Tuesday, February 21, 2012

10 Tips for Raising Grassfed Cattle in Argentina - #4

Of Wind and Windmills

Charming, huh? A landscape dotted with old-fashioned windmills like a 1930's movie. Green, too! Windpower from technology that is more than 100 years old. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if some of the windmills around here were 100 years old.

100 years ago, you could buy them at Patio Bullrich on Av. Libertador back when it was one of the world's finest agricultural showcases. Some of the best were from Chicago. Innovative design, finest construction, cutting-edge and lusted after ...sort of the iPad of its day.

They pump water (in fact, they are often called windpumps.) The spinning motion drives a pipe up and down through a cylinder that sucks water from a well directly below. On every up-stroke the water is then gravity-fed to a huge open-air tank that supplies the watering troughs for the cattle.

But it's old tech now. And my problem is that windmills are binary; they have two positions: pump and don't pump. If they are moving, they're pumping. There is no clutch to allow the windmill to move/spin without pumping water.

That means you have to turn them off when your tank is full. If you don't turn them off, they will overflow your tanks and erode the soil around them. This creates a muddy lake and I've seen cows sink into that muck to the point where they have to be pulled out by horses.

On your average-sized Argentine cattle ranch you probably have 5 or more. Some located at the extremes of your spread where you share the pumping with your neighbor. Don't forget to turn them back on when your tanks begin to run low.

That's a lot of horseback and on a regular basis. Regular, in that 1000 cows will drink 15,000 gallons of water a day ...and horseback, in that there really isn't any other means of transport that will do it especially when it's muddy.

Wind and windmills: the best of buddies, right? They go together like Starbucks and WiFi, no?

Wrong. Wind will destroy windmills like nothing else.

In high winds (about 40 miles an hour) if you don't turn them on ...the winds can tear them to pieces. In the off position they become huge galvanized kites and can end up in the next pasture or ranch. (At this writing, the mighty pampas winds are really picking-up and it's Carneval so my gaucho has the day off!)

When a sudden storm blows in with both plenty of rain and wind, it is a dreary chore to put your poncho on and saddle-up for what amounts to miles of horseback to reach them all.

I would dearly love to modify our windmills to include a "third" position that would allow them to spin free so they don't break to pieces in high winds but wouldn't pump over my tanks while doing so.

Although old tech, they are very expensive to replace or repair. And because they're such old tech, google and the wisdom of crowds is not exactly teeming with hacks and updates to the firmware.

But that won't stop us here at The Open Bar Institute of Old Agricultural Stuff Research ...if it can be at all cost-effective, we'll find a way to give these babies an upgrade!

Until then, I'm grateful for ponchos, horses, and gauchos.

Tips #1 Tips #2 Tips #3 Tips #4

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