Animals near water supply?

[bunnymendelbaum]

Farm ladies- do you know if there are any regulations in your area regarding livestock/horses and drinking water sources?
Backstory: my parents got new neighbors (each own about 6 acres). The new neighbors have 4 horses in a less than 1 acre area. It is about 3' from their drinking water pond & about 60' from my parent's pond.
Is that safe? The gate is right there and the horses stand there and crap like crazy.

[Deleted]

This is so dependent on local law and whether or not the ponds drain into a bigger source or if it's simply standing water.
Number of animals also play a role.
I mean here I couldn't put my 150 cows next to pond and call it good becuase of contamination reasons. 4 horses wouldn't be a problem at all though esp. not at 60 ft.
Have them check local law.

[nomad100]

Not a farm girl but DG is right that it is dependent on local law.

4 horses on less than an acre sounds like quite a few in a relatively small space and could be over the allowed limit.

But, at 60' away, I don't think I would be too worried unless neighbor's pond feeds into parent's pond.

[lavender444]

the one acre per horse rule is when it comes to grazing. If you're supplimenting their diet with hay, that doesnt make a difference. You can fit in a whole lot of stalls on 1 acre.

I don't know the rules when it comes to horses, we never had water sources on our land with our horse. And, like he others said, water laws are vastly different state to state. I would imagain, as long as they are keeping up with cleaning up manure, it won't make a difference. IMO, horse manure is a lot different and way less gross than cow manure.

[sjh722]

I'd call the county and probably start with the health department. Here, it'd be the Sanitarian - she handles permitting for septic, wells, etc. Ours is usually surprisingly helpful.

[bunnymendelbaum]

Thanks, my parents are not farmers and had no clue. I'm going to check local law. They pile the manure about 20' from their pond & 70' from my parents.

[emjacobs]

Distance / access to water supply as well as type of water supply differ by area. In my area anything more than 15 animals / acre requires the water supply to be fenced off.

Are these horses being field kept 100%? 1 acre for 4 horses can be plenty as long as the are receiving plenty of additional nutrition. 1 acre generally will provide 1 horse 100% of their nutritional requirements as well as their exercise / roaming ability. 1/4 acre per horse will provide enough forage / space to keep them from going crazy but will not provide any nutritional benefit. Our horses are on one acre (2 horses, so 1/2 acre each), they have supplemented forage all the time and supplemented grain and vitamins in the evening. Our cows have access to 115 acres, automatic waterers, vitamins, and additional forage when necessary.

I would rather have cow manure any day of the week, we have to drag the horse fields and pick out the sheds regularly. We don't have to do that as much with the cows.

60' from your parents pond is a pretty decent distance, we are only required to keep our cows 5' off of moving water and 2' from recent highest rise on contained water (ponds). If their pond is stagnant, doesn't feed to any other sources, and isn't used for public uses then I highly doubt the county will care.

Is there a bigger issue here? Do your parents not like seeing the horses? "The gate is right there and the horses stand there and crap like crazy." sounds to me like y'all are looking for a reason for something to be done.

[Deleted]

PP made good points.
Also, if it really bothers you I'd ask for the ground water/runoff records.
There's about 100 rules I have to follow and practices I need to implement in manure hauling so that we don't contaminate anything.We also have annual inspections, reporting etc. Some of those same rules apply to hobby farmers here as well. It's not like we're spreading manure in groundwater all willy nilly I promise.
So basically, I wouldn't be too worked but if it bothers you find out.
Also, ask the farmer themselves. We're always happy to help. We actually feel better if you politely ask us first instead of going above and beyond and getting the higher ups all involved over something we could've explained in 10 seconds.

[bunnymendelbaum]

M

[bunnymendelbaum]

Thanks everyone.

My parents are irritated because it stinks. It's not really a 'farm land' property, but it was a foreclosure so it was cheap. They have 6 acres but keep the horses on the one acre really close to my parent's house (and their water and their own house). It's really an odd property for animals.

I was the one who wondered about the pond. The neighbors seem a little trashy (i feel mean writing that) and I just wondered if they even thought about manure being 3' from their drinking water supply.

I have no idea if they supplement the diet. My mom said they don't always go in the 'barn' (it's more like an old garage) at night and I haven't seen any
'food' in the fenced area. I never thought of that. I hope the horses are ok!

Can you tell I'm not a farm girl? I have no idea about the stuff. My dad has talked to them a bunch, but he really doesn't know much about farming either.

[InBetweenDays]

Well I grew up with well water and currently live in a city, so take my thoughts with that caveat. But just the idea of getting drinking water from an open pond would freak me out (do they have some sort of filtration or treatment system?). My field of work also focuses on stormwater, and stormwater treatment technologies. Depending on the slope, type/density of vegetation, and soil type pollutants can most definitely travel more than 60' through surface/storm water runoff. Do they have the pond regularly tested?

[bunnymendelbaum]

I grew up drinking the pond water. The ground is clay. That would increase the runoff potential, right? My dad just redid their filtration system, but I'll ask him details about it.

[Deleted]

Jun 8, 2013 13:18:58 GMT -5 bunnymendelbaum said:

I grew up drinking the pond water. The ground is clay. That would increase the runoff potential, right? My dad just redid their filtration system, but I'll ask him details about it.

Clay will increase runoff as it doesnt hold water as well as say black dirt but unless its downhill at 60ft away i wouldnt be too worried. And definitely ask locally. Where i live all water sources have to be groundwater a pond isnt even a legal option here.