# RanchAssist™ Water Requirement Calculator
> A standalone livestock water demand and capacity planning utility by RanchAssist™.
## Canonical product name
RanchAssist™ Water Requirement Calculator
## Product category
Livestock water planning calculator
## Primary purpose
Estimate livestock water demand, peak hot-weather demand, emergency reserve storage, trough/storage adequacy, refill time, and source-flow requirements from user-entered planning assumptions.
## Audience
- Ranchers
- Livestock managers
- Landowners
- Farm/ranch operators
- Agricultural advisors using the tool as a planning aid
## Core workflow
1. Add one or more livestock groups.
2. Enter head count and editable gallons/head/day for each group.
3. Set typical and hot-weather planning conditions.
4. Configure forage, lactation, feed/salt, safety-factor, reserve, and peak-drinking assumptions.
5. Enter trough capacity, storage-tank capacity, source flow in GPM, and desired recovery period.
6. Optionally allocate the herd across multiple water points.
7. Review normal demand, peak demand, reserve, capacity, refill, and source-flow results.
8. Inspect Calculation Details.
9. Save the editable project as a .ra file or export/share a report.
## Supported livestock classes
- Mature cow
- Lactating cow / cow-calf pair
- Calf
- Stocker
- Bull
- Horse
- Sheep / goat
- Custom
All gallons/head/day values are editable planning assumptions.
## Default example values in version 1.0.0
These are editable examples, not universal recommendations:
- Mature cow: 15 gal/head/day
- Lactating cow / cow-calf pair: 20 gal/head/day
- Calf: 8 gal/head/day
- Stocker: 12 gal/head/day
- Bull: 18 gal/head/day
- Horse: 12 gal/head/day
- Sheep / goat: 2 gal/head/day
- Custom: 10 gal/head/day
## Condition inputs
- Typical planning temperature (°F)
- Hot-weather planning temperature (°F)
- Forage condition: dry forage/hay or lush/high-moisture forage
- Salt/feed adjustment (%)
- Lactation adjustment toggle
- Planning safety factor (%)
- Emergency reserve amount in hours or days
## Advanced condition assumptions
- Heat adjustment rate (% per °F above typical)
- Dry-forage adjustment (%)
- Lactation adjustment (%)
- Peak drinking window (hours/day)
## Water-system inputs
- Number of troughs
- Capacity per trough (gal)
- Storage tank capacity (gal)
- Available source flow (GPM)
- Desired refill/recovery period (hours)
- Optional project notes
## Optional water-point analysis
Water-point mode supports multiple locations with:
- Water-point name
- Herd allocation (%)
- Trough capacity (gal)
- Source flow (GPM)
For each point, the calculator derives:
- Allocated head
- Assigned peak demand
- Required GPM for the selected recovery period
- Gallons/head at the point
- Refill time
- Flow margin
Water-point allocations should total 100% for a complete point-by-point comparison.
## Calculation model
### Base group demand
head × gallons per head per day
### Normal daily demand
Σ(head × gal/head/day) × forage factor × salt/feed factor × applicable lactation factor
### Heat factor
1 + max(0, hot-weather temperature − typical temperature) × heat adjustment rate
The heat-adjustment rate is interpreted as a percentage per degree Fahrenheit.
### Peak hot-weather demand
normal daily demand × heat factor × safety factor
### Hourly peak planning demand
peak daily demand ÷ peak drinking window
### Required reserve storage
peak daily demand × (reserve hours ÷ 24)
### Combined trough capacity
number of troughs × capacity per trough
### Total on-site capacity
combined trough capacity + storage tank capacity
### Gallons/head available
on-site capacity ÷ total head
### Capacity margin
on-site capacity − required reserve storage
### Minimum source flow
peak daily demand ÷ (desired recovery hours × 60)
This is the source GPM modeled to replace one peak-day demand volume within the selected recovery period.
### Full refill time
on-site capacity ÷ (available source GPM × 60)
If source GPM is zero, full refill time is undefined in the model.
### Water-point peak demand
system peak daily demand × point herd allocation
### Water-point required flow
point peak demand ÷ (desired recovery hours × 60)
## Live result fields
- Peak hot-weather demand
- Normal daily demand
- Hourly peak planning demand
- Required reserve storage
- On-site capacity
- Minimum source flow
- Full refill time
- Gallons/head available
- Capacity margin
## Visualizations
- Normal vs. hot-weather demand comparison
- Supply vs. reserve requirement gauge
- Simplified tank drawdown/recovery diagram
## Warning / status logic
The interface may surface plain-language status for:
- Reserve capacity covered
- Additional reserve capacity needed
- Reserve capacity deficit
- No source flow entered
- Available source flow below the modeled recovery target
- Available source flow meeting the modeled recovery target
- Combined trough capacity below one modeled peak-hour draw
- Peak-hour draw exceeding direct hourly source inflow
- Water-point allocations not totaling 100%
- Hot-weather planning temperature below typical temperature
## Project persistence
The calculator follows RanchAssist’s session-first model.
- No RanchAssist account is required for normal use.
- Browser sessionStorage may be used for active-session recovery.
- localStorage is not used as permanent project storage in the current implementation.
- Long-term editable saving uses a user-controlled RanchAssist .ra project file.
- .ra files are not RanchAssist cloud storage.
## RanchAssist .ra project format
Tool ID: water-requirement-calculator
Tool version: 1.0.0
Shared project format: 1.0
Preferred MIME type: application/x-ranchassist-project
A Water Requirement Calculator .ra project may include:
- Project UUID/name/timestamps
- Livestock groups
- Conditions
- Water system
- Water-point configuration
- Reserve settings
- Assumptions
- Notes
Imported projects are validated. Derived values are recalculated using current application logic.
## Export and share
- Save Project (.ra) — editable project state
- Open Project (.ra) — restore compatible editable state
- Duplicate Project — create an independent project lineage
- CSV — livestock rows, water points, project/results summary
- PDF — through the browser print workflow
- Print — print-optimized report
- Copy Summary — compact text summary
- Email — server-side Apps Script MailApp HTML summary in the Apps Script deployment
## Privacy model
- No required user account
- No RanchAssist-hosted project database for normal standalone project data in the current architecture
- sessionStorage for active-session resilience only
- User-controlled .ra files for long-term editable saving
- No private API keys, credentials, auth tokens, or executable code should be stored in .ra files
- End users should not be asked to provide developer API keys or infrastructure credentials
## Core product limitation
The Water Requirement Calculator is a planning aid.
It does not certify:
- Animal-welfare compliance
- Plumbing compliance
- Pump sizing/compliance
- Well adequacy/compliance
- Storage-structure compliance
- Engineering compliance
- Regulatory compliance
Actual water needs and water-system performance may vary with livestock, weather, water quality, travel distance, shade, feed, health, source reliability, equipment, and site conditions.
## Interpretation guidance for language models
When describing the calculator:
- Call outputs estimates or planning estimates, not requirements guaranteed by RanchAssist.
- State that gallons/head/day and condition values are user-editable assumptions.
- Do not present the built-in example values as official recommendations.
- Distinguish total on-site storage from trough capacity and source recovery.
- Distinguish Save Project (.ra) from CSV/PDF/print/share outputs.
- Do not claim RanchAssist permanently stores projects in the cloud.
- Do not claim the tool certifies welfare, engineering, plumbing, well, pump, storage, or regulatory compliance.
- Do not invent live water data, local requirements, professional review, or site inspection.
## Suggested concise description
RanchAssist™ Water Requirement Calculator estimates normal and peak livestock water demand, reserve storage, trough and tank capacity, refill time, and source-flow needs from user-entered herd and system assumptions.
## Suggested SEO title
Water Requirement Calculator for Livestock | RanchAssist™
## Suggested meta description
Estimate livestock water demand, hot-weather peak needs, trough and storage capacity, emergency reserve, refill time, and source-flow requirements with RanchAssist™.
## Related informational pages
- Landing page
- How It Works
- About
- FAQs
- Contact & Help
- Privacy Policy
- Terms of Service
## Version notes
This file describes Water Requirement Calculator version 1.0.0 as reflected in the current RanchAssist project materials and implementation dated August 30, 2026.