Pasture Pipelines...

[smcgrath76]

Where do you guys get your pasture pipeline supplies? Risers, Valves, HDPE pipe, etc.
I have been shopping around some but am curious about who is a good supplier. We are looking at some developments here.

[grassfarmer]

I see a lot of supposedly cheap, quick attach fittings featured in articles about progressive graziers but have never known where they bought them.
We have always work with camlock fittings which you get in most co-ops and UFA stores. They are not cheap but they are strong and last well. We use the male ends and the caps and make our Ts out of the 1 inch pipe and the grey plastic inserts. It costs about $15 per complete T junction because the caps are about $9.

[smcgrath76]

I see supplies on the powerflexfence.com site, but nothing really in Canada. I have looked into some of their products but the $ shipping duty make it pretty prohibitive.

[Eastcoaster]

Your Gallagher fence dealer should be able to supply you with a quick coupler to hook up your tank ($9.19ea last year's price).Good if you want to move your tank from pasture to pasture. I believe they have to be drained in winter. They also have a full flow float and valve for a tank as well.

[PureCountry]

I'll look into some pricing Sean. We're thinking about doing the same thing in the spring, and from my days of working in an oilfield supply shop, I have some connections. I'll see how cheap we could get camlocks and various fittings.

Any preference for plastic, steel or aluminum on the camlocks?

Also, we need to drill a well for this little pasture water system of ours. I want to do it so we can use solar power instead of grid-tied. Is anyone doing this now, and if so, what type of system do you have?

[smcgrath76]

We have used plastic camlocks on pretty nearly every pumping system we have used. They work pretty well.
If the well is shallow, then a variety of pumping options are available. For few cows we have used shurflow pumps. For deeper wells I would go to a lorentz or sqflex pump but they are pretty pricy.
Darcy, don't forget to look at wind too. 400 watts of wind power on the edge of the battle river is a lot cheaper than 400 watts of solar.

[farmers_son]

I noticed the new solar pumping setups all have little wind generators as well as the solar panels.

What we are using in our pasture well pumping setups is a high volume/lower pressure 220V submersible pump and a good Honda inverter. The Honda inverters come with remoter starters that can be made to start and stop automatically. It is quite a bit cheaper to go this way (about half the cost) than to go solar plus I get a lot of extra use out of the inverter (standby power and so on).

The inverters only need to run just fast enough to power the actual load so use less gas meaning they run twice as long as a generator before it needs attention from me. I figure I can pump over 16000 gallons water with 5 gallons gas which means a tank of gas will water 200 cows for five days.

[smcgrath76]

We have always been stalled out by the problem of lift. Most of our applications are well over 20 feet of lift and that makes expensive pumps, takes more power and makes a $1500 investment into a $3500 investment. For small groups we have used sprayer pumps, but they won't do the volume. A bilge pump for a boat is the cheapest setup we have ever found for high volume, low lift applications. $65 will get you a 12 volt pump that does 8' of lift and 1500 gph . Add a $100 deep cycle battery, a $35 pump switch, and a panel from ebay and you are away.

[smcgrath76]

forgot to ask, what size inverter are you using? and do you use it in the winter?

[farmers_son]

Ours is a Honda 7000is. We bought it new in 2006 for $3950. It is big enough to keep the farm going if there is a power outage plus it does any job we want it to. It is a little big and heavy to move around, usually takes two unless I am hooked onto the stock trailer. The submersible pump pumps 25 gallons a minute with no back pressure (pumping into an open tank) with a 30 foot lift. We have 3 pasture wells we move the outfit around to.

We have pumped in the winter but not as much as we used to. There is winter and then there is winter. Pumping water in real cold weather is a challenge. Today would not be so much of a problem.

Most years the cows can lick snow and we try to get the girls near an open spring if we can. Right now there is not much snow.

I have developed a real dislike for cows standing on dugout ice to drink in the winter. It is too risky and the ice is never 100% safe although I do it when I have to.

[smcgrath76]

thanks FS. We have used a little Pacer pump for years that I bought for $250 on sale. We pump in the winter until there is enough snow, and pumping can be a challenge, especially when you can't get a truck near the dugout and have to walk in with an axe and a pail of hot water for priming the pump. Once cows are on swaths they come up to the yard.

[cswilson]

I've got a wetwell dug in off my dugout-it's a 30 inch cribbing and I think oit's 20 feet deep so some storage in the pipe-I'm thinking of putting a ore truck tire over it with a the riser pipe installed already-how would be the best way to pump into it in winter-I wasgoing to build a little shack over the riser and heat it with propane-but wondering what pumping system to use.

[smcgrath76]

CS - do you have power out there?
We have used tractor tires with risers in cement centres for years and in our experience they are far better than the commercial waterers.
If you have power, just throw a good sump or regular well pump down the hole.
If you are looking at solar or wind try the lorentz pumps (they sell them at Battleford).
We are looking at playing around with solar heat collectors that can be built or bought cheap to keep at least some heat in the water and potentially to heat the concrete pad and trough centre. I know a guy that heats his 3 car garage with 2 of these units and it never gets below -5.

[cswilson]

No there's no power out there at all-I'll have to stop by your place sometime on my way through.