Geo-STAR Cattle Waterers

GEO-STAR WATERER Install

The Geo-star waterer is a naturally heated and cooled livestock waterer that provides an automatic source of drinking water for any and all types livestock. The Geo-Star is non-electric but utilizes the natural geothermal energy from the ground to provide heat to keep the water from freezing in the winter and coolness to keep water cool in the summer.

Ask for Caleb…tell em Full Armor Farm sent ya’

Video of cattle drinking from waterer: https://youtube.com/shorts/HvdE0biA-GI?si=549ODA8Qbgy6n7El

This watering system for our cattle was built with the idea in mind of having mobility to move the watering system to different locations easily. On the farm we have multiple paddocks that we move cattle to providing us the ability to manage grazing and provide healthy grass to our cattle continuously while negating over grazing.

First, I built the platform the waterer would use to get elevation. I used what was laying around the farm, 2x8’s for framing it out, shiplap for the decking and 4x4’s as the legs to support the weight. Large 12 inch Spikes hold the legs to the frame.

Keep in mind that water is heavy - 1 gallon = 8.345 lbs. We have a 125 gallon water tank which will weigh 1,043 lbs when full. I intentionally over built the stand to make sure it would hold twice the weight I was going to put on it. You will also have to have a level area when placing the waterer so the weight is displaced evenly over the 4 support legs.

I used ratchet straps and strapped the 125 gallon tank to a small pallet. This allows us to pick up the pallet with our tractor and move to our water source with ease or to other paddocks. The platform is also wide enough to pick up with the tractor forks providing mobility. As you can see in the above picture we even have the rubber water tub sitting on a pallet for ease of movement. This has saved us time and unwarranted backaches.

Initially we used a garden hose end as a shut off valve for the system. We found that it took forever to fill up the tub below so we switched it out with a 1 inch ball valve, fill up time for 40 gallons is only a couple minutes now. As you will see in the video below the Highlands enjoyed the garden hose end better.

Below are other waters that we installed on the farm in 2021 in different paddocks. These are fixed position waterers as they are fed from a central dug well. I used a 4” deep well pump that was rated for 33 GPM, with a 110v control box. I took a PVC pipe and drilled a bunch of holes in it to form a sleeve around the deep well pump to protect it inside the dug well from bouncing around. We hook up our Echo 2300 generator to the control box, flip the switch and can fill a 275 gallon tote in 11 minutes. This well provides two paddocks with drinking water, one paddock is 400 feet away. Ball valves are used to control the flow of water from one tote to another or stop the flow of water.