Whether you’re first-generation or a seasoned showman, hauling across country or just down the road to the county fair, a successful show season starts with a healthy animal. And in the heat of the summer, animal health starts with fresh, clean water … and plenty of it.

Water intake is important in all seasons and helps to mitigate the stress show animals often experience.

Clayton Hannon, Valparaiso, IN, knows the importance of livestock hydration.

“Two years ago, we took a bred heifer to the fair to show. We have ground [well] water at the house and when we got to town, we couldn’t get her to drink;’ Hannon says. “She ended up aborting the calf.”

Hannon says that not wanting to risk more health problems, the family began hauling water with them to every show, a burden that Northwood, IA, sheep and cattle showman Austin Foss, and his family know well.

Like Hannon, Foss says that the family farm utilizes well water, which can make transitioning to chlorinated water at a show a challenge for their livestock.

“There was never a show that came up that we didn’t have to haul water with us.” Foss says, “If we ever got in a pinch and didn’t bring water, our cattle would, inevitably, go off of water, and those that did drink would end up with diarrhea. It’s something that everyone in the show world, who doesn’t already have their animals on city water, battles.”

Foss says that the struggle of hauling water for a steer that drinks as much as 25 gallons a day was a dilemma that often left the show team rationing water or using products to mask the taste-all ending the same: cattle that didn’t look full or cattle that exhibited intestinal problems. Both of which will cost the show.

For both Hannon and Foss, ShowFresH₂O™ has been a game-changer in water management-keeping their livestock hydrated, full and healthy. And as Hannon shares, the product has been his family’s secret weapon in the show barn.

“We were introduced to ShowFresH₂O™ about a year ago and it has changed the way we head into a show week. We don’t have to worry about water; we use it in the water of everything we show-pigs, calves, steers. It’s safe for all livestock. It almost makes me feel like we are cheating because of how easy it is to keep our livestock drinking during the fair;’ Hannon says. “I see guys hauling in water and packing it to their livestock. My solution comes in a quart bottle and is premeasured; I just squirt the ShowFresH₂O™ right into the five-gallon bucket and I’m done.”

Foss agrees, and says that using ShowFresH₂O™ has made believers out of both he and his dad.

“We were actually given a bottle of ShowFresH₂O™ a few years ago. I’m not going to lie, we were both skeptical, but when you go to a show and see those problems that you fight at every single show disappear with the squirt of a product, it makes you a believer. It doesn’t just mask the chlorine, it takes it away;’ he says. “We won’t haul without ShowFresH₂O™.”