New farm... Finding livestock water lines across 126ac?

[Dadnatron]

I'm purchasing a 126ac farm and there is the benefit that livestock waterers are scattered across it. However, there is no active water running at them, and I can find no valves. I plan to remove the old waterers and replace them with Hydrants and/or Mirafont waterers, but... I don't even know where the main valve/line is located coming to the 'house/barn'. The lines are across both pastures as well as current bean fields. I'll have access to the pastures, but until the current farmer harvests beans, I won't be able to do anything with them. However, that bothers me less than the fact that I can't even tell if the waterers WORK.

There is no water to them at the moment, which makes me believe there is a master valve somewhere near the barns/house. But I cannot find it. The closest waterer is probably 500yds away and they are scattered from there in all directions. I don't believe there is a sensor wire anywhere, although until I pull a waterer, I won't know for certain. I suspect its black pipe/PVC, but I won't know for certain. But in the high likelihood that there is none, anyone have any ideas about how to figure out this dilemma? The current owner inherited the property, but knows absolutely nothing about it. (Absent family member) I don't believe this would be something on a plat, as it was likely a simple farm addition.

At least if I could find a Master valve, I could open it and then check the waterers.

Any thoughts would be helpful.

 

[kirkawilson]

Possibly they are fed from a well?

 

[Dadnatron]

Possibly they are fed from a well?

I cannot say. But I don't see a well anywhere on property. But I haven't had a chance to really go over everything yet.

 

[ponytug]

Good luck, especially if it is an older farm. I had to deal with one once that had been owned by a jack of all trades who recycled and used bent galvanized piping. You could never tell where it was going to go and we had to dig lots of trenches along the piping by hand to find where it went. After awhile, we did the sensible thing and laid new pipe.

I think job one is find the water source and go from there. Once you have that, I would consider renting a ground radar.

https://www.unitedrentals.com/project-uptime/data/locating-pipes-acoustics-and-mapping-software

I would point out that I wouldn't take any bets that the piping is intact.

Congratulations on the new to you property!

All the best,

Peter

 

[CH4Ohio]

I cannot say. But I don't see a well anywhere on property. But I haven't had a chance to really go over everything yet.

Where does the current water supply for the house and barn come from? Is it all on city water or on well water or both??

If you don't know, I'd suggest hiring a handy-person to come out there and look around and see if he can tell you what's currently supplying water and where the old waterers might be valved off. Well-pits would be a likely suspect.

 

[CH4Ohio]

Good luck, especially if it is an older farm. I had to deal with one once that had been owned by a jack of all trades who recycled and used bent galvanized piping. You could never tell where it was going to go and we had to dig lots of trenches along the piping by hand to find where it went. After awhile, we did the sensible thing and laid new pipe.

I think job one is find the water source and go from there. Once you have that, I would consider renting a ground radar.

https://www.unitedrentals.com/project-uptime/data/locating-pipes-acoustics-and-mapping-software

I would point out that I wouldn't take any bets that the piping is intact.

Congratulations on the new to you property!

All the best,

Peter

You can run new pipe cheaper than finding old pipe with ground penetrating radar.

It shouldn't come to this -- this would be way down the "troubleshooting chart" -- but if you do need to actually LOCATE sections of this pipe you need to just use a pipeline locator. If it's metal pipe, that's simple. If it's plastic pipe you might have to dig it up and push some solid wire through it and use that to transmit a signal. It's also possible that it already has "locate wire" buried with it -- doubtful but common best-practice today.

 

[CH4Ohio]

Good luck, especially if it is an older farm. I had to deal with one once that had been owned by a jack of all trades who recycled and used bent galvanized piping. You could never tell where it was going to go and we had to dig lots of trenches along the piping by hand to find where it went. After awhile, we did the sensible thing and laid new pipe.

I think job one is find the water source and go from there. Once you have that, I would consider renting a ground radar.

https://www.unitedrentals.com/project-uptime/data/locating-pipes-acoustics-and-mapping-software

I would point out that I wouldn't take any bets that the piping is intact.

Congratulations on the new to you property!

All the best,

Peter

You are SO right about the piping maybe NOT being intact. I've seen chisel plows pull up steel water lines when farms convert from livestock to row-crops.

 

[CliffordK]

Is the pipe that you can find plastic or metal?

With electrical wires, one can put a tone on them which can be helpful for tracing the wires. And I think there is a larger version for underground wires. I would assume a metal pipe would ground out quickly, but a water filled plastic pipe might be able to be traced.

 

[CH4Ohio]

Is the pipe that you can find plastic or metal?

With electrical wires, one can put a tone on them which can be helpful for tracing the wires. And I think there is a larger version for underground wires. I would assume a metal pipe would ground out quickly, but a water filled plastic pipe might be able to be traced.

Actually, NO -- you can't trace a water-filled plastic pipe.

We're getting ahead of this problem and the information provided. The OP doesn't seem to even know what the water supply is.

Once you know the water supply, you trace for outlets and valves. If that doesn't offer obvious next-steps, you go to nearest waterer and dig up the inlet piping to see what direction it's coming from. Based on that, you try find the source or run new pipe to intersect and tie-in. If that suddenly supplies the whole system you celebrate. If it gets water to this point, but is leaking / broken downstream, you lather, rinse, and repeat.

 

[Fixastuff]

Is the pipe that you can find plastic or metal?

With electrical wires, one can put a tone on them which can be helpful for tracing the wires. And I think there is a larger version for underground wires. I would assume a metal pipe would ground out quickly, but a water filled plastic pipe might be able to be traced.

Opposite.