Calves and the Frostfree Nosepump

The dynamic that the Frostfree Nosepump was developed within prevented us, the developers, from needing to supplement our calves with any other water source.  In the bottom portion of this page, we share a wealth of data that supports not needing to have a supplementary water source for calves on mothers in summer pasture situations.  The most influential two factors of this dynamic are as follows;

  1. Mothers with an abundance of milk.  Jim Anderson developed his Frostfree Nosepump in the latter part of his farming career.  As such, over the previous decades of farming, he had proudly developed a mature, consistent, Simmental cross cow herd that uniformly exhibited a number of desirable characteristics including good milking udders.
  2. A particularly shallow water source.  On the Anderson farm, we are blessed with a consistently high water table throughout most of our land base.  With the exception of one of our wet wells, the static water level in all of our Frostfree Nosepump locations is 15′ or less.  As our device is manually operated, the shallower the static water level of the water source, the less force it takes to operate the pump.  As such, the shallower the static water level of a source, the broader the scope of animals is that will be able to use it.

We have listened to you, our customers.  For those producers that don’t have the luxury of one or both of the above two factors, we have developed a Frostfree Nosepump supplied creep waterer to provide exclusive access to water for calves in the summertime!  This newly developed summer provision is a simple addition to your existing Frostfree Nosepump whereby you simply tap into the vertical coupler of your Frostfree Nosepump with a small line that diverts a small amount of water per pump into a protected water trough that only calves can access.

Unlike the Frostfree Nosepump, this summer provision only functions in above freezing temperatures but is a fantastic solution for watering young calves on pasture for the summer months.  This creep-style water supplement for calves will allow the cows to not only pump water for themselves, but for their calves as well until they get big enough to pump their own drinking water.

Click here to watch a video of this calf drinking from our latest development, our Frostfree Nosepump supplied creep waterer.

Please consult with us directly to learn how you can modify your own pump, or have us help you do so to supplement your calves if you feel it necessary.

Questions? We’re here to help
call us at 1-866-843-6744

Supplementary Data

In 2006, Olds College researched the Frostfree Nosepump to determine the effectiveness in our cold Canadian winters as well as studying cow/calf training methods and weight gain comparisons between the FFNP and a standard water trough. 

Our cattle have been using Frostfree Nosepumps year-round since 1999. Below are statistics that we recorded for the first decade of the development of the Frostfree Nosepump to prove it’s effectiveness to ourselves and subsequently our perspective customers.  Our calves accomplished the following weight gains and continue to do so without the use of implants or creep feeding. 

Calve Weaning Weight

1998 born Calves (Oct. 3, 1998)
Steers – weaned weight 703 lbs.
Heifers – weaned weight 629 lbs.
1999 born Calves (Sep. 6, 1999)
Steers – weaned weight 570 lbs.
Heifers- weaned weight 542 lbs.
2000 born Calves (Sep. 8, 2000)
Steers – weaned weight 688 lbs.
Heifers – weaned weight 626 lbs.
2001 born Calves (Sep. 7, 2001)
Steers – weaned weight 744 lbs.
Heifers – weaned weight 669 lbs.
2002 born Calves (Aug. 9, 2002)
Steers – weaned weight 598 lbs.
Heifers – weaned weight 567 lbs.
2003 born Calves (Aug. 11, 2003)
Steers – weaned weight 588 lbs.
Heifers – weaned weight 571 lbs.
2004 born Calves (Aug. 31, 2004)
Steers – weaned weight 625 lbs.
Heifers – weaned weight 588 lbs.
2005 born Calves (Oct. 11, 2005)
Steers – weaned weight 715 lbs.
Heifers – weaned weight 691 lbs.
2006 born Calves (Nov. 4, 2006)
Steers – weaned weight 733 lbs.
Heifers – weaned weight 698 lbs.
2007 born Calves (Sep. 20, 2007)
Steers – weaned weight 612 lbs.
Heifers – weaned weight 598 lbs.
2008 born Calves (Oct. 19, 2008)
Steers – weaned weight 764 lbs.
Heifers – weaned weight 705 lbs.
2009 born Calves (Oct. 12, 2009)
Steers – weaned weight 692 lbs.
Heifers – weaned weight 681 lbs. 

Rate of Gain on Pasture

Year Steers (Gains lbs/day) Heifers (Gains lbs/day)
1998 3.2 3.1
2000 3.5 3.1
2001 306 3.1
2002 3.7 3.3
2003 3.6 3.4
2004 3.3 3.1
2005 3.0 3.0
2006 3.0 2.9
2007 2.9 2.7
2008 3.0 3.0
2009 3.0 3.0
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