A cow doesn’t care where her water came from. She just knows when she wants a drink.
For producers, though, there is a lot happening between the well and the water trough. Water can sit in storage tanks, travel through aging pipes and collect bacteria before it ever reaches the cow.
Ben Moitoso, Dairy Solutions Specialist with Veterinary Services Inc., says water often gets overlooked when producers are working through herd health and milk quality concerns.
“I like to say water is the most forgotten nutrient,” Moitoso says. “A lot of times, it can be a big issue, and it’s not discussed nearly as often as it should be.”
Moitoso works with dairy herds across California, helping producers evaluate what is happening inside their water systems. The well itself is not always where problems begin. More often, concerns can develop as water moves through the system.
“Most dairies send that water into large storage tanks before it’s boosted out into the dairy system pipelines,” he says. “A lot of these dairies were built ages ago, so we have really old pipes under the ground. Either sitting in a tank or running through some really old pipes, the water can definitely pick up pathogens, coliforms, bacteria. It’s kind of a perfect environment for those to grow.”
Then the water reaches the trough, where hundreds or thousands of cows may drink from the same source every day.
“You have hundreds, thousands of animals drinking from these troughs daily. They drink a lot of water, so it sits there, it brews. There’s cross contamination. Water can become very contaminated sitting in those troughs,” Moitoso says. “So the animal is constantly taking in that bacterial load, and it can definitely affect the production and overall health of an animal for sure.”
From Biofilm to Bacterial Load
Much of Moitoso’s work involves chlorine dioxide, generated and applied on farm through Kemin’s Pro Oxine system. The treatment is injected into dairy water systems to reduce bacterial loads as water moves through the lines.
“Chlorine dioxide is an oxidizer, and it takes very little to knock down a load of bacteria, especially when encapsulated, such as a water line,” he says. “So it does a really good job of eliminating the bacteria load as it passes through pipelines.”
The treatment also targets biofilm, the slimy buildup that can develop inside water lines and around troughs.
“Chlorine dioxide has the capability of penetrating and killing biofilm, and biofilm is kind of that slimy residue that builds up either inside of pipes or the outer edges of troughs,” Moitoso says. “Biofilm does nothing but house and breed bacteria.”
The chlorine dioxide is generated on farm shortly before it enters the water system.
“You have a sodium chlorite mixed with an acid, and what happens is the acid drops the pH of that sodium chlorite and it outgasses chlorine dioxide,” he explains. “We introduce an acid through proper equipment on farm, and we generate chlorine dioxide right on site right before the injection point.”
Flow meters monitor water movement and help dosing pumps adjust the amount of product being applied. For enclosed water lines, Moitoso says relatively low concentrations can be effective.
“Just for instance, if we’re treating in line because it’s enclosed, that gas can’t escape. We only need roughly five ppm to treat most systems,” he says. “If there’s a huge mineral load present or a huge bacterial load present, we could adjust that accordingly. But typically, five ppm does a very good job of sanitizing that water.”
Chlorine dioxide also can be used to sanitize hard surfaces, although higher concentrations are needed.
“On top of that, chlorine dioxide is a very good hard surface sanitizer. We just have to go up to a much higher ppm to sanitize hard surface,” he says. “Anywhere from 50 ppm up to 500, depending on what we’re trying to accomplish and what kind of surface we’re applying it to.”
Cleaner Water, Lower Somatic Cell
Water quality can reach beyond drinking behavior. Moitoso recently participated in a controlled study with Kemin examining how chlorine dioxide treated water influenced somatic cell count, or SCC.
“We did a controlled study with untreated water, and then we turned around and we added feces, manure, to that water to mimic what is happening to the water in the environment on a dairy,” he explains. “We ran that for a period of time, and then we treated that affected water with chlorine dioxide.”
The study found a rise in SCC when animals were exposed to contaminated water.
“When the animals were drinking contaminated water, obviously they’re introducing a large amount of bacteria to their rumen system into their bodies, and somatic cell climbed when that happened,” Moitoso says. “We felt like the overall health of the animal was being compromised. We’re introducing a large load of bacteria to an animal. It’s tying up the immune system to go fight that bacteria, and somatic cell did rise.”
Treating the water changed the results.
“When we came back and treated that water with chlorine dioxide, obviously we knocked down that large load of bacteria, so we were introducing very clean water to the animal at that point,” he says. “Somatic cell did drop, and it actually dropped even below the control.”
Moitoso views SCC as more than a milk quality number. Rising SCC can point producers toward problems elsewhere in the herd or facility.
“Somatic cell, especially rising somatic cell, when you start to hit certain levels, it has large implications on a dairy,” he says. “Most creameries want dairies below a certain level, and if you start getting above those levels, they don’t really care for that. It can start affecting the dairyman’s milk price if they’re delivering a constant higher somatic cell product.”
He also sees SCC as a broader indicator of animal health.
“Somatic cell, in my opinion, is telling you the animal is not in optimal health,” Moitoso says. “If you have rising somatic cell, something’s going on on the facility. It’s just telling you there’s probably some concerns somewhere in the operation.”
Water is one area producers can evaluate when working through those concerns.
“Somatic cell is a very big indicator to a dairyman on herd health, what’s going on in the environment of their facilities, and how we can help is making sure water is not one of those concerns,” he says. “If we’re treating the troughs, treating in line drinking water, the dairymen can kind of rule out water is an issue at that point, unless it’s some type of mineral load.”
A Practical Water Treatment Setup
For producers who picture a large installation, Moitoso describes a relatively compact system.
“It takes up very little room,” he says. “We have roughly a two by three box that encloses the two pumps we use and a mixing chamber where we actually generate the chlorine dioxide, and then we run a little clear line out of that box to an injection point within a water line.”
If there is no place to mount the equipment, Moitoso says a stand can be used. Some installations require only minor plumbing work to create an injection point.
The system also requires little power.
“I need 110 power. I just need a plug in for those pumps. It doesn’t draw much power at all. I think it draws like eight amps,” he says. “If I’m set up with an injection point, I can install this unit in about an hour and be treating water in no time on a facility.”
Before installing a system, Moitoso walks through the dairy to determine where treatment is needed.
“We decide what areas we feel need to be treated,” he explains. “Some facilities are set up. If it’s a newer dairy and the plumbing is fairly updated, a lot of those dairymen set it up to know what mains are going where. It can be a little tricky when you step onto an older facility and water lines are going every direction. You’ve got two or three wells feeding in from different directions. That can prolong an install.”
Tracing the system can take some hands on detective work.
“Walking a facility, turning on some valves, turning off some valves, you can typically find out what water is going where, and what water we want to treat,” he says.
Beyond SCC: Intake, Smell and Herd Health
SCC and mastitis risk may be the first concerns producers connect with water quality, but Moitoso also points to something much more basic: whether cows want to drink the water in front of them.
“Chlorine dioxide does make water a little more potable,” he says. “It’s eliminating any kind of taste in the water, whether that’s coming from bacteria or minerals. It can also improve the smell of water. Typically, we see a water consumption increase when we’re treating the drinking water on a farm.”
More water intake can support greater feed intake and milk production.
“If they’re drinking more water, they’re going to be eating a little more food. Hopefully, we’re seeing a little more production on the back end,” he says. “If they’re drinking very clean water and getting as much clean water as they want, you’re going to see a healthier herd and hopefully see obviously somatic cell improve, but just less treatments overall and just a better operation, a more efficient animal on that farm at that point.”
Moitoso stresses water treatment is one piece of a larger mastitis and herd health program. Parlor hygiene, milking procedures and environmental bacteria still need attention.
“There can definitely be other factors on a farm that can correlate with high somatic cell,” he says. “Protocol in a parlor is very important, and the bacteria load in a parlor, that can lead to things like mastitis and somatic cell. Whether it’s drinking water or parlor related, we can help with hard surface sanitation or potable water sanitation to kind of attack that both ways.”
For producers, water may not be the first place they look when SCC climbs or herd performance slips. Moitoso believes it deserves a place on the list.
“Preventative measures never get the glory that a cure does,” he says.
Clean drinking water may not create a dramatic moment in the parlor or show up as a single line item on the milk check. But when cows have consistent access to clean water, producers can remove one more potential source of bacterial exposure while supporting intake, herd health and milk quality.
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