Making Cents to $ave a Dollar and Harvest Water

By Quenna Terry, Public Affairs Specialist, USDA-NRCS
Landee Kieschnick, Communications Intern and Earth Team Volunteer 

The way some farmers and ranchers deal with problems says a lot about who they are and the kind of communities they are from. Texas rancher Bob Durham found a way to turn a problem into progress with help from USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). 
Drought conditions and limited moisture from past years got Durham to thinking about how he could continue to conserve water using an innovative approach - harvesting rainwater off of his livestock barns on his Hale County ranch.

He initially contacted NRCS to request technical assistance to find out more about the conservation planning measures that would enable him to collect and store rainwater for his agricultural livestock operation.  

Durham had been contemplating how his land could hold up to another severe drought. Would he have enough subsurface moisture to nurture his soil and plants, let alone water his cattle?  Durham decided he wasn’t going to wait around to find out. The past had taught him some hard lessons he didn’t want to face again. He was ready to do more to conserve water than he was already doing. 

NRCS District Conservationist Robert Unterkircher in Plainview provided Durham with available options working with the NRCS engineering staff and for possible financial assistance through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) for an agricultural rainfall water harvesting system.

“I’ve always had an interest in water harvesting,” Durham said. “Once NRCS and the soil and water conservation district let me know the conservation practice was available, I signed up.”

Durham made an application for the water harvesting catchment systems to be designed and installed on his two large livestock barns. 
He said he’s always made efforts to conserve ground water, and he wanted to take it a step further to capture and store rainwater for watering his livestock in his pastures. 

NRCS staff helped Durham champion his plan for two barns, with an estimated size of 100 feet by 100 feet for each structure, to allow rainfall runoff into six, 5,000 gallon water storage tanks.  Durham’s system has a first flush diverter to clean the water coming off the barn before it’s captured in the storage tanks. Water is piped from the gutter into the storage tanks where there is an overflow pipe. The water is then transported through a gravity flow livestock pipeline to a water trough to meet the livestock watering resource need. 

 “From each barn, two inches of rain would yield just over 12,000 gallons. This would be enough water for 25 head of cows for a month,” said Greg Sokora, NRCS agricultural engineer. “Four inches of rain would produce almost 25,000 gallons of water.” 

Durham welcomed the planning and design system to meet the NRCS standards and specifications requirements to store at least two inches of rainfall runoff in his polyethylene storage tanks, as part of the rainfall harvesting system. Durham’s livestock grazing system is set up for eight pastures of approximately 38 acres each. 

“The rainfall harvesting system provides farmers or ranchers like Durham an option to make better use of rainfall by capturing runoff and storing for future use,” Sokora said. 

Sokora further explained Durham’s rainfall harvesting system as a gravity flow system utilizing eight inch galvanized steel box bead gutters to capture the roof runoff. The polyethylene storage tanks are only seven feet tall and 11 feet in diameter, this allows for the downspouts to run from the gutters directly to the storage tanks.

During the low rainfall months of January and December, Durham is aware that his livestock watering system will require supplemental water.  In contrast, during the summer months, he can likely plan on some storage tank overflow occurring from rainfall.

According to NRCS, the consideration for saving dollars and energy comes from not having to pump water to the surface and it’s also beneficial to the life of the Ogallala Aquifer.  The life span of the system is approximately 20 years.  Durham is expecting his water harvesting system to be used in an effort to reduce soil erosion around the barns, and to increase water quantity while storing rainwater from the barns and using it to water his livestock.

Durham has had a long history of working with the NRCS.  He’s actively sought their planning advice and conservation expertise for over 20 years.  The EQIP program has helped Durham implement traditional practices such as cross fencing, rotational grazing and grass planting, as well as some non-traditional conservation efforts such as installing wildlife ramps in his watering tanks.  Known as a steward of the land, he has had 1,600 acres in the Conservation Stewardship Program (CStP) since 2011. 

Durham hopes the next severe drought is a long time coming, but he is now better prepared to handle even short term periods of drought. 

This article was originally published in the December 2015 issue of Beef Magazine. For more information about NRCS in Texas or to locate a USDA NRCS Service Center, visit www.tx.usda.gov.