Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Water chemistry cow poo

I have a small pond about 40yrdsX30yrds
in a valley with 2 3acre fields around it.im planing on raising it about 4 feet but we might put cattle in the fields around the pond. how could this effect the pond? how much waste could the pond handle from the cattle? The drain is 1' in dia. and the water fills it up half way on average. This may give you an estimate of how much water is flowing throw the pond.

pond ering:

I don't think I have any "hard" answers for you but will share my experiences/thoughts on ponds with livestock around them.

I have a 1 acre pond which has a 10-11 acre watershed. About half of the watershed has cattle (usually 8-9 head) and horses (lately 7-8 head) on it, using this area for rotated Summer pasture. I do not use any of the watershed for Winter pasture (for us, this is holding the horses/cows in 1 field each which results in hi-density manure and lots of mud) mainly to avoid the sediment runoff going into the pond.

There is a fence around the pond and the livestock are never allowed to graize/wallow at the pond shore (sounds like you are planning the same). I have a 1" plastic line running filtered water from the pond underground to a freeze-out hydrant below the dam which lets me water the cows with pond water outside the pond field. The fence was placed to minimize the amount of non-pond area inside it; due to the concern of having enough "buffer" grass above the pond I limit graizing on the area which surface runoff uses to get to the pond (especially when the ground is real wet) to try and add this grass area to that inside the fence to slowdown runoff and limit sediment.

The cattle barn (loafing shed) is located in the watershed and gets a lot of manure accumulation in it; this no doubt contributes nutrients to the pond but it is far enough away (across turf I keep in good shape) that not much in the way of sediments from the mud there makes it to the pond.

Effects on the pond: can't give a "with" vs "without livestock" picture, as they were there before the pond. My Secchi depth has run between 1'7" and 3' for the last three years, average is about 2'6". So I don't think "too many" nutrients are getting into the pond from the horse/cattle manure (that's why I am more concerned with the sediment load, personally).

Question for you: How many cattle are you thinking of running? If you want to put in a feedlot, that would of course be way too much manure/mud for the pond. If you were located near me, 6 acres would let you keep maybe 2-3 head tops IF you obtained your hay for Winter from the outside. I would not be concerned about the nutrient load from a couple of cows as long as you have a good grass buffer above the pond the slow runoff. (If you currently fertilize the pond, that would require reevaluation with cattle added.)

I was wondering about this a while back also. I got to looking and found that there are actually published rates for fish production. My neighbors were feeding cattle up steram from my pond and I was concerned.

There are articles on the net about organic fertilizing of ponds. Some decent university reasearch, wish i could tell you where I found it. Try key words like: aquatic organic fertilization fertilizer.

They talk about rates and ability of the lakes and ponds to respond in fish growth and production etc.

good luck

pond ering,

Every situation is different with a lot of variables at play. Like Theo, I have cattle, but unlike Theo I have ponds with and without access provided to the cows. In general, I like cows around the ponds. They keep vegetation under control and provide a natural source of nutrients. They also can pack a new dam or newy renovated dam...the sheepsfoot hasn't got anything on several head of cows. The trick in having ponds with cows is moderation....finding the right level for you.

The effects are mainly seen in water quality. One pond that we reserve for eating fish, does not have cattle access. I think if swimming was an intended pond use, then cattle access would not be desirable. Before Tilapia, we would see considerable FA every year and I always attributed that to the nutrient loading from the cows.

There are lots of variables at play in this decision but my advice would be to start slowly, observe effects, and react accordingly.