Farm well vs house well?

JayinNY · Apr 22, 2012

Speaking of wells, one thing i have noticed is 4 farms that I have worked on all have plenty of water. I accidentally left the hose on over nite at one farm and it was still running the next morning. Try that at my house and im Otta water in 30 minutes? My fil has a float valve in his stock tank for the cows, so tank keeps full as cows drink,well the cows broke the fitting, and the thing pumped water non stop for 2 days before he realized it was broke. The other farm I worked on has enough water for the 150 to 300 horses that live there. Is that just luck or what? I couldent support that many animals on my well, what is different with there wells? All farms are within 10 miles of each other?

Don-Wi · Apr 22, 2012

Never had issues with my well, and I've left it on to water the garden for several hours (turned it on and drove away, forgot about it). Never heard of anyone around here with those kinds of issues. I think they'd be drilling a new well if they did.

Back home at the farm, the well feeds my parents house, my brother's house, the rental house, and the barn. Never an issue there either.

Donovan from Wisconsin

Mike (WA) · Apr 22, 2012

Lots of differences between aquifers, just within feet, rather than miles. How deep are all the wells? I'm in an aquifer that will pump 60 GPM, so I could run a garden hose (about 5 GPM) for the rest of my life, and it would never run dry. Your well is probably shallow, just getting surface water- others are probably deep, in an aquifer that's much larger.

big jt · Apr 22, 2012

Couple of things. Partially your well is a low production well.

More significant is that the pump is set to pump more than the well can produce. On my farm the well pump is set to put out only 3 gallons a minute. I have always figured that was pretty much what the well will produce, at least that is what Dad told me makes sense on that well.

Short version is have a well company come and set the pump to pump less that what the well will produce.

jt

JDseller · Apr 22, 2012

You well is just not a very good one. I had the well here at the house drilled new ten years ago. The new one was checked at 150 GPM the old one was only 25 GPM. The old well was eighty feet deep and the new well is two hundred feet deep. The new well water is much cleaner than the old well.

So your difference is just how the well was drilled. My son's house hit water at just 90 feet but it had real bad flow. So they kept drilling an hit real good water and flow at 150 feet.

BCnT · Apr 22, 2012

my well here in Tx is drilled to 200' and static water level is at 98'...i got pump at 140' and it will do 24GPM open flow...my dad left hose running in garden one summer and it ran wide open for 2 weeks and never slowed down.
pump went out last summer and had been making quite a bit of sand so i jetted well for about 6 hours...water is crystal clear now.
could be all your well needs is a good cleaning if it was a good producer before.

old · Apr 22, 2012

My well is a 100 foot and that is it but I do live in a valley and when they drilled it they hit water at 15 feet. They where pumping my spring feed lake back wards when they hit the water at 15 feet. That year was a dry year and the water level in my well was at 19.5 feet down and has pretty much stayed that way. Just all depends on where you are and what they hit as for water.

LJD · Apr 23, 2012

It's common in my area for farms to have two wells. One deep high capacity well for the barn and a more shallow well for the house. Water quality goes way down the deeper you go in much of the northeast. At least here in Otsego County, any well below 200 feet gets loaded with iron bacteria, sulfur, etc.

Same must be true in northern Michigan. I've got a house there with a 150 foot well and the water is great. People next door had a 130 foot well with good water but often ran out. So, they just drilled a new well and claimed they were forced to go 600 feet! "Forced" by building code regs involving recovery requirements, and who knows what else. Their "new" water is not drinkable as it comes out of the ground. So, they now have all kinds of expensive treatment systems including a softener and reverse osmosis. The water is now deemed safe to drink but tastes putrid.

fixerupper · Apr 23, 2012

Mike has it pretty well summed up. It's all about location. Where my farm is, the aquifer is kid of iffy. A mile north of me the wells are artesian and have a seemingly endless flow. A mile and a half north of me, one well irrigates 320 acres. It's the only one in the county. Jim

ShadetreeRet · Apr 23, 2012

Friend of mine in another county went nearly 300 feet and only got about 3 gal per minute. My well is 190 feet and certified at 10 gal per min. The driller said it was producing more than that but he would have to go back to the shop and get different equipment to measure it. About five miles from me people have iron rust in their water and have to use filtration systems. As has already been said, it's all about location.

Farm well vs house well?

JayinNY

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Don-Wi

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Mike (WA)

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big jt

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JDseller

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BCnT

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old

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LJD

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fixerupper

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ShadetreeRet

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