Highlights Rising water costs prompted the investigation of rainwater harvesting (RWH) as a technology to help offset water costs for a four-house commercial broiler farm in Cullman, Alabama. Daily municipal water use (MWU) and rainwater use (RWU) were monitored over a 12-month period in 2024 to evaluate the performance of the system across six consecutive flocks. Farm total water usage (TWU) during production was 7, 267, 625 L, where MWU represented 45% (3, 250, 570 L), and RWU represented 55% (4, 017, 056 L) of TWU. Water bill savings during this period were estimated to be 17, 016. While producer feedback of the system has been positive, they have suggested that improvements to the above-ground water conveyance piping system design were warranted. Abstract. Broiler producers must have access to sufficient water supplies to maintain the health and well-being of broilers (meat-type chickens). Currently, the only water sources available to broiler producers are well water and municipal water. In areas of broiler production that rely on well water, producers can experience issues with low-yield or poor water quality, which can cause damage to equipment and become expensive to treat. Producers who have access to municipal water can have a more reliable water source; however, in some areas of the U. S. , water rates have increased. This has been the experience for broiler producers in Cullman, Alabama, where the county water department announced customers would see increased water rates beginning in 2015. In anticipation of increased rates, a rainwater harvesting (RWH) system was constructed in 2016 on a four-house commercial broiler farm in Cullman to help offset rising water costs. While the producer has observed a reduction in their monthly water bill, the system did not include an effective way of measuring rainwater use (RWU) and municipal water use (MWU). Therefore, the goal of this study was to provide a description of the RWH system and to evaluate system performance by monitoring daily MWU and RWU over a 12-month period in 2024. Daily MWU and RWU were monitored across six consecutive flocks from 12 January 2024 to 3 January 2025 using wireless ultrasonic water meters. Total water use (TWU) during production was 7, 267, 625 L, where MWU represented 45% (3, 250, 570 L) and RWU represented 55% (4, 017, 056 L) of TWU, with an estimated cost savings of 17, 017 over the study period. Producer feedback on the system operation and performance has been crucial in understanding where design changes could be made to improve the system and how important regular monitoring and maintenance was to achieve system performance. Keywords: Broiler production, Rainwater harvesting, Water conservation, Water use efficiency.
Edge et al. (Thu,) studied this question.