Agricultural rainwater collection systems is collecting rainwater during rainfalls which once its collected, it is treated and stored for re-use. Rainwater harvesting has agriculture for livestock, arable farmers and irrigation.
Agricultural Rainwater Harvesting is becoming increasingly popular for arable and livestock farmers. For arable farmers, rainwater is softer than means water so is more efficient with mixing agriculture chemicals and therefore saving on chemical conditioners. For livestock farms uses for rainwater tanks and rainwater systems include dairy and yard wash-down, poultry and livestock drinking supplies and firefighting reservoir water storage system
Other uses for plastic water tanks for arable farms including as bulk water tanks for agriculture sprayers. With sprayers getting larger a plastic water tank can make filling the sprayer easier and quicker with the bonus of free rainwater. These sprayer tanks are available with a 2″ or 3″ valve c/w male Camlock coupler to connect to the sprayer.
Planning is very important when considering an agricultural rainwater harvesting system for arable farms as some installations have a mains water top-up system which may come under the requirements of Category 5 for backflow prevention. Download your copy here for the design recommendations for mains supply inlets for water cisterns here.
Other uses for plastic water tanks for livestock farms as well as for agriculture sprayers include water for dairy washdown, livestock watering, pressure washing and plate cooling systems. In many dairy flood wash systems are popular for which rainwater harvested water can be used. Likewise, with arable farm rain harvesting systems, some installation with mains water top-up a system come under the requirements of Category 5 for backflow prevention.
A rainwater storage tank is fitted to the roof downpipe and the rain enters the tank through a rainwater filter which removes leaves, moss twigs and other debris from the water. This debris flows over a screen in the rainwater filter and flows down the overflow to the drain or sock away. The rainwater goes through the filter and down a pipe of the bottom of the tank where the calmed inlet causes the water to enter the body of the water in the tank without disturbing sediment which may be at the bottom of the tank. The calmed inlet also helps oxygenate the water by filling the tank from the bottom which keeps the water moving around in the tank
Water pumps are used to pump the water to troughs and water cisterns around the farm. These pumps are specified according to the volume, distance and pressure which is required where the water is going. This water may require a form of UV treatment prior to being pumped through a UV treatment system or chemical dosing to make it fit for the intended purpose.
We manufacture a wide range of storage tanks suitable for rainwater Harvesting. These tanks are either;
A typical above-ground vertical above ground tank, filter and overflow system would be as follows. For roof areas up to 450m2, the rainwater filter has 2x 4″ (100mm) pipe inlets, an overflow to drain and an outlet to the tank, The larger 800mm2 roof area filer has 2x 4″ and 6″ (100mm and 150mm) pipe inlets, 2x overflows to drain and 2x outlets to the tank.
In the main, the UK has a regular rainfall throughout the year, however during spring and some months the water you use may be more than the capacity of the water tank. We recommend that rainwater tanks are fitted with a part fill main top-up valve for installations. These can be set at 10-90% of the tank’s capacity depending on the buffer of water to keep in the tank. More details can be seen in the following video. With a mains water top-up, you may come under the regulations of Fluid Category 5 regulations – more details online here