Ask the Lego Farmer!

We received our first Ask the Lego Farmer question over the weekend, thanks to 3 year old Fletcher.

​Fletcher's question was

How does the water get into your rain tank,
​
​and how do the sheep drink it from the tank?

​Well, Fletcher, that's a great question! And depending on the farm and where it is located in Australia, the answer can be a little different. ​We went out over the weekend and took some photos to show you how it works on our farm.

​First up, how does the water get into your rain tank?

​Being hay producers, we have large hay sheds on our farm. These are perfect for catching rain water.

Rain water makes it way down the roof to the gutters, and then down the pipes.

​Can you see the white pipes in the photo?

​These white pipes then lead to a rain water tank, as shown in the photo below.

Rain water can be stored in these tank until it is needed.

​But how do the sheep drink it from the tank??

​On our farm we don't have sheep (except for some Lego ones!!) but we do have cattle.

Water is piped from the rain tanks underground to troughs. These pipes are smaller than the white ones on the shed, and are usually a black poly pipe. We can't show you the actual pipe (as it is underground) but we found some samples in the workshop. See how it is much smaller than the white pipe?

These pipes carry the water to troughs around the farm - just like the one we went canoeing in!

​When we went to one of the water troughs to take photos, the cattle were even having a drink!

Troughs come in all shapes and sizes. We use round concrete ones on our farm. But there are rectangle ones, round ones, concrete ones, and plastic ones.
​
​The trough has a special ball in it (not in the photo) called a "float". It is the job of the float to make sure it stays full of water so there is plenty for the cattle and sheep to drink.

Did you know?

​A cow can drink up to 80 litres* of water a day!!

That's 320 glassfuls of water for you and I! That's a lot of water!!

​And a sheep can drink up to 10 litres* of water a day!

That's 40 glassfuls!

As we mentioned at the start, not every farm is the same.

​On some farms they use windmills to pump water up from underground.

And on some farms they use dams. Just like a trough, sheep and cattle drink directly from the dam.

There we go, Fletcher. We hope that answers your questions!

​Don't forget if you have a question for the Lego farmer you can submit it here.

​Source (*): NSW Department of Primary Industries