With winter around the corner and colder weather it’s time to start thinking about winterizing your farm for the potentially harsh winter months ahead.
I have put together a checklist that should be used to properly prepare your Discovery for Winter for
when the forecast calls for weather that is in the minus temperatures:
Turn off water source to water reservoir
Drain reservoir by pressing the water fill nozzle (suck and spit) till the tank and hoses are empty or just remove the hose from the ball valve at the bottom of the tank and let drain.
The Discovery’s water bags are still likely full at this point so it’s best to send it on its next two routes with water, then turn the water setting off on all routes till the weather breaks. This is a very important step to drastically save the life of the water pump as running a pump dry for hours on end will eventually cook the pump = $$$. The reason for running the water bags inside the Discovery dry is since you lose about 30 liters of capacity inside your tank plus the Discovery must drive around with all that extra weight for really no reason. Any time water is not being used in your barn it’s best to make sure the water bags are drained for this reason.
Now if you need to run water during cold weather or less water is required there are a few steps that can be made to protect the water system:
Heat tape your water hoses and tank. Insulation would not be a bad idea either.
The front or back water spray nozzles can be blocked off with a small piece of plastic behind the water nozzle which can be removed with a 21mm socket (save you a trip or two to the toolbox)
Three different size water spray nozzles can be installed on the Discovery small, medium, and large. The Discovery comes stock with medium. These can be swapped out in a few minutes if less water is desired.
Route actions can also have water turned off if not needed as well. It’s a good practice to take a picture of what actions you are changing as when warmer weather comes you are going to be like “ok what did I change?” To do so log into your Discovery and select the routes icon and the route you wish to change. Next select the action you wish to remove a water action on and de select the water action. The best way to figure out which action to switch is either walk the route action by action with the tablet or watch the Discovery on a route and make note of which action number is the correct one by watching the status screen on main app screen. If it is not displayed swipe right or left in the top middle till found.
If these steps are followed there will be no surprises and no extra work will be needed and no down cows from having an ice rink for a barn.
Feel free to call our team at 1-866-601-5532! Press '2' to get a technician from the feeding department and we will be more than happy to help you with any questions you may have.
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