Energy-FreeMiraFount®
Insulated, ball‑covered drinking spaces that use the animal’s own nose pressure and ground heat to stay open in deep winter. One to eight holes, 15–100 gallon reservoirs, up to 250 head.
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Ahrens Agricultural Industries Co. engineers and manufactures the MiraFount®, BigSpring™ and LilSpring™ livestock water systems double-wall polyethylene waterers built in Grinnell, Iowa to keep herds hydrated from a −40°F blizzard to a 110°F feedlot afternoon.
Specified by producers, feedyards and dealers across North America
A mature beef cow will drink 10–20 gallons a day; a lactating dairy cow can take 30–50. When water is cold, dirty, or simply hard to reach, intake drops, dry-matter intake follows it down, and gain, milk and conception rates go with it.
Ahrens Agricultural Industries Co. exists to remove that variable. From our plant and offices at 1000 Ferguson Road in Grinnell, Iowa, we design, mould, assemble and test livestock water systems that hold a stable, drinkable temperature without fighting the weather and we back them with a dealer network that knows how to install them properly.
Whether you are watering 25 head on a remote quarter section or 250 head on a bunk line, there is an Ahrens platform sized for the job and a parts programme that keeps it running for decades.
Energy-FreeInsulated, ball‑covered drinking spaces that use the animal’s own nose pressure and ground heat to stay open in deep winter. One to eight holes, 15–100 gallon reservoirs, up to 250 head.
View MiraFount models
Open-TopHigh‑volume open trough systems for dairy return alleys and heavy‑draw feedyard pens, with submersible heaters, quick‑drain plugs and the same double‑wall foamed shell.
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CompactSmall‑footprint one‑ and two‑sided units for calf hutches, maternity pens, sheep and goat lots, horse paddocks and nursery barns. 4–8 gallon working volume.
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Feed & HandlePoly bunk feeders, weather‑shielded mineral stations, creep feeders and handling accessories engineered to the same corrosion‑free, chew‑resistant specification.
View feeding equipmentFreeze‑up, corrosion, algae, animal abuse, service access and electrical cost. Every design decision we make traces back to one of them.
Two‑inch foamed cavity, sealed ball covers and a heat‑retaining reservoir let energy‑free MiraFount units hold liquid water well below zero using only ground and animal heat.
UV‑stabilised, food‑grade polyethylene will not rust, pit, spall or leach. No galvanising to wear through, no concrete to crack, no repainting ever.
Smooth, sloped, seam‑free basins with generous drain plugs. Covered drinking holes keep out dust, chaff, birds and sunlight the three ingredients of an algae bloom.
Valves, floats and heaters sit in a single accessible compartment. Common wear parts are stocked by every Ahrens dealer and shipped from Grinnell the same day.
Energy‑free platforms remove the heater load entirely; heated BigSpring and LilSpring units run insulated, so the element cycles far less than an uninsulated tank.
Drinking heights, ball weights, opening diameters and approach angles are set per species so cattle, calves, hogs, horses and sheep all learn the unit quickly and drink to appetite.
Keeping manufacturing in‑house is how we hold tolerance on a part that has to seal, insulate and survive a 1,400‑pound cow leaning on it. Shells are rotationally moulded, foamed in place, fitted with stainless and brass hardware, then wet‑tested before they are crated.
Head counts, drinking heights and recovery rates differ enormously between a cow–calf pasture and a farrowing room. Our range is built to match.
Pasture, dry lot and feedyard watering for 50–250 head per unit, including remote sites with no service power.
Beef solutions
High‑recovery return‑alley and free‑stall troughs sized to peak post‑milking draw, with fast‑clean geometry.
Dairy solutions
Nursery through finishing units with low drink heights, chew‑resistant shells and wash‑down‑friendly surfaces.
Swine solutions
Quiet, kick‑resistant paddock and stall waterers with visible water level and easy daily inspection.
Equine solutionsLow‑profile compact units with shallow, safe basins suited to lambs, kids and mixed‑age flocks.
Small ruminant solutions
Remote paddock watering on gravity, solar or pressure systems no trench to the yard, no meter to read.
Grazing solutionsWe put four MiraFount units in the north pasture the year we stopped running heat tape. Three winters later I have not chopped ice once, and the power bill for that quarter is zero.
Return‑alley recovery was our bottleneck. The BigSpring troughs refill faster than the cows can draw them down, and the drain plug means a full clean takes one person ten minutes.
I sell a lot of livestock equipment. Ahrens is the line I never get called back on and when a valve does need replacing, the part is on my counter in two days.
Sizing tables, frost‑depth guidance, riser and pad details, and the electrical notes your installer will ask for.
GuideHow to convert peak head count, species and ration moisture into drinking spaces and reservoir volume with worked examples.
Read the guide
TechnicalWhy the riser, the pad and the backfill matter more than the waterer when the temperature drops below zero.
Installation notes
ServiceSeasonal checklist, wear‑part reference and how to raise a warranty claim through your dealer.
Support centreSend us your species, peak numbers, pen layout and power situation we will come back with a model recommendation, a drinking‑space calculation and your nearest stocking dealer.