Water accounts for as much as 80 percent of a piglet’s body weight at birth and closer to 50 percent of a pig’s body weight by maturity and at finishing. Water is the second most important nutrient in the body, next to oxygen. It plays an essential role in regulating an animal’s body temperature, growth, reproduction, lactation, digestion, and lubrication of joints. Water requirements are often expressed based on water-to-feed ratios of 2:1 to 3:1, and this ratio decreases with an animal’s age. Lactation is one of the highest water requirements for livestock.

Water scarcity makes water a precious commodity in some regions of the world. Water management to control the needs of livestock and humans demands good use of conservation. Additionally, water quality can be impacted by microbiological, chemical, and physical factors. High levels of microbial counts can be a signal for shallow wells and water sources due to runoff from high-density livestock waste and human waste contamination. Drinking water for animals should be maintained below 100 total bacteria per milliliter and fewer than 50 coliforms per milliliter. Low levels of bacteria can be kept safe by the managed use of disinfectants (for example, shocking shallow wells with bleach) in the water. Chemical factors found in water test samples will often be detected with these common tests: dissolved solids (TDS), pH, iron, hardness, and nitrates and nitrites. Physical measurements such as color, odor, flavor and clarity can also be evaluated from water. Water should be clear and odorless. Water that smells or is cloudy or frothy needs further testing and screening. Testing your water at a reputable testing lab and having the results analyzed with the Zinpro H2O Water Analysis Program can help ensure proper water intake and can help your animals maintain optimal production.

Water Testing Can Improve Livestock Health and Production
Water quality can create production challenges, including reduced growth, milk production, feed intake, and reproductive performance. Water quality generally refers to minerals found in ground and surface waters, such as sulfates, chlorides, bicarbonates, and nitrates, which form calcium, magnesium, or sodium salts. Concentrations of these minerals added together make up total dissolved solids (TDS) in the water. The maximum TDS recommended for livestock water is 3,000 ppm (NRC, 2012). Above this level causes pigs to scour until they get used to the water, and has been shown to negatively impact pregnant and lactating animals. In regions located near volcanic areas, more toxic metals are exposed to water, and it may be reasonable to have lower acceptable levels of TDS. As levels of TDS elevate, we tend to find more issues with long claw and dew claw growth, but this has not been proven scientifically and might be an artifact of other management factors that may also impact claw growth.

Cleaning water lines from scale and bacterial populations may help animal performance. Keeping coliform colonies below 50 per milliliter has improved gilts that show estrus when exposed to boars. This phenomenon was also demonstrated when the water source was switched from shallow well water to rural water. This significantly boosted the percentage of gilts showing heat compared to gilts watered with well water that tested over 200 coliforms per millimeter.

Often, sulfates have a poor reputation for causing the issue of scours when most of the experimental testing has shown that sulfates under 2,650 ppm did not cause any real issues in swine. Pigs adapt to the higher sulfate levels in just a few weeks. Iron mainly causes issues with increased bacterial populations and precipitation of iron compounds that can plug nipples and pipelines. Iron in the water will reduce the intake of livestock if greater than ten ppm, causing poor taste. Ten ppm of nitrites is of concern in water due to binding to hemoglobin in the blood and impairing the oxygen-carrying capacity. The acceptable pH range in the water is 6.5 to 8.5 (NRC, 2012). Water pH can impact the dispersion of medications used via water application. Higher pH allows for greater pathogen proliferation and survivability.

What Are Water Tests Looking For?
Most initial tests are simple and will look at turbidity, color, odor, TDS levels, pH, and hardness. Tests will also check most of the major minerals we’re concerned with in the diet. When there is too much of a mineral, such as calcium, in the water, it can cause problems with the absorption of other minerals, such as zinc. This is called an antagonism. If problems are identified, more extensive testing may be recommended to look for toxic minerals such as cadmium, lead, and mercury. Tests can also identify organic and chemical contaminants in the water, such as manure and chemical fertilizers.

How to Collect a Sample for a Water Test
It’s recommended that livestock and poultry producers test their water supply twice per year–once in the spring to know what upgrades need to be made and then again in the fall to compare the results and identify further upgrade needs.

It’s important to select a reputable lab for testing. Reputable water testing labs will send you clear instructions for collecting a water sample when they send you the collection containers. However, it’s important to make sure you’re taking the water samples from where the animals are drinking. If you have bad water lines or serious bacterial problems, you could have misleading results if you are taking your sample from the well instead of from the end of the line in the barn. If further testing is needed for things like arsenic, fluoride, lead, pesticides, organic compounds, etc., Clean Water Testing, LLC is an option.

It’s also important to ensure your sample doesn’t become contaminated by something not already in the water. If you have a bacterial problem, you need to ensure you’re getting a sample that is not contaminated by environmental contamination within the barn or around the faucets.