Are your profits going down the drain?
The Environment Agency has launched a new resource that can help you make the most of the West Midlands rainfall and add to your profits.
Paul Meakin of the Environment Agency explains how rainwater harvesting can help your business.
The booklet, Rainwater harvesting: an on-farm guide, is an easy-to-follow guide that can be utilised by farmers and other businesses. It gives comprehensive advice on how to choose what system would suit your farm, varying from smaller £300 systems to more complex 800 ha farm arrangements.
Harvesting rainwater to use around the farm can be simple, cost effective and bring other benefits to your business. For example, roof an run-off water from farm buildings can dilute slurry or dirty water, and therefore increase the volume of storage required. This can be reduced if some of the rainwater is harvested. The average amount of rain fall that falls over the West Midlands is 750mm per year.
Oaklands Farm Eggs is a company in Shropshire. One of the farm sites has 6.5 ha of total yard area, including colony egg production buildings.
Farm manager Alex Pike, designed and built the bespoke system on the farm to collect all the rainwater in two lagoons. It is then treated in a water-cleaning plant to use as drinking water for the 1.4 million hens on the site.
About £750,000 has been invested on the one farm, to harvest and treat all the water generated from rain on the site. The annual water charge was £120,000 per year, but Alex estimates the harvesting system can meet nearly the full water demand on the site. Mains supply is used only for staff facilities and for supplementing the harvested water in extreme dry conditions. This was a large investment, but if the system covers the previous potable demand and maintenance costs are low, it could pay for itself in around 6 years.
But rainwater harvesting doesn’t have to be so expensive. Systems can be relatively simple and inexpensive to install and there may be help for grant aid from the Rural Development Programme for England. Rainwater harvesting systems may also be eligible for relief under the Enhanced Capital Allowance Scheme.
The guide to rainwater harvesting can be obtained FREE from the Environment Agency website or by phoning 08798 506 506.
