{{Short description|Container for holding water for animals to drink from}} {{For|a vessel to contain water to rehydrate domestic livestock|Stock tank}} {{For|a vessel to enable a steam railway locomotive to replenish its water supply while in motion|Water trough}} [[Image:Cattle_trough.jpg|right|thumb|A watering trough on a stock route, Australia]] [[Image:SebastianBillsTrough.JPG|right|thumb|A Bills horse trough in Sebastian, Victoria, Australia]] [[File:Wells. An excellent type of trough for watering sheep. This trough is 200 ft. long, an dis giving a stockman on this... - NARA - 298374.jpg|right|thumb|Sheep watering trough, Idaho, 1930s]]
A '''watering trough''' (or '''artificial watering point''') is a man-made or natural receptacle intended to provide drinking water to animals, livestock on farms or ranches or wild animals.
== History == In Australia, the watering trough is established so that sheep, cattle and other domesticated animals can drink, but native species such as kangaroos may be attracted. To reduce this, some water troughs are designed to reduce their use of the trough or exclude them from that use. One design is the "Finlayson Trough", which uses a low-lying electrified wire that sheep usually step over but kangaroos cannot.<ref name="CSIRO">{{cite journal |title=Electrified watering trough that excludes Kangaroos |pages=3–8 |author=GL Norbury |journal=The Rangeland Journal |year=1992 |volume=14 |issue=1 |url=http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/RJ9920003.htm |doi=10.1071/RJ9920003|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
Watering troughs were very common in many towns and cities as a means for horses to drink while they were tethered to a post. In 1927 animal lovers, Annis and George Bills, funded the building of up to 500 watering troughs in Australia, Ireland, England and the United States. Many can still be seen today inscribed with ''Donated by Annis and George Bills Australia''.<ref name="bills">{{cite web |url=http://members.iinet.net.au/~geogem|title=Annis and George Bills |access-date=2008-10-11 |author=George Gemmill |year=2008}}</ref>
Nowadays,{{when?|date=April 2023}} manufacturers provide a variety of water troughs for animals made of different materials. Permanent access to freshwater is essential to all animals, especially to dairy cows. The more water a cow drinks, the more milk she produces.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.livestocktechs.com/heated-water-trough-for-cattle-cows-goats-sheep-horses/ |title=Stainless Steel Heated Water Trough {{!}} Waterers {{!}} Drinkers |website=www.livestocktechs.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210625081954/https://www.livestocktechs.com/heated-water-trough-for-cattle-cows-goats-sheep-horses/ |archive-date=2021-06-25}}</ref>
== Abreuvoir == An ''abreuvoir'' is a watering trough, fountain, or other installed basin: originally intended to provide humans and/or animals at a rural or urban watering place with fresh drinking water. They were often located at springs. In pre–automobile era cities, they were built as equestrian water troughs for horses providing transportation. In contemporary times, ''abreuvoirs'' are also seen as civic or private fountains in the designed townscape-landscape.
; Translations
* English: Watering trough, basin trough fountain * Spanish: ''Abrevadero'' * French: ''Abreuvoir, fontaine pour les animaux'' * German: ''Tränke'' * Italian: ''Abbeveratoio''
In stonemasonry, as an old or obsolete term, an ''abreuvoir'' is a joint or interstice between two stones, to be filled with mortar by a stonemason.
<gallery widths="220px" heights="170px"> File:Castiglione_delle_Stiviere_-_Fontana.jpg|Abreuvoir fountain, Castiglione delle Stiviere, Fontana, Italy. File:Fregenal_de_la_Sierra_abrevadero.JPG|Abrevadero (abreuvoir), in Fregenal de la Sierra, Extremadura, Spain. File:Saint-Aventin_fontaine_abreuvoir.JPG|''Fontaine-abreuvoir à Saint-Aventin'', Haute-Garonne, France. </gallery>
==See also== * List of watering troughs in Karachi * Bills horse troughs * Fountain of Sant Agustí Vell * Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association, a 19th-century charity that built watering troughs in London * Stock tank
== Citations == {{Reflist}}
== General and cited references == ; Attribution * {{1728}}
== External links == * [https://web.archive.org/web/20090523150620/http://www.heritage.vic.gov.au/admin/file/content2/c7/Latrobe_City_heritage_study_part3.pdf Locations of Bills Horse Trough] * [http://www.electronicvalley.org/derby/quiz/pages/wateringtrough.htm Watering troughs] * [http://web.maynard.ma.us/history/mhist6.htm Troughs in USA]
Category:Agricultural technology Category:Water supply Category:Drinking behaviors