Dry well?

49801

Anyone had their well run dry?
Brother built on a corner of the farm and drilled his own well. So we plumbed into it feed some water troughs. 90 gallon jfc's.

Fields had been closed for 1st and 2nd cut so sent animals to graze headlands in one field.... Water supply failed in a couple of hours to house and trough.

It's a centrifugal pump system
Several attempts to reset the pump where made. Pump was turned off for several hours. When turned back on there was lots of brown water.

Brother will be getting onto the well drillers but this all sounds very odd to me despite recent dry spell.
Did well really run dry?
Submersible not deep enough?
Pump related problem?

Thoughts?

49801

Just got more details
350ft deep well with a 1hp pump 10-15ft from bottom.
They are going to come back with how many gallons/hour later they calculated at drilling

bbam

The dirty water would indicate the well indeed ran empty.

This doesn't mean there is no more water left.

Remember the bore hole has a fill rate, the rate water comes in from the surrounding ground. If you draw water off faster than it fills then it will empty rather than go dry.
The fill rate may be slower in this weather.

You could install a gate valve on the line filling the troughs and close it down 3/4 way. This would reduce the draw on the well but cause the drinkers to fill slower.

whelan1

is there rust in the water normally, our pump blocked up with brown rust a few years ago, it had only been put down 4 years previous, we lifted it and cleaned it and its going ok now

49801

Just doing some simple calculations and figure there is about 420 gallons for every 50ft of effective well based on an 8inch well (guess). Surely there would be more than 100ft of effective well even in the dry spell. This is the first time this year cattle have used this well on top of normal household use.

bbam

I knOw a chap in Longford who bored three 400ft bores and got no effective water. The result was to blast one bore to improve fill rate and use a buffer tank. This is for a domestic house supply.
It's possible your brother was just getting bye, and the combination of dry spell and extra draw on the well just went too far, how many cattle were drinking extra? During a severe dry spell they drink an awful lot.

Then there is the possibility of a hidden leak underground?

A deep bore hole doesn't guarantee water, and the drilling lads have no responsibility if there is no water table there. The small print protects them from that one, you pay boring operation- water or not!

49801

bbam wrote: »

I knOw a chap in Longford who bored three 400ft bores and got no effective water. The result was to blast one bore to improve fill rate and use a buffer tank. This is for a domestic house supply.
It's possible your brother was just getting bye, and the combination of dry spell and extra draw on the well just went too far, how many cattle were drinking extra? During a severe dry spell they drink an awful lot.

Then there is the possibility of a hidden leak underground?

A deep bore hole doesn't guarantee water, and the drilling lads have no responsibility if there is no water table there. The small print protects them from that one, you pay boring operation- water or not!

There was 97 replacement heifers, 400kg. Think they were only there a couple hours, 6hrs.

Well was drilled next to a rock that ozes water in the wet times. I know there are no sure thing with wells.

bbam

49801 wrote: »

There was 97 replacement heifers, 400kg. Think they were only there a couple hours, 6hrs.

Well was drilled next to a rock that ozes water in the wet times. I know there are no sure thing with wells.

In extreme heat they could drink maybe 10% of their bodyweight a day..
4,000kg of water = 4000l = ~800galons..
They weren't there long... but after moving, messing round troughs etc.. they could easily have drained 100's of gallons in a few hours

jaymla627

bbam wrote: »

In extreme heat they could drink maybe 10% of their bodyweight a day..
4,000kg of water = 4000l = ~800galons..
They weren't there long... but after moving, messing round troughs etc.. they could easily have drained 100's of gallons in a few hours

Id say proberly more than 10%, well packed up on outfarm 63 weaned calves where emptying 2 ibcs a day worked out at 30 litres per calf a day.