Setting up gravity fed water system for regenerative agriculture
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- Опубліковано 26 сер 2024
- Rob describes the gravity fed water system he is building, and some of its key gravity water system design features. This system will facilitate regenerative agriculture on the farm by providing water for livestock and irrigation while using no sources of energy other than gravity.
About Rob Avis and Verge Permaculture:
In less than 10 years, Rob & Michelle Avis left Calgary’s oil fields and retooled his engineering career to help clients and students design integrated systems for shelter, energy, water, waste and food, all while supporting local economy and regenerating the land. He’s now leading the next wave of permaculture education, teaching career-changing professionals to become eco-entrepreneurs with successful regenerative businesses. Learn more and connect with Rob & Michelle at vergepermacult...
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While we are designing and setting up our regen organic farm near Green Bay WI these videos have been I’m almost perfectly timed!
Im not sure how you keep anticipating what I want to know, but thanks. Been thinking about this for days now. This years projects were greenhouses, expanding my compost area and growing in pots experiments. Next year is modifying and improving my water capture and getting chicken coop and hens incorporated into my garden.
Hey Rob. Love how everything's coming along. Hello from Vancouver and hope y'all are enjoying the book I sent.
You've probably already found one of my favourite features of the Google Earth Pro measuring tool, but I'll share it here just in case anyone else finds it useful. The Path (multi-line) tab has a "show elevation profile" option in it. If you trace any point on the profile it draws, it'll show the elevation and slope at that specific point and indicate where that point is on the line drawn on the map. I found it amazingly helpful when I discovered it. To be careful, the Z-coordinate (elevation) is one of the most susceptible to error - vs the X (long) and Y (lat) - without flying LiDAR or ground-survey but I think it is suitable for broadacre scale and conceptual work.
Thank you for the book. Yrds that till is a favorite of mine too.
Good stuff
What happens your HDPE pipe during the coldest parts of winter? Does it get damaged from freezing water inside? Also, my family has had issues with bears and other wildlife chewing on exposed pipe in the driest parts of the year - so it had to be buried. Is the pipe from your springs to your holding tanks buried?
Great question. We drain it in the fall so there is no water in the pipes. We will find out if wildlife like to eat it. That has not been my experience thus far. If you want you can plough the line into the ground just below the surface.
Hi Rob, it looks like you will have to blow the pipe with compressed air really well to drain it. Those little dips below a gate may come back to annoy you for years until you smooth the slope. We blow the pipes and still get enough water gathering in little dips to crack pipe, I think some of it is from condensation. On a long run of 1000’ it doesn’t take a big dip to pool enough water to cause damage. Time will tell but blow them until no vapour comes out and you should be fine.
With that insulated electric wire... any reason you wouldn’t want to use a wire with slightly higher resistance to generate enough heat to keep the pipe above 0C? Water all year round could be awesome.
Rob, loved all your Calgary stuff, and now liking the acreage set-ups. You are living the dream. Had to laugh about your second line(above), specifically "using no sources of energy"..... How are you getting the water into the tanks in the first place?
Ram pump. Thanks for the kind words. So, the energy will come from water hammer.
Ok, I’ll have to check it out.
Great content Rob. How do you keep the water from freezing and damaging the lines, tank and fittings?
Hey Janet! we drain the system down in the winter. The animals come back to a central spoke and we have a frost free water system there.
Can I ask what you bought for cisterns, where from, and cost? Just trying to price and source my rain water collection system. Thx!
Around $600. I got it from Flaman in Nisku.
Is that clover? I've never seen it so tall.
The red variety to be exact, u should see alfalfa tho I think it’s cooler to eat lol