Farm Water Reservoir Minimizes Risk

Farm Water Reservoir Minimizes Risk FARM HOME Miscellaneous 28-1-26 Roger Van Hecke knows that in his area a dependable supply of water can make or break a farm. He likes to feel as secure as he can which is what motivated him to set up a 6,300-gal. above-ground water reservoir on his Busby, Alberta cow-calf operation. That translates into a three-day supply of water, in case anything ever goes wrong with his wells. Van Hecke spent $15,000 to install three 2,100-gal. plastic water tanks that sit on rubber mats on a cement floor inside a shed connected to his pump house. He has two wells (one at the barn and one at the house) plumbed to the tanks. By using valves, he can control which well he taps into for any given purpose (pressure washing, etc.), so as not to put too much pressure on any one of them. The tank connections are parallel, and he has it set up so that the wells are not taxed too heavily for filling the tanks, either. The barn well is a 3-gal. per minute producer and the house well a 1-gal. per minute. But Van Heck sets them to produce 1 gal. and 3/4 gal. per minute, respectively. His cows drink about 2,000 gal. per day. Because the tanks are plastic, he can quickly and easily see where the water level is at any time. The tops of the tanks are very close to the ceiling, so he doesn't worry about his children falling into them. Van Hecke says that besides providing a safety net, the reservoir system also increases the value of his farm if he ever had to leave it. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Roger Van Hecke, Box 41, Busby, Alberta, Canada T0G 0H0 (ph 780 349-6028; fax 780 349-6738).

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