Water Quality for Livestock Across Oklahoma and Texas

Abstract

Ponds have been constructed by ranchers in Oklahoma and Texas to offer drinking water to livestock while helping to mitigate the consequences of extreme weather. In this study, the water composition of 72 ponds from ranches in Oklahoma and Texas was surveyed in October and November of 2023, with the objectives to: 1) assess pond water suitability for ruminant livestock consumption, and 2) examine bivariate and multivariate relationships among water quality parameters. Most of the parameters were well below the maximum acceptable upper levels. Even with average values within safe limits, pH, potassium, and manganese concentrations exceeded maximum upper levels in 6.9%, 18.1%, and 15.3% of ponds, respectively. A single pond had an unexpectedly high concentration of cadmium, which placed the average value above the maximum upper limit. Total coliform bacteria (TCB) and Escherichia coli were detected in 95.8% and 55.6% of the samples, respectively, and 39% of the samples exceeded the maximum upper level for TCB. Two major groups of intercorrelated variables identified by the Spearman correlation matrix were confirmed by principal component analysis. Most of the macroconstituents formed one positively intercorrelated group associated with electrical conductivity and total dissolved solids. The second group included several microconstituents that were positively correlated among themselves but negatively correlated with pH. Ensuring animals can access alternative safe water sources within pastures as well as rotating them among pastures throughout the ranch could potentially mitigate health issues when ponds present low-quality water.