To effectively manage water on you property you first need to know how much water you have available and what your demand is for water over the year.

Using a rope and weights system to measure the depth of a dam.  The length and width can be measured with a measuring wheel or a tape measure.  Once the depth is known the following formulas on the following web page can be used to calculate the volume in the dam.

How much water is in my dam?

Once you’ve measured your dams surface area and volume, you can calculate how much water will be lost through evaporation or is unusable.

Evaporation rates are approx. 2 mm/day or 730mm/year for the Goulburn Broken Catchment. To calculate the amount of water lost through evaporation: Dam surface area (m2) x 0.002 (daily evaporation rate) = X m3. Multiple this figure by 1,000 to convert the figure into litres/day.

Evaporation data for your region can be found at Evaporation data.

You should also remove the bottom 300 mm of dam depth in your calculations as livestock can’t access this water.

Once you have calculated the amount of useable water stored in your dam you can compare this to your water requirements.  Indicative water requirement for stock are seen below.

For further water requirements for livestock, domestic and fire water use visit the Department of Economic Development’s website.

Understanding ahead of time how much water you have in reserve will help you make decisions on stocking rates and whether you’ll need to purchase water.

In developing plans for water infrastructure on your property the following information may be useful.

The Gecko CLaN is currently trialling the use of remote access weather station.

The weather station has been installed on a property at Warrenbayne.  Once set up a web-based login allows for real time access to the data.

The location of the weather station can be viewed

and zoomed into see the exact location

The real time data can also be viewed.

Data can be selected and graphed to view longer term trends.  In the example below both temperature and daily rainfall is shown over a 30 day period.

The weather station can provide real time data where it is not available in your area or close to your property. The information obtained allows for better management of farm water resources and provides information for improved stock health management.

For further information about how weather stations can be used to assist you in managing water supplies on your property please contact Landcare Project Officer Kerri Robson on Ph.0418 140 710 or email:[email protected] 

A range of new technologies are now available for landholders to assist with monitoring of farm water supplies.  These are particularly useful for remote water supplies or for managing water on properties where the manager is absent.  An example of this technology is the use of cameras to monitor stock troughs with a combination of remote cameras and mobile phone.  A brochure of the Observant product can be found here: DIY CAMERA KIT SOLO.

Remote tank monitors are also useful for ensuring that header tanks have water in them for distribution to troughs.  A brochure for a tank water level monitoring kit can be found here: Tank Level Kit

The benefits of using solar pumps, header tanks and distribution systems for establishing stock water are discussed at the field days.  Example of solar pump systems are seen in the image below.

Further information about these technologies can be found through your local pump and irrigation supplier or stock and station agents.

Head loss Chart for sizing poly pipe

The following document is available to assist farmers to calculate the size of poly pipe they require to set up a water supply system for stock.  Head-loss chart for polyethylene pipe …