On the Canadian Prairies, a green Christmas doesn’t exist. However, a brown Christmas sure did in 2023, thanks to El Niño.
Snow was scarce on the Prairies earlier this winter, with temperatures rarely falling below -20 C, or even -10 C. With a drought stretching through multiple years, the dry winter is causing even more concern the Prairies won’t see as much runoff as usual, which could also affect water quality in dugouts.
Runoff
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Dwayne Summach is a livestock and feed extension specialist with the Saskatchewan government and is well-known across the industry for his expertise when it comes to water-related issues.
Summach says one of the obvious concerns going into the spring after a winter like 2023-24 is the lack of runoff and the amount of water that will be available in dugouts.
“As quantity becomes limited then quality becomes more important,” he says.
Water in dugouts changes over the course of the year. Summach says the changes in dugouts depend on evaporation and consumption of the water, as well as runoff and rainfall.
“So runoff happens, dugouts are filled or get the water that they’re going to have for the summer at the beginning of the year, and water quality is often a certain level,” Summach says. “And as evaporation happens, as consumption happens, the salts are left in the dugout, and so they get concentrated.”
As a result, water usually starts at a higher quality in the spring because of the runoff, and then decreases because of hotter temperatures, which increase evaporation.
Rainfall can help improve water quality.
“In water quality, it doesn’t get as bad as fast,” Summach says. However, he adds it would have to be a heavy rainfall to make a notable difference. Three or more inches in 24 hours or less would be a significant event, he adds.
“We haven’’t seen many of those.”
Research
Summach says work has been done with Saskatchewan government researchers at the Moose Jaw office on water quality changes in dugouts over time.
He says they have been monitoring a dugout for multiple years. Summach says that data indicates a dugout often starts in decent condition and then degrades over time.
According to Summach, in 2022 the sulphate levels in the dugout started at 1,400 milligrams per kilogram. By the fall sulphate levels had increased to 7,000. In 2023, sulphate levels started at below 100 and rose to around 3,000 by the end of the year. Usually, around 3,000 milligrams per kilogram is when experts recommend cattle not consume water from that source.
They also collected data on how rainfall affected the quality of the dugout they were monitoring.
“When we look at the data specifically on that dugout, you can identify when there are significant rainfall events and recharge,” Summach says. “And so, what will often happen is you’ll get a slight improvement in water quality, but more often than not, it really just causes a bit of a plateau.”
Toxicology
At the Saskatchewan Beef Industry Conference at the end of January, Dr. Vanessa Cowan spoke about toxicology in cattle in Saskatchewan.
Cowan works at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, where she researches toxicology and helps operate the toxicology lab.
While many toxicity situations with cattle occur in many places, Cowan presented on a few that happen in or because of water. This includes sulphate poisoning, salt poisoning and blue-green algae.
Cowan says while salt poisoning can occur because of an animal consuming too much salt, the more common cause of salt poisoning is an animal not drinking enough water or a lack of access to water.
Sulphate poisoning is often caused by drought and can cause blindness, seizures and loss of balance. Cowan says sulphate poisoning is more common now than it used to be.
“Saskatchewan has had an all-time history of high sulphate in water, which will decrease the copper that’s absorbed in the animal, also contributing to copper deficiency,” she says.
Blue-green algae, on the other hand, is more common than salt poisoning and is an issue that concerns many producers.
Symptoms of blue-green algae poisoning include staggering, weakness, difficulty breathing and convulsions, which can result in death.
“Oftentimes, we won’t be alerted to a problem until animals have died from drinking the water with the algae,” Cowan says.
She says producers should be on the lookout for blue-green algae blooms during prolonged periods of hot weather, as well as in areas where there is agricultural runoff.
“We have a semi-quantitative test at the moment, where we can tell you above a certain concentration if the water is contaminated,” Cowan says.
Monitoring
Summach says when it comes to monitoring the water quality in a producer’s dugout, the most practical way to do that is with electronic conductivity.
He says producers have two different options — purchasing electronic conductivity metres or bringing samples to their regional government offices for testing.
“We have metres available to measure electronic conductivity. And then if need be, we can forward it to the lab for further testing and further analysis,” he says.
Summach says producers considering purchasing their own electronic conductivity metres should consider the economics.
He says a hand-held metre is under $200, but they are good for only around six months, and replacing the tip costs around $150. Because there’s a variety of products of different qualities, this can vary. He says producers also must ensure they get their metre calibrated.
Whether it’s worth investing in a hand-held metre will also depend how many dugouts a producer is concerned about and how far they must travel to access other resources such as Saskatchewan Agriculture’s regional offices.
Future
El Niño is projected to last until the spring of 2024, but could continue into the summer — a Global News article from the beginning of February says there is a 53 per cent chance of La Niña returning between July and September. With the possibility of El Niño persisting, the Prairies could be hot this summer. And with spring fast approaching and another dry year already on the books, Summach says it’s important for producers to know the water quality in their dugouts.
Poor quality water can affect animal wellbeing, he says. “It impacts their immune system function, impacts reproduction and impacts a lot of different things.”
