Any farmer with a creek running through his or her property knows just how valuable it is. However, livestock can pollute these vital liquid lifelines and cause severe erosion to the banks of waterways.
Dick Lester, owner of Spring Valley Ranch in Cherokee County in Iowa, has used a solar powered water pumping system to help rehabilitate a creek running through his farm. He says vegetation quickly returned to the creek’s banks since installing the new solar watering system.
Water is delivered from the creek through a pea gravel trench, buried 5 metres underground, to a helical rotary pump. Eight 175-watt solar panels power the pump, sending water through over 1 kilometre of pipe to three water tanks situated up to 50 metres above the pump.
Water levels in the tanks signal the pump to add water when there is demand. A valve opens, and the pressure tank supplies water until the pressure is gone. The system then pumps nine gallons of water per minute up the hill until the tank shuts off.
Lester’s system requires no deep cycle batteries as the storage tanks act as the battery. While solar panels produce less power on heavily overcast days; on those days, livestock water requirements also decreases. The tanks are big enough that cattle have reserve water for nights and cloudy days.
The environmental and productivity benefits don’t stop with the creek. The placement of the watering tanks also allows for better pasture management as the cattle are no longer congregated around the waterway. Cattle are able to take advantage of more feed while ensuring severe damage isn’t occurring to small areas – lessening the overall environmental “hoofprint” of grazing.
Australian farmers interested the technology can also take advantage of government rebates for solar power water pumps.
Source: US Department Of Agriculture
Related: Solar powered water pumping and rebates.
