TD1000 Integral Part of Water Shortage Solution for Cattle Ranches

Transducer Direct’s rugged TD1000 pressure transducer has found a new home outside of the factories and processing plants. This new home is on the prairies and grass lands of the western U.S. where cattle ranches are located. The partner in this effort is Remote Well Solutions LLC – a New Mexico based company owned by Mike Lisk. Mike is an electrical engineer and cattle rancher himself. The company developed and patented a solar water distribution controller designed primarily for the western livestock industry where forage (grass or hay) is located but ground water is often scarce or nonexistent.  “This forage has a dollar value to the rancher, but it has to be converted into beef before it can be converted into dollars” Lisk points out. However much of the west where abundant forage grows each year goes under or is not used because it is too far from water for livestock to travel to it.

Ranchers have struggled with this problem for as long as there has been a ranching industry in the west. Running pipelines and trying different approaches to address the challenge, all with varying degrees of limited success. Lisk says “The challenge is often the water source is located in remote locations miles away from forage areas and pumping water uphill is needed. Doing this manually can take hours of travel time and labor for the rancher; it really can be a financial disaster for the rancher”.

Here’s where the TD1000 came to the rescue. Lisk’s company installs the pipelines, storage tanks, and livestock drinkers across the western landscape and by plumbing in a storage tank on a distant high elevation often several miles from the solar pump controller. The high resolution, accuracy, and durability of the TD1000 senses the water levels and distant tank levels several miles away and sends this information to the controller so that pump operation is managed to keep tank levels full automatically without the need for onsite operators. “Everything below the distant high elevation tank is just gravity fed and the entire system operates automatically”  Lisk stated “I had tried other transducers before I found the TD1000, but none gave me everything I needed.  Obviously, accuracy was the key feature I was looking for, but the toughness and reliability of the TD1000 sensor have proven to be one of the best benefits. It has endured hot summers, cold winters, lighting storms, dust and every other environmental challenge I have exposed it to and each day they operate without failure. It’s truly a great transducer. Transducers Direct really got this design right; it’s almost like they designed it just for our technology. As if the device isn’t good enough by itself, Transducers Direct has the best technical staff to support the product. If you call with an issue you get to talk to an engineer right away. I never have to leave my number and wait for a callback. The technical staff at Transducers Direct are really sharp and willing to help the customer.”

The TD1000 has proven key in helping ranchers improve efficiencies to their operations.  Lisk also reports that an upcoming project with the Navajo Nation, the largest reservation in the U.S.  located in Arizona and New Mexico is expected to result in Navajo cattle ranchers being able to increase livestock numbers from  44% to as high as 300%. This according to New Mexico State University assessments. Lisk adds, “helping these historically under served ranchers produce to their potential and increase their incomes in such a dramatic way, is a special opportunity for them. We feel blessed that we have the chance to help them improve not only the efficiency of their operations but to change their very lives. This truly is a good story The TD1000 is a huge part of the story. Not sure we could have gotten here without it ”.