Pumping - Overview

Water pumping

The amount of energy used for water pumping depends mainly on the farm's configuration. For example, the pump's requirements will be different if the water comes from a bore, a deep well or from a stream. The position of the water storage also has its importance; if they are placed above the level of the shed gravity can often be used instead of pumps.

However, the following recommendations always apply when choosing pumps:

• Use energy efficient pumps and motors.
• Match pump size to the usage.
• Consider the best way to control pump i.e. time clocks, Variable Speed Drive.

Note that a pump throttled will use more energy than the same pump running at lower speed or a smaller pump to achieve the same result.

Effluent Pumping

The simplest way to reduce the energy usage from effluent pumping is to reduce the volume of effluent on the yard. The following are some recommendations on how to reduce the volume of effluent:

• Make sure that guttering and downpipes divert storm water off the yard.
• Install storm water diversion systems and make sure that they are in place between milking.
• Install drains around sumps, storage and treatment pond and maintain then regularly.
• Pre-wet the yard before milking to speed up the hosing down and thus reducing the volume of water.
• Scrape the yard before hosing.
• A wash down which uses a higher water flow at a lower pressure is more efficient than high pressure wash down. This is because it reduces wash down time and uses less water.

Additional saving can be achieved by better controlling the effluent pumps i.e. by using time clock controls or by installing a Variable Speed Drive on the pump motor.