The Hannemanns own and farm 1700ha of continual cropping country, running opportunity cross-bred sheep during late autumn, summer and early spring.

The farm receives 380mm to 400mm annual rainfall and is one of several properties north of Cowell and half way to Kimba who have no SA Water mains supply.

“Historically we have relied on 40 dam catchment areas in paddocks to water stock, as well as maximized our shed and tank rain water collection for house use and ever increasing water requirements for our farm spraying program,”Andrea said.

“Climate change has impacted on both forms of collection and we now find ourselves increasingly short of vital water supplies.”

Now, the family is installing 3200m2 of high-grade plastic to act as a catchment area on a strategic site. For every 1mm of rain, the system collects 1L of water with the potential to collect 1.2 millions litres of water over a one-year period.

Rain will then be collected and stored in a lined, 1.3 million litre dam.

A floating cover also acts as a catchment area to harvest rainfall.

The water is then gravity fed to troughs in each paddock (no pumps required) with only a small trough surface of water exposed to evaporation, these troughs can be turned on or off when required.

The Hannemann’s plan is to supply the property from the dam, releasing existing dam water back into creekways to combat rising salt levels in the soil.

“We believe this to be a more sustainable and viable alternative to pursue, rather than to connect to an already depleted River Murray supply and a distressed SA Water system,” Andrea said.

The Hannemanns also hope to head off increasing water prices in the future.

This is the second project of its kind to be introduced by farmers in the Eastern Eyre Peninsula region – the first of which was trialed on the property of John and Sue Grund near Kimba.