FRESH, running water is paramount for successful livestock production, and reliable trough float valves can save farmers a lot of valuable time and labour.

It rings true for producers in Queensland’s undulating South Burnett region, where water is generally drawn from underground bores or captured in dams.

According to Chris O’Rourke, Irrigation Manager for the local ProWater Nationwide store, BGA AgriServices at Kingaroy, the area’s hilly terrain means gravity-fed water is often coming through at high pressure.

Chris said this often led to issues with float valves that were not built to adequately cope with the pressure, resulting in more labour and frustration for farmers.

He said the majority of his customers were running stock in a broadacre situation, but there were also a few feedlots in the area, and all were turning to the Philmac Series 200 (high flow float) valve to service their needs.

“They have been an extremely popular product, and we have been selling a lot with the nine-inch float balls,” Chris said.

“We have a high water pressure running down from the hills and, in the past, we’ve had a lot of issues with troughs overflowing from floats that just weren’t up to the challenge.

“We haven’t had any negative feedback from these valves, but we’ve had plenty of feedback on other brands, particularly issues with the rubbers wearing out a lot quicker, which has led to leaks.

“They just haven’t held up to that extreme pressure, but we’ve had no issues with the Philmac Series 200, because it’s meeting farmers’ needs.”

The Philmac Series 200 (high flow float) valve is the ideal valve for stock watering and features a tough body combined with a new cam and lever arrangement to provide a robust valve that can withstand the rigorous treatment from livestock over a long period.

The valve has been designed to provide a high flow rate and has a high level of shut-off performance, which meets rural pipe pressures in almost all configurations.

Shorter arms can be used to allow for maximum trough space and the high pressure adapter allows for both high and low pressure applications.

“After having a quick chat to customers coming in who are having issues with their water troughs or needing to replace valves, it doesn’t take long to work out that their problems are due to the high water pressure and inferior valves not being able to cope,” Chris said.

“That’s where we’ve been recommending the high flow float valves.

“We’ve got customers running a lot of stock and they have a business to run, so at the peak of the day you don’t want to be spending time and effort sorting out leaking troughs.

“With an economical product like the Series 200 Float Valve, farmers can rely and trust on the quality, so they can spend their valuable time elsewhere.”

It was certainly the case for Maidenwell cattle producer Dean Cullen, who installed 20 of the Philmac Series 200 Float Valves on his property, selecting them specifically for their ability to handle high pressure water flow.

Dean and his wife, Kerin, have a 930-hectare property on which they run about 350-head of Hereford/Santa Gertrudis cattle and Charalois bulls.

They previously ran a 6000-head capacity feedlot, which they recently sold.

The Cullens run breeder cows and grow out the calves, finishing them on oats to achieve a target weight of 300 kilograms before selling them to the feeder cattle market.

“We use about 60 Philmac floats in total, including 20 of the high flow float valves in the paddock,” Dean said.

“We’ve used Philmac products for many years, in the paddock troughs and in the feedlot, but switched to the high flow float valves in our drought-proofing paddocks.”

Drawing on underground water supply through bores, the Cullens use 1000-litre round concrete water troughs in the drought-proofing paddocks, which are used for their breeding cattle.

They used long, 3-metre feedlot water troughs with a capacity of about 420L in the feedlot.

“The high flow float valves work well out in the paddock, because you’ve got a lot of cattle drinking from the same trough,” Dean said.

“So it allows that big, bullock-type cattle to go in and have a big drink of water and the trough to keep up.

“In the summer in particular, that makes a big difference.

“It means you’ve got colder, fresher water, that’s essential.

“The idea was to get plenty of fresh water flushed through, which means less wastage of water when you’re cleaning your troughs.

“When you’ve got a lot of cattle drinking from the one trough, you need that high pressure flow.”

Dean said when it came time to replacing valves in any other troughs on the property, they would likely opt for the Philmac Series 200 Float Valves, given their proven success.

“We never had any issues or water hammer as you can get with some floats in those high pressure water situations, which ends up just wasting water,” he said.

“We’ve sold the feedlot now, but we’ll keep using them in our cattle operation.”

Farmers interested in the Philmac Series 200 Float Valves can contact BGA AgriServices on (07) 4160 0500 or find their nearest ProWater store at www.prowater.com.au