Mains water, any ideas?

[Oronsay]

Morning. We’re putting in a tender for a farm to let (Scotland) and it’s on mains water but we can’t seem to find an idea of price and want to include it in our business plan/cash flow before submitting.
We’ll have 40 suckler cows and followers, 450 ewes and finishing lambs plus around 80 pedigree sheep. All buildings and fields will be on mains water too. Any ideas a rough annual cost? Will it be metered (hope not!!), included with Council Tax like house water charges usually are, or a set payment?
Cheers in advance.

 

[bluebell]

water consumpsion from mains water supply is a very big cost in keeping farm livestock, talking from long experience ?

 

[lazy farmer]

It will be metered.

 

[Gedd]

It will be metered my water bill is about £500 a quarter 120 finishing cattle and 250 ewes with lamb's plus a few fields have streams running through them to drink out of

 

[Oronsay]

It will be metered my water bill is about £500 a quarter 120 finishing cattle and 250 ewes with lamb's plus a few fields have streams running through them to drink out of

Thanks Gedd, we'll use that figure to budget. Cheers.

 

[Hard Graft]

we at about the same as above 550 quater and we have a 250m3 alowance per year as we have 2 houses on the meter as well

 

[bigw]

Scottish water used to have a standard cost for water troughs which is around £35 i think we still have a few on our farm where they come off the mainline and not our own farm supply. Not sure if they offer that for new troughs now or not.

 

[TheRanger]

Scottish water used to have a standard cost for water troughs which is around £35 i think we still have a few on our farm where they come off the mainline and not our own farm supply. Not sure if they offer that for new troughs now or not.

I’m sure we’re £150 standing charge per year for our only field trough off of the main line!!

I’m planning on running a pipe to it eventually, it’ll need to go under a minor road, but will still work out cheaper in the long run.

 

[Bob the beef]

Scottish water used to have a standard cost for water troughs which is around £35 i think we still have a few on our farm where they come off the mainline and not our own farm supply. Not sure if they offer that for new troughs now or not.

£2000 for a connection to mains for a field trough, and all,usage metered, last time I asked the question.. Didn’t bother replying to them

 

[An Gof]

Don’t forget to budget for the inevitable leaks ...... get a big one you didn’t know about and the cost can be frightening

 

[bigw]

I’m sure we’re £150 standing charge per year for our only field trough off of the main line!!

I’m planning on running a pipe to it eventually, it’ll need to go under a minor road, but will still work out cheaper in the long run.

I meant to write £135 but just looked it up and it is £149, likely need to think about piping metered water to it too at some point.

 

[Davey]

Depending on usage and where the water table is it might be worth looking at a borehole?

There is a woefully undersized private supply down our lane with the mains at the end of the lane a mile away feeding 4 farms and around 7 houses. I'm not sure about the houses but all the farms moved to boreholes years ago. You have to sign a declaration regarding usage but unless it's crazy high you don't need a meter.

Was about 5k from memory, need to have it tested every year but always comes back better than the standard used for tap water (so I'm told)

 

[Agrivator]

Morning. We’re putting in a tender for a farm to let (Scotland) and it’s on mains water but we can’t seem to find an idea of price and want to include it in our business plan/cash flow before submitting.
We’ll have 40 suckler cows and followers, 450 ewes and finishing lambs plus around 80 pedigree sheep. All buildings and fields will be on mains water too. Any ideas a rough annual cost? Will it be metered (hope not!!), included with Council Tax like house water charges usually are, or a set payment?
Cheers in advance.

I would allow £4500/yr for mains water to cover daily standing charge ( depends on size of pipe and meter) and price per cubic meter.
If it's less that, treat is as a bonus and/or as an insurance premium against unexpected leaks.

If you are successful, the first thing to do is to harvest as much roof water as you can, and make as much use as possible of clean natural supplies.

 

[Matthew Britton]

Another vote for a bore hole from me. Metered water on the old place with 40 sucklers was a small fortune. When we moved we bought the bore hole as part of our key money, with 120 sucklers here it was money well spent! A bore soon pays for its self.