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Simple Water Tank Level Monitor
A few Nebraska ranchers are using an Australian water tank monitor they discovered at last year’s Husker Harvest Days. Like Nick Seymour, the Australian inventor, the ranchers know through cellphone alerts that their cattle always have water.
Seymour developed the “Water Rat” with one priority in mind - keep it simple. And it is. Move a magnet on the outside to turn on the enclosed switch of the completely sealed device and throw it in a water tank. Ballast keeps the bobber-like unit upright when floating in water. If the tank goes dry for some reason, the accelerometer sensor sends a cell message when the Water Rat tilts 30 degrees. It also sends two messages daily that all is well.
“If you have a deeper body of water, you can tie it to a tether at the distance you want it to alert you,” Seymour adds.
He initially created it to help his father operate a cattle ranch in Australia. There are other monitoring options for big holding tanks, but solar pumps can quit, and lines that fill the water troughs can get plugged or break. The Water Rat has GPS and can be moved to different tanks whenever the cattle are moved. Seymour notes that cattle are initially curious about the device and lick and push it, but they can’t really damage it. The Li-Soc12 battery inside lasts 1 to 2 years.
The Water Rat costs about $400 USD, and each device requires an annual cellular subscription ($100). Seymour is setting up a dealer network in North America that’ll be available through his website.
“People like the Water Rat because they can go away from the farm and have no worries about their cattle having water,” Seymour says, and it saves time and energy by eliminating the need to check water tanks every day.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Farmo, Suite 16 / 7- 9 Leeds St., Footscray Victoria 3011 (ph 03 9854 6432; help@farmo.com.au; www.farmo.com.au).


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2023 - Volume #47, Issue #4