time, bustin water buckets, tanks, trying to keep those waters accessible for the cows. And so when we really did the math, we had around two positions that worked for us that were watering cattle, you know, and that's whether that meant taking water to tanks or busting waters, whatever that meant. There were two full-time positions. But that's all they did was water cattle. And I don't know if anyone else experiences what I experience, but labor is not getting any cheaper. And so we really started looking at the math of putting in these MiraFounts. And it quickly turned out to be one of the best ROIs we've done our program. And there are several considerations, not just the labor efficiency, but the cow comfort or how we can form grazing systems that made a lot more sense. And a lot of aspects that are really in the last two and a half years. I think Josh you know, they were I think we put in 37 MiraFounts and so now we have, we don't have a water truck anymore. We don't depend completely on the MiraFount products to deliver water to the cattle. And we don't have to bust waters as Josh, I'm sure going to be a lot more specification. But yeah, those waters don't withstand our conditions. And you know, it's just saved immensely on labor. It saved immensely on what we can allocate our team members to spend their time doing and has really increased our cow comfort really increased our cow productivity leaps and bounds and visibility and from every vantage point.
Shaye Koester 12:43
Well, that's exciting to hear. So Josh, would you go into a little bit more detail about how those fountains work and how they're a little different and more efficient?
Josh Skinner 12:54
Yeah, so there are energy-free and energy-efficient models. In our neck of the woods, we primarily use the energy free, we don't have harsh enough winters for most folks to utilize heaters really at all and for Kyle only being an hour and a half from me, he's quite a bit colder during the winter than I am being in the mountains. But basically all it is is a tank built with four inches of insulation rock material outside. And it's just a simple valve system on the inside that operates once the water declines, the valve opens up and fills it back up. And the MiraFount tanks utilize a ball system that pops out of the hole. So the cattle know that there's water in there, you know, as a producer, there's water in there. That's an advantage of a ball system, as you can see from a distance that there is water in the tank. So that's one of those quality of life factors I was talking about earlier is that you know from a distance not to physically walk out to the tank because there is water there. But as Kyle said something that he does not have to deal with is freezing up. But I should point out that you should consider the number of animals on one tank at a time or if you're planning on pulling animals out of a paddock. You do need to have appropriate numbers on the tank. Depending on the size of the tank, we've got 33 gallons, 10 gallons, and 70 gallons, but you do need to have the appropriate amount of animals on that tank to keep the water moving through it so it doesn't freeze up and sustains low temperatures. Which we don't deal with a lot in our territory but you would more in your neck of the woods. But they run on a water line that runs below the frost line ran out to each individual tank and it comes up through a four-inch pipe inside of the tank that is surrounded by water which greatly reduces the chances of freezing so it's very simple.
Shaye Koester 14:55
Well that's a that's exciting to hear how well it it works in your part of the country now that energy efficient one that is a little more resistant to the cold. Has you had producers have good luck with that in the colder climates?
Josh Skinner 15:09
Yes, absolutely. So they'll they'll run on a little low level heater that would stay in the tanks during sustained low temperatures, you wouldn't need to keep it on all the time. But during sustained low temperatures keep it on. And it's going to keep your water from freezing. And with your cattle mixing in and out of there had no trouble at all. To speak to us specifically, we've had several feedlots in that neck of the woods that have moved to the tanks in the last couple of years because saving water has become more of an issue within our society today. So we've had more and more feedlots move in that direction. They're having great luck with it versus the continuous flow that's always been used in those operations.
Shaye Koester 15:49
Well, that's nice to hear. So, you know, you've both hit on quality of life for the producer and quality of life for the animal with fresh water and saving time and that ROI. Are there other benefits that producers are seeing from implementing these fountains?
Josh Skinner 16:10
Yeah, absolutely, depending on their operation, they can greatly expand what they're doing with their grazing plan or their grazing management plan. And in our neck of the woods over here, a lot of people are utilizing NRCS and USDA programs to fence out their streams and creeks and move to this system, which cleans up our water quality, as well as provides cattle greater proximity to water and reduces parasites on your animals as well without them drinking out of bodies of water and drinking out of these tanks instead.
Shaye Koester 16:44
Well, awesome, thank you for sharing that. So these tanks are they set for cattle can drink out of two sides are What does kind of look like geometrically if someone's trying to visualize it, what does that look like?
Josh Skinner 16:58
Depending on size of operation, we can get a one ball, we can do double sided, we can do up to six balls, which would be on three balls on each side. So yep, depending on size operation is going to depend on how many balls you got. If you're going to split a fence, obviously, you're going to want balls on both sides, you're splitting paddocks if you're just wanting it in a small couple acre lot, one ball would be sufficient. It really just depends on your operation and what your plans are for that operation.
Shaye Koester 17:27
Okay, so Kyle, I've got another question for you. What was the reaction of your employees once you upgraded this watering system? How did they take it the people who were out there day to day handling this?
Kyle Mayberry 17:41
Yeah, so it's certainly very positive feedback. I guess the only negative feedback is they wanted to do it quicker. We put in a lot of waterers across a lot of property. It was a two year process for us to make that happen. And so once they had a taste of freedom and they didn't have to water anything. And so especially in the winter, I mean, you know, it's Shaye you have no doubt worse winters than us. We are just complaining out here, but you know, in the winter, it's harsh, and it's harsh conditions to be out there busting waters, our team immensely cares about the cattle they care for, they want them to have access to water. We don’t have to go through all the benefits of why we need water for cattle and have that access, you know, more than just a couple points during the day. And so they care about what they do. And so spending that time in a different way where we that's a check off the list already. That was a pretty rewarding feeling. Josh discussed on different types of MiraFounts that are available. We have several different kinds. We've got some of the six balls where we have divided it so we have some of the energy-efficient models that do have heaters. We do have a little bit of everything. So you know what, I think what my team has found, you know, anytime you implement change, there's a little hesitation because our conventional water systems, you know, I say they're easy to work on, they're really, they're pretty simple that water flows through them, or we fill them up with a tank, there was a little concern of how complicated are these things going to be? You know, that sort of aspect. But we found that these things, you know, I'm in no way a plumber and I fix MiraFounts frequently in my role. And so it's something you know that if I fix them, I say we have one overflow and or something like that. Sorry, Josh I am not saying we are out fixing them all the time.
Josh Skinner 19:46
I am just impressed you are out fixing on something, Kyle.
Kyle Mayberry 19:47
I'll tell him to get a picture next time. So you know, when we have to control the flat flow and the valves on them and stuff, they're incredibly simple to operate. And so that's been certainly well received. They're not complicated pieces of equipment to fix. They're very simple. And they're designed very producer friendly. That's certainly one of the big advantages for us. Because we have a big property with a lot of different departments, you know, waterlines being hit for different reasons and stuff like that. So it's nice to be able to get those flows figured out really quick and train every team member, and not just have a couple team members that know how to do it. So that's been, and that's been really rewarding for us.
Shaye Koester 20:40
Kyle, I have two things to kind of say back to you. One, yes, our winters are harsher, but I can tell you right now, I am an absolute wimp when it comes to heat and humidity. So there are two sides to that story.
Kyle Mayberry 20:55
I'm ready to move in your direction after the last couple of weeks we got here.
Shaye Koester 21:01
But also kind of getting back to the main point of the conversation, I appreciate you saying that they're easy to fix, because that's something that we see. You know, ranchers have to be jacks-of-all-trades. Even if they have a hired man, or whatever it may be like, yeah, they're not just managing the genetics or managing the grazing, they're the electrician, the plumber, they have to be able to do a lot of things at any given point. And it's nice to be able to fix things yourself. And simply because, you know, we hope everything runs smoothly, but odds are, something's gonna break or need to be updated at some point. So I appreciate you saying that. You know, as we move forward with this, do either of you have anything else you'd like to add about watering systems today for those listening?
Kyle Mayberry 21:52
The one thing, I think is in our neck of the woods, obviously, forge utilization is probably the highest priority, because obviously, land resources are... I say Labor's the most costly, but I work on a property that we've owned for 125 years. So we're not having to acquire lands available to us, because we've had it for a while, but certainly utilizing that land in the most efficient way, getting the greatest yield and utilization of our forage, and certainly front and center and top of mind. And then that's, I think the other big win that we've had with the implementation of these watering systems, is be able to create good grazing systems that increase our forage utilization, where in the past, we had one large tract of land that was considered one pasture, and may have had one water tank at the fence, because that's where the guys could fill up a water tank gap. And now that water tank is two water tanks, and they exist in the middle of those pastures. You know we're mimicking the cattle's behavior. They're going into the water. They're going back to shade in the summer, and in between is where their forage is. And we've seen as much as a 30 to 40% increase in forage utilization. Where we were really trampling and stomping that forage that was the furthest distance from those water tanks was never really getting traveled to because the cattle were just too heat stressed for whatever reason it's just too far out there, their path. And so now we're able to capture all of that forage utilization. Obviously, we're doing management intensive grazing here that we're keeping those cattle in a pretty intensive system in terms of how we graze them. But, these water systems have made that possible.
Shaye Koester 23:38
Well, thank you. Josh, do you have anything else to add, before we wrap up today?
Josh Skinner 23:41
I was going to touch back on him talking about how easy they are to use and easy to work on if there is a problem. And you know, I would encourage producers, farmers, ranchers, that if it is a little intimidating to them to reach out to somebody like me, that is a professional. I have most of Kyle's team's numbers. They'll text me a question you know, what do they need that sort of thing. But I'd encourage folks out there that aren't sure or intimidated to reach out to either a rep like me or territory manager like me, or a producer like Kyle that has experience with these. And just ask questions, because they really are simple. And if you're looking for something to improve your operation, it's not as hard as you might think it is.
Shaye Koester 24:26
Well, awesome. Thank you very much. And I'm sure it will. I know there's information on this on Gallagher's website. And so I will be sure to include that in the show notes and the social media links. So thank you both for joining the show today. I appreciated hearing your experience and insight when it comes to watering systems.
Shaye Koester 24:46
And that's a wrap on that one. Folks. Thank you for tuning in today and joining in on the conversation. Be sure to take this a step further and take the advice you learned and implement it on your operation if you want to have a conversation about it head over to my social media and send me a DM by following at @cattleconvos and connecting with me there have a great day.
