Problem

Milk is 87% water; thus, dairy cows require upwards of 50 gallons of water per cow per day for milk production. With roughly 100 cows per operation in Kentucky, the cost of supplying drinking water is $1,500 a month. A supplemental water harvesting system could reduce overall water costs by 10-20%. This project will produce a rooftop rain collection and monitoring system to supplement current water sources with hopes of reducing the financial burden on dairy operators.

Solution

Rooftop rainwater harvesting provides a financially feasible and sustainable solution to the water challenges dairy farmers face. The goal of this project is to design a system of tools for implementing a rooftop rainwater harvesting system that will supplement the current water supply. The system of tools calculates the cost of the necessary components for implementation, provides monitoring for water quantity, protocol for monitoring water quality, and estimates cost savings for farmers.

Design Objectives

The system of tools includes an Excel calculator with part recommendations and financial projections as well as a testing procedure for a small-scale physical model of the monitoring system. The design must provide a low cost solution so that dairy farmers can save up to 20% of their total water costs each year.

Budget, Bill of Materials, and Economics

By implementing a rainwater harvesting system into their operation, dairy operators can save around 14% of overall water costs for their operation. Table 1 displays information that is needed to find the specific components for implementation as well as where to access them. The final cost of the materials and the building cost may vary according to the cost-share programs applied to the rainwater harvesting system implementation. The estimated cost of implementation is between $5,000-$10,000. Cost-share programs in the state of Kentucky typically cover between 50% and 90% of overall costs.

Future Work

If this project were to continue, future work would include testing the system and implementing an online interface. Testing would follow the test plan outlined in the Written Report to ensure all components function as intended. The online interface could be developed utilizing a PLC system with ethernet capabilities. In addition, this project was originally intended for dairy operations as a drinking water supplement, but the system of tools could be modified for other operations to use this system for various other uses.