Katpau
Well-known member
Thanks Brute
The lower part of the system was built with the help and partial funding of the Soil and Water Conservation District and included fencing the cattle out of the creeks. They designed it and we built everything to their specs. The stock tanks we put in were locally available and are 300 gallons. We can have over 40 pairs in one pasture, so they consume a lot of water when it is hot. Bigger tanks would be helpful, so as we replace them over time, we can put in larger ones. We built all of the higher elevation without financial or professional assistance, adding two springs, more storage and eventually the well. We probably made mistakes, but it has worked pretty well for over 15 years, with most problems occurring as the system has aged or when pipes break due to hard freezes, which doesn't happen often here.
One thing that is likely due to a mistake in design, is that when something down below fails, it will also drain many of the stock tanks at higher elevations. It somehow sucks the water back out of them. You would think the float would prevent that from happening, but it will suck the water back out until it is below where the floats are attached near the bottom of the tanks. I've included a picture of the floats we use at both the stock tanks and the larger supply tanks. They are installed high up in storage tanks, but need to be near the bottom of the stock tank. These floats are much superior to the original ones they had us put in. They were toilet floats and refilling was way too slow. When a group of cows arrive at the tank together, they would often drain it before it could refill. The tank would then refill with so much force it would end up spraying water right over the top of the tank.
My husband has reminded me that we actually need to replace the pump itself in addition to the battery on the solar well. It was never able to pump enough water in summer to get ahead of the cows and he does not want to spend the money to replace it now. It was a shallow well with a hand pump, near an old homestead by the creek. When the creek dries up it has very little water, so not of much use when you really need it.
What are pipe water legs? I'm not sure I understand what you are saying there.
The lower part of the system was built with the help and partial funding of the Soil and Water Conservation District and included fencing the cattle out of the creeks. They designed it and we built everything to their specs. The stock tanks we put in were locally available and are 300 gallons. We can have over 40 pairs in one pasture, so they consume a lot of water when it is hot. Bigger tanks would be helpful, so as we replace them over time, we can put in larger ones. We built all of the higher elevation without financial or professional assistance, adding two springs, more storage and eventually the well. We probably made mistakes, but it has worked pretty well for over 15 years, with most problems occurring as the system has aged or when pipes break due to hard freezes, which doesn't happen often here.
One thing that is likely due to a mistake in design, is that when something down below fails, it will also drain many of the stock tanks at higher elevations. It somehow sucks the water back out of them. You would think the float would prevent that from happening, but it will suck the water back out until it is below where the floats are attached near the bottom of the tanks. I've included a picture of the floats we use at both the stock tanks and the larger supply tanks. They are installed high up in storage tanks, but need to be near the bottom of the stock tank. These floats are much superior to the original ones they had us put in. They were toilet floats and refilling was way too slow. When a group of cows arrive at the tank together, they would often drain it before it could refill. The tank would then refill with so much force it would end up spraying water right over the top of the tank.
My husband has reminded me that we actually need to replace the pump itself in addition to the battery on the solar well. It was never able to pump enough water in summer to get ahead of the cows and he does not want to spend the money to replace it now. It was a shallow well with a hand pump, near an old homestead by the creek. When the creek dries up it has very little water, so not of much use when you really need it.
What are pipe water legs? I'm not sure I understand what you are saying there.