In keeping with our attempts to be sustainable and independent, one of our projects this year includes reusing white water. What is white water, you might ask? It’s used water that isn’t necessarily drinkable, but still useable. In this case our white water comes from the drain of our milk room sink. We wash our milking equipment in our milk room and the water is directed outside through a drain that lets out a few inches under ground next to our milker’s holding pen.
Don’t mind the mess, I had just put the hot water heater in and got water everywhere!
This is still good water. The trace levels of acid and chlorine from cleaning our machine is inert after coming into contact with the milk and equipment, as well as the soil and sunlight. It’s also very diluted. We dug a trench from our water let out spot. We used this trench to direct the water run off along the fence to our milker’s holding pen. Once we were happy with the water flow and the saturation of the nearby soil, we set to digging up root shoots.
We have some lovely Cottonwood trees on our farm. This is my favorite native tree. We carefully dug around shoots coming off the roots from our largest tree and made a point to dig up 2-4 feet of root connected to each shoot. Our root shoots were then planted along our white water run off ditch. Reusing the water in this matter accomplishes a few things for us.
First, I’m terrible about remembering to water things. I am the farmer who kills all the things once summer hits. I know this. So I know anything I plant needs to have reliable water. Because the milk equipment is washed twice a day, the trench fills up with water twice a day and waters our new root shoots. Cottonwoods are very thirsty trees and will benefit from the frequent water source. We set the trees slightly above the water trench and back filled the top of the area with pea gravel to allow some drainage.
Second, our milk room is on the south side of our barn and is subject to direct sunlight all day long. Trees here will shade and cool our work space naturally as well as provide some shade for the does waiting in the milker’s holding pen after milking. We chose shoots off our female cottonwood, which allows us to escape the cotton and allergies commonly associated with these trees. Cottonwoods that receive ample water are fast growing, so while we won’t receive much relief this season - once established these trees will be an excellent shade source for us. Tree growing is certainly an act of patience!
I appreciate the water saving component to drip lines and did consider directing this water through a drip line - which would be absolutely possible! I’ve even debated setting up rain barrels that feed into drip lines. We rely on a mower and a tractor to help us control weeds - we don’t use any herbicidal sprays on our farm and weeds can really get the best of us without some equipment and regular maintenance! As such, drip lines on the surface can be damaged by equipment. Just ask me how I know!! We aren’t quite equipped to dig thousands of feet to bury irrigation lines, but hopefully someday we manage a little backhoe for the farm! Goals! Am I right?