I’m doing my taxes and so I am double-checking all of my accounts. I thought it would be interesting to share my water bill for my land, which is used to water the cows, sheep, dogs, chickens, etc…
For the most part, I spend a lot less buying water for my field than my home. I think this is because my cows do not take showers like my teenage children do.
However, I do end up spending a lot more when there is a leak. This is because it is almost impossible to identify a leak, let alone find it. Thankfully we’ve had no leaks underground even though the water system was installed by an amateur (me.) I will talk more about how to build a water system later, since I don’t have much expertise there.
Here’s how the numbers break down:
| Date | Bill | 3 mo avg | 6 mo avg | 12 mo avg |
| 06/08/2021 | $23.00 | |||
| 07/09/2021 | $63.59 | |||
| 08/06/2021 | $23.00 | $36.53 | ||
| 09/09/2021 | $37.66 | $41.42 | ||
| 10/07/2021 | $46.10 | $35.59 | ||
| 11/08/2021 | $76.90 | $53.55 | $45.04 | |
| 12/07/2021 | $62.38 | $61.79 | $51.61 | |
| 01/07/2022 | $66.00 | $68.43 | $52.01 | |
| 02/08/2022 | $55.14 | $61.17 | $57.36 | |
| 03/08/2022 | $51.53 | $57.56 | $59.68 | |
| 04/06/2022 | $38.86 | $48.51 | $58.47 | |
| 05/06/2022 | $42.48 | $44.29 | $52.73 | $48.89 |
| 06/07/2022 | $56.95 | $46.10 | $51.83 | $51.72 |
| 07/07/2022 | $108.91 | $69.45 | $58.98 | $55.49 |
| 08/09/2022 | $97.15 | $87.67 | $65.98 | $61.67 |
| 09/08/2022 | $122.63 | $109.56 | $77.83 | $68.75 |
| 10/06/2022 | $82.13 | $100.64 | $85.04 | $71.76 |
| 11/08/2022 | $223.23 | $142.66 | $115.17 | $83.95 |
| 12/06/2022 | $51.53 | $118.96 | $114.26 | $83.05 |
| 01/06/2023 | $38.60 | $104.45 | $102.55 | $80.76 |
| 02/09/2023 | $45.72 | $45.28 | $93.97 | $79.98 |
| 03/09/2023 | $40.03 | $41.45 | $80.21 | $79.02 |
| 04/09/2023 | $51.42 | $45.72 | $75.09 | $80.07 |
| 05/09/2023 | $53.77 | $48.41 | $46.85 | $81.01 |
| 06/09/2023 | $117.69 | $74.29 | $57.87 | $86.07 |
| 07/09/2023 | $58.74 | $76.73 | $61.23 | $81.89 |
| 08/09/2023 | $669.60 | $282.01 | $165.21 | $129.59 |
| 09/09/2023 | $264.14 | $330.83 | $202.56 | $141.38 |
| 10/09/2023 | $75.11 | $336.28 | $206.51 | $140.80 |
| 11/09/2023 | $83.65 | $140.97 | $211.49 | $129.17 |
| 12/09/2023 | $53.77 | $70.84 | $200.84 | $129.35 |
| 01/09/2024 | $142.96 | $93.46 | $214.87 | $138.05 |
| 02/09/2024 | $247.02 | $147.92 | $144.44 | $154.83 |
| 03/09/2024 | $65.46 | $151.81 | $111.33 | $156.94 |
| 04/09/2024 | $95.34 | $135.94 | $114.70 | $160.60 |
Let’s go over some of the results.
One, it’s clear that the price of water is going up. Is that because the animals are drinking more? I am not sure, likely not. There may be a tiny leak I haven’t found. Or the price of water could be going up.
There are significant outliers on 11/2022, 6/23, 8/23, and 1/24-2/24. These are all significant leaks that happened and took a while to find and fix. The bill on 8/23 included a major leak that happened on 7/23 while I was out of the country. Thankfully, the people looking after the land found it and eventually fixed it. The one on 6/23 was a cow that stepped on the furthest quick connect, and I didn’t go back to that field for weeks before finding it. And the one during winter of this year was due to freezing weather.
All in all, is it worth it? I think so. I just have to be diligent about finding and fixing leaks, and keep my eye on the water meter.
If I owned several farms, and I wasn’t running animals constantly on one of them, I would absolutely turn the water off while there were no animals on the land. Since that really isn’t an option here, I make do with what I have.
In the future, for freezing weather, I think I am planning on just turning the water off, draining the lines, and then watering the animals from either the pond or a storage bin of water until the freezing weather passes.