Rainwater Harvesting & Farm Water Supply
Rainwater Harvesting: For Farmers
What Rainwater Harvesting changes for the person actually doing the work.
For the person running the business, the test of any farm software is whether it removes work or adds it. Farm buildings present large, clean, unlicensed catchment areas that are almost universally discharged to a ditch. This module sizes the harvest available from every roof, designs the storage and distribution to match actual demand, appraises the capital case against mains and abstraction costs, and manages the water quality obligations where harvested water is used for stock or crop.
In their words
What the job actually looks like
These are not marketing personas. Each one is a distinct job with a distinct constraint, and the module is designed so that solving one does not create work for the others.
Livestock farmer
High stock water demand
Needs to cut a mains water bill with a payback that stands up.
- Measure every roof catchment
- Obtain local rainfall records
- Profile demand by use and month
- Size storage against reliability target
Arable farmer
Sprayer filling and washdown
Needs clean water without drawing on the abstraction licence.
- Obtain local rainfall records
- Profile demand by use and month
- Size storage against reliability target
- Specify filtration and distribution
Farm building contractor
New build design
Needs harvesting designed in rather than retrofitted.
- Profile demand by use and month
- Size storage against reliability target
- Specify filtration and distribution
- Appraise capital cost and grants
End to end
How Rainwater Harvesting runs, start to finish
The module is modelled as a state machine, so at any point the business knows exactly which stage every record is at and what has to happen next.
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1
Measure every roof catchment
This is where the record starts, and getting it right here removes work at every later stage.
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2
Obtain local rainfall records
The platform prompts only for what this stage genuinely needs, and carries everything forward.
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3
Profile demand by use and month
Conflicts with scheme rules, regulatory windows and existing commitments are flagged here rather than discovered later.
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4
Size storage against reliability target
Capture works offline, so this stage is completed in the field rather than remembered afterwards.
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5
Specify filtration and distribution
Everything recorded at this point becomes evidence automatically, in every format that will later ask for it.
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6
Appraise capital cost and grants
This is the stage most businesses currently do twice, once for the operation and once for the paperwork.
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7
Install and commission
Results feed the whole-farm view, so the effect of this stage is visible against the rest of the business.
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8
Monitor performance against design
The cycle closes here, and what is learned is carried into next season's plan rather than lost.
Capabilities
What Rainwater Harvesting does
Every capability below is built on the same underlying record, so entering something once is enough for it to appear wherever it is needed.
Record and plan
- Roof catchment area measurement from mapping with material and runoff coefficient
- Annual and monthly harvest potential from local rainfall records
- Demand profiling by use — stock water, washdown, sprayer filling, irrigation, domestic
Operate and monitor
- Storage sizing against the supply and demand profile with reliability modelling
- First flush diversion and filtration specification
- Distribution network design with head, pipe sizing and pump requirement
Comply and evidence
- Water quality management for stock drinking water use
- Capital cost appraisal with payback against mains and abstraction cost
- Grant eligibility checking across capital funding routes
Analyse and improve
- Installer and contractor marketplace with verified references
- Groundwater recharge and attenuation structure design
- Ongoing performance monitoring against the design assumption
Obligation calendar
What rainwater harvesting asks of you, and when
Windows, deadlines and recurring obligations for England. Set a different nation and the calendar reconfigures; farm across a border and it shows both, reconciled.
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January 1 entry
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8 January: Measure every roof catchment
A recurring step in rainwater harvesting.
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March 2 entries
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12 March: Obtain local rainfall records
A recurring step in rainwater harvesting.
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24 March: Profile demand by use and month
A recurring step in rainwater harvesting.
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April 1 entry
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20 April: Adding Value Grant
Round-based.
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May 1 entry
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26 May: Sustainable Farming Scheme
Scheme year runs to 31 December, with the single application form deadline in mid-May.
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June 2 entries
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5 June: Farming Transformation Fund
Round-based by theme.
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15 June: Sustainable Farming Incentive 2026
Two windows in 2026: window one from 30 June, window two from September.
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July 2 entries
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14 July: Slurry Infrastructure Grant
Round-based.
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17 July: Water Management Grant
Round-based.
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October 1 entry
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5 October: Farming Equipment and Technology Fund
Round-based, usually open for a defined application period.
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November 3 entries
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3 November: Size storage against reliability target
A recurring step in rainwater harvesting.
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12 November: Improving Farm Productivity Grant
Round-based.
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27 November: Environmental Land Management Capital Grants
Round-based, with rapid allocation once open.
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December 1 entry
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26 December: Countryside Stewardship
Rolling and round-based depending on the tier and option group.
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Worked example
How a business like yours would use Rainwater Harvesting
The problem: Needs to cut a mains water bill with a payback that stands up.
What they do
- Measure every roof catchment
- Obtain local rainfall records
- Profile demand by use and month
- Size storage against reliability target
What changes
- Cubic metres harvested annually
- Percentage of demand met from harvest
- Cost per cubic metre delivered
This is an illustrative worked example built from the module design, not a customer reference. Named case studies are published only with the business's written consent.
What we are hearing
The problems people describe to us
These are composite statements drawn from user research conversations, not attributed customer quotes. We publish named references only with written consent.
I am not short of software. I am short of one place where the same field means the same thing in all of it.
The scheme closed on a Tuesday evening. I had the application half built. Nobody told me the budget was nearly gone.
We farm on both sides of the border. Everything takes twice as long and I still cannot see the whole position on one screen.
Audit week costs me three days. Every single record they ask for is already written down somewhere on this farm.
Measurement
How you will know it is working
The module reports against these measures from the day it is switched on, so the value is demonstrable rather than assumed.
- 01Cubic metres harvested annually
- 02Percentage of demand met from harvest
- 03Cost per cubic metre delivered
- 04Payback period achieved
- 05Mains and abstraction volume displaced
Free tool
Run the numbers for your own holding
Enter your figures and get an answer you can act on, with the method shown so you can check it. Save the result to your account or take it away as a PDF.