Paula Hynes: Water is the source of life, and essential for farms
Dean Harte drilling for water on the Hynes farm recently.
Water is the source of life, everything needs it to grow and to stay alive.
The weather since early March has been extremely dry up until this week, and the UK Met Office has already said this has been the sunniest spring on record. While we waited for the moisture to return from overhead, we went in search of water below us and drafted in Martin and Dean Harte well drilling.
A cow will drink anything from 30 to 120 litres of water a day, so as you can imagine during the sunny days of May when temperatures were high, demand for water was at peak.
On top of what the cows drink, we also use water to wash the milking plant twice a day and also to wash out the milking parlour; we also use water to help cool milk, although we do recycle this water. During really dry sunny weather, we can easily use 10,000 gallons of water a day on the farm.
Previously, our farm had two water sources, a gravity flow system from a stream in the upper farm, which we upgraded a couple of years ago when Martin drilled a new well for us.
When he divined it, he knew there was two underground streams and right he was as he drilled down less than 80ft and found the first one but was sure the second one would be a better source which he tapped into after 120ft of drilling, a water source which would easily suffice a 500-cow dairy herd.
Unfortunately, our farm is split by a road and village, so the main farm was still sourcing water from a shallow spring. While the supply was adequate, the pumping system was expensive to maintain. Martin returned to divine for a potential water source, and found an underground source close to the farm yard.
Our farmyard sits directly on top of a narrow limestone vein of rock which runs all the way from Castlemore right down to Blackrock castle.
It is fractured limestone, so ideal for building old stone walls or ground limestone or limestone chippings, but not good enough for making limestone columns or blocks like you would see in Cork City Hall, as there are hairline cracks in the stone, but water loves hairline cracks in limestone as it will create underground streams over centuries.
Dean Harte arrived with the drilling rig and Martin pinpointed the location where he felt they should drill for water. Dean knows the drilling rig inside out, and more importantly, he knows what he is drilling through underground.
He drilled into limestone gravel quickly, which isn’t ideal as it requires steel lining, so a 20ft length of steel pipe has to line the well bore, and then another 20ft length of steel pipe has to be welded to it before the rig can continue drilling.
After drilling to 40 feet, Dean was confident he had moved from limestone gravel to fractured limestone and after drilling to 65ft, he found Martin's water source, which had water pressure well in excess of the farm's daily water requirements.
All that was left was to line the well bore with plastic piping, and the rig was lowered, ready for its next mission to find water. While we don’t have oil underground in Ireland, I am quite sure if I were living in Texas, I’d draft in the Harte father and son duo as they would be the most efficient men at drilling for it.
The next step for our new water source is to have the submersible pump fitted by Denis T. O'Sullivan. Martin has already been in contact with them to discuss the well bore, and Denis popped into the farm to see what the easiest way to lay cable and water piping will be.
With two wells on the farm now, we are well placed to ensure the cows are never short of water as climate change increases the chances of us facing more regular droughts. It is a far cry from my visits to Kenya, where they regularly have to drill in excess of 500ft to find water, which is extremely expensive.
With a new water source on the farm, it was also time for the maiden voyage of our new addition from the IHFA premier sale in April, as we headed to Midleton Show with her.
Georgie started the day by winning the Junior showmanship. It was fantastic to see many new junior handlers.
Becky followed suit by claiming the red ribbon in the senior showmanship and then began adding the final touches to Robin. She relaxed nicely for her first outing and has another red rosette under her belt as she won the heifer class at the IHFA sale.
She showed a lot better in the championship as she grasped what was expected of her in the show ring and was tapped out as honourable mention behind the two older cows shown by the McGrath family.
With all roads leading to Belgooly Show this weekend, we have been busy walking other heifers during the week as they all head to their first show, which will be a further education for them.
We have four going to Belgooly, one of our jersey heifer calves Kalani who is a January born daughter of Kasey and full sister to Khaleesi will be having her first outing and Dream makes her debut as a milker in the Jersey cow class after having a lot of success for us as a calf and maiden heifer.
It is nice to have a show on a Saturday as it means we get a few hours down time on the Sunday.
Especially when it is a bank holiday weekend and one of our French students arrives into Cork Airport early on Tuesday morning, so at least she will have a few days to get to grips with the farm and animals before we head to Clonakilty show on June 8.
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