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Run-Off System Stores Water for Garden, Yard
"It's a great way to collect water for our garden and yard and could easily be used to water livestock," says Alfred Steinke, Bismarck, N. Dak., who came up with a nifty rain water collection system that collects run-off from roofs of farm buildings and stores it in a 1,500-gal. tank.
"We built a new 3,600 sq. f
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Run-Off System Stores Water for Garden, Yard FARM HOME Miscellaneous 13-5-29 "It's a great way to collect water for our garden and yard and could easily be used to water livestock," says Alfred Steinke, Bismarck, N. Dak., who came up with a nifty rain water collection system that collects run-off from roofs of farm buildings and stores it in a 1,500-gal. tank.
"We built a new 3,600 sq. ft. machine shed which took up about half of our garden area. That got me thinking that I could install a rain run-off collector that would double the amount of rain water available for the remaining garden area," says Steinke.
Run-off from the metal building is collected at two downspouts and piped via gravity flow to a buried sump pump where it's pumped through a 2-in. pipe to a 1,500-gal. storage tank. Run-off from an adjacent garage flows directly into the tank.
"My calculations indicate that .67 in. of rain from the 3,600 sq. ft. building alone will fill the 1,500 gal. tank if the rain is gentle enough so the sump pump can handle it. We use the stored water for garden and tree watering by gravity flow and even do some lawn sprinkling using a booster pump. The water could easily be used for livestock or to supply soft water to the house for laundering and other chores.
"It's amazing how quickly water runs off a metal roof in even the lightest drizzle. Just the other day we got just .10 in. of rain but it gave us a good 200 gal. of run-off from the metal building. However, I don't believe there was any run-off from the garage which has wood shingles. The shingles probably soak up at least .10 in. of rain before there's any run-off.
"We've used this rain water collection system for three years. In 1988, one of the hottest and driest summers on record, we had good garden crops and even had plenty of water to put on our evergreens."
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Alfred Steinke, Rt. 5, Box 175, Bismarck, N. Dak. 58501 (ph 701223-4732)
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