First smallholding, laying water pipe

[atomicrobokid]

Hi all,

Newbie here, so please go easy! I'm going to have many questions over the coming year or two!

Family have finally bought our first smallholding, roughly 10 acres, split into 3 fields next to the house. We have a couple of horses we are planning on bringing with us.

One of the first jobs i'd like to tackle is laying water pipe to the fields for the automatic water troughs (three of these 30 gallon troughs, one in each field).

First purchase is a small tractor, something like a Kioti CK, and either buy or rent a subsoiler

So here's the first part of the plan i'm not sure of, laying 25mm MDPE pipe with the above to the 3 fields should be ok, I think?

How would you normally lay these, assuming the fields were next to each other and access was fine, would you daisy chain one off the other? I.e. subsoil to field one, pipe comes out, T junction, connect one T to the trough, the other goes back in the ground on the way to the 2nd field and so on?

And actually connecting to the main, would 25mm be fine connecting to an external household tap with the correct connections, or would the pressure be way off, i.e would I have to get someone out to connect it to the mains supply?

Finally, all 3 fields would not be in use at the start, so would you put a shut off valve by each T junction to each field and then turn them off manually when not in use? I've read bits and pieces about inspection holes being dug and all of that, but seems like a lot of work and not even considered how i'd approach that!

Thanks everyone

R

 

[diggerjones]

I would probably do it like you have said but with my mini digger. You may struggle moleing it in depending on ground conditions. Maybe connect up to the water service pipe before it enters the house

 

[Pan mixer]

If you are going to connect to the mains (like your outside tap with a proper connection) you will have to have the installation inspected by your water supplying company, they will tell you their rules - depth of pie and so on.

A small tractor like that will have difficulty putting a pipe deep enough to avoid risk of frost damage - deppending on where you are in the world but it would be sensible to have the pipes over 2 feet deep.

There would be requirements for non-return valves in the system (you will be inspected for that too) isolation valves at ground level by each trough would be a plan too I think or having three stopcocks in one inspection pit so that you can turn the required ones on when you need.

An alternative approach would be to use black pipe (i.e. not the photo-degradable blue) above ground and turn everything off when it freezes. Arranging the pipes along fence lines, some people say that mice etc can chew these pipes but I haven't had any problem apart from when a neighbours bonfire got out of hand and it melted the pipe (which put the fire out straight away incedently)

 

[Fendt516profi]

Mains water so I'm assuming will have a decent pressure, only a couple of horses have you any plans for more livestock just thinking maybe better with smaller troughs that get emptier so the waters fresher

 

[Ffermer Bach]

I laid black pipe on the surface behind fences, with kiwitec quick release fittings and mobile trough, really pleased with the system, only thing I would have done differently is use 32mm pipe instead of 25mm, buried under gateways

 

[Ffermer Bach]

Pipe from JDP pipes

 

[Dry Rot]

Get a friendly neighbour who knows. I bet half of that isn't needed.

 

[milkloss]

20mm pipe might be plenty if it's fair level and only for a few sheep rather than 100 milkers.

 

[atomicrobokid]

Thanks all! Appreciate your responses!

I think I like the idea of burying the pipes just so I can mitigate any risk of freezing.

I'm in North Shropshire so I need to find myself a friendly farmer or contractor with a more powerful tractor and a subsoiler by the sound of it . Ground is flat so that's a bonus

Just the 4 horses for now but will be adding some other livestock over the next few years, just not over committing at the start.

That trough can be emptied really easily so I'll be rigorous with with weekly clean to keep it fresh.

I was working off a horse drinking 5-10 gallons a day x 4 horses so it seemed like a good size, perhaps slightly naive on my part

R

 

[diggerjones]

Thanks all! Appreciate your responses!

I think I like the idea of burying the pipes just so I can mitigate any risk of freezing.

I'm in North Shropshire so I need to find myself a friendly farmer or contractor with a more powerful tractor and a subsoiler by the sound of it . Ground is flat so that's a bonus

Just the 4 horses for now but will be adding some other livestock over the next few years, just not over committing at the start.

That trough can be emptied really easily so I'll be rigorous with with weekly clean to keep it fresh.

I was working off a horse drinking 5-10 gallons a day x 4 horses so it seemed like a good size, perhaps slightly naive on my part

R

I put self filling water troughs in , for our horse's and i don't think I've ever seen them use them I'll ask the wife. I presume they get most of their liquid in take from the grass.
Where are you in Shropshire. I'm near market drayton

 

[Fendt516profi]

If you're burying pipe go bigger 32mm or even 50mm won't be something you'll want to do again. Then connect up to troughs with 25mm

 

[Kiwi Pete]

You often get on quite well if you 'pre rip' a couple of times and then lay the pipe, that way if (for example) you hit rocks or something you aren't stuffing your pipe backing out of it, plus you can get it deeper with less HP

for pipe size, we use 25mm to troughs and it's plenty, our old system was 20mm and in places 15mm and it wasn't up to 150 cattle on a hot day

so for a few horses and cattle, it really comes down to what you want to spend and how much overkill you think you'll need

I'd just put a tee in at each trough and not worry about isolating valves, a simple end-cap will suffice if you want to stop troughs filling or take them out for any reason

we only pulled in the main and run the laterals along fencelines on the surface, they soon cover over which keeps things cool in summer. I'd recommend only having water in the trough where your animals are, because it soon goes off, and just fill it when required.

 

[gmgmgm]

I'd stick to 25mm MDPE all over. Messing about with other sizes is a pain, and you'd need a lot more livestock to need a bigger pipe.

Put in non-return valves where you connect to the mains a) to demonstrate they are there and b) it's the right thing to do.

I'd put a valve by each trough, where you come off the mains and anywhere else that it's easy to access. They're pretty cheap to install, and if you have a leak/problem it's helpful to be able to turn them off.

Daisy chaining the connections will reduce the chance of dead legs (stale water in a pipe), but it's not a huge area so go with whatever layout you prefer. Keep it simple.

I've seen convincing videos laying 25mm pipe, so it can be done fairly easily, but it depends on the tractor and ground. Thinking about your Kioti CK, I doubt my 37hp L Kubota would get it 2ft down, but (being in the south-west) I'd be happy if it was 1ft down.

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

If you're burying pipe go bigger 32mm or even 50mm won't be something you'll want to do again. Then connect up to troughs with 25mm

For 10 acres?

 

[Paddington]

We received a grant from Shropshire council. probably 15 years ago to put in half a dozen water troughs. I think it covered all materials, but not labour. Local farmer did the moling and I put the troughs in. I seem to remember that particular grant was coming to an end, but it might be worth checking if a present one exists.

 

[Nearly]

Buy an older real tractor rather than a new budget one.

 

[Fendt516profi]

Buy an older real tractor rather than a new budget one.

Think I might know where there's a DB going cheap as it's parked up doing nothing

 

[dave mountain]

connecting 3 x 25mm pipes to an outside tip running off 15mm copper would be a bit bizarre. the proper way would be to put a tee in just after the main stopcock for your house. the pressure will be no different but the flow rate will be a lot better.
correct way to lay MDPE pipe is: dig trench minimum 2ft deep, put 2" of sand in bottom of the whole trench, put the pipe in, then another 2" of sand on top, then carefully backfill, without putting any rocks where they may pierce the pipe.
all the tees etc should be underground, should be as little as possible above ground due to freezing

 

[Dry Rot]

connecting 3 x 25mm pipes to an outside tip running of 15mm copper would be a bit bizarre. the proper way would be to put a tee in just after the main stopcock for your house. the pressure will be no different but the flow will be a lot better.

That's what I did here. A simple T off the main to the house with a stop cock, then Ts off to water troughs in the fields. I have about 17 water troughs Td off that line, all 25mm plastic with hand compression fittings purchased either online or from the local builder's merchants. You can put more stop cocks in if you want but it's not necessary. Some of the suggestions here seem quite complicated. If a water trough doesn't fill quickly enough, the livestock just waits until it does. They haven't much else to do with their time.

 

[pettsy]

Water mains pipework should be 750-1350mm deep. Will need to comply with water regulations for back flow prevention.

some basic info from STW on this page, other suppliers will be similar.

https://www.stwater.co.uk/content/dam/stw/stw_buildinganddeveloping/installing-a-trough-supply.pdf