Just turn on the tap, it comes out.  Automatic timers turn it on without any work from you.  A float can control the fill line without you having to constantly monitor it.  Water.  That life giving resource that is the lifeblood of agriculture.  With so many incredible means to channel it, monitor it, and take it anywhere we need, we often forget that it’s not something readily available everywhere we turn.

Without access to water, agricultural land is far less useful and far less valuable that it would be otherwise.  Driving across our range not long ago, I ruminated on this thought and realized our desert acres were only fit for use because of the many wells punched across the way.  Our ability to find water hundreds of feet below the ground, dig a well to collect it, place a motorized pump in the well, and bring it to the surface really is a wonder.  

Unfortunately over the last week, I saw two wells go down on our operation.  We flipped the switch to run the pump at the bottom of the well and there was simply no water.  Not good. 

For ranchers, a well gone down isn’t a mere inconvenience, it is an immediate emergency.  We monitor our range water daily or at the longest, check it every other day to be sure that our cattle aren’t without.  Most days the check is just a nice drive through the desert, but there are plenty of other days we find a broken pipeline, a bad float, and, yes, even a down pump.

A fix-it plan is immediately drawn up, tools, equipment, and materials gathered, and a work crew mobilized to get the water up and running as quickly as possible.  Sometimes it requires a quick run into town for supplies and sometimes it demands a call to the well-puller to save the day.  When we are at the mercy of someone else’s schedule to get things back in working order, they even understand our hustle and come even when it might be hard or inconvenient.

Pulling a well, drawing up the pipe and pump from the deep water hole, is the fastest, easiest way to problem solve the water shortage of a downed well.  In the case of our first well, the well puller found a small dime-sized hole in the very bottom of the pipe.  You might think such a small hole wouldn’t cause such a big problem, but when the pressure would build to push the water out, it would all just flow through the hole.

But that small hole was an easy fix- just replace the pipe.  After adding the new section and dropping the pump down into the well, water was streaming in a beautiful fashion making the cows and the cowboys happy. 

In the case of our second well, the news wasn’t so happy.  Once the pipe and pump were topside we confirmed that the pump was indeed burnt out.  And then we learned what was responsible for the burned up pump- no water in the hole.  Measuring the water level and the depth of the well pointed to the fact that there was only a few short feet of water the pump had been sitting in, not near enough to run the troughs at the other end of the long pipeline.

Low water in the well is just the first domino in a long cascade of problems.  Sitting in the cold water at the bottom of the well, the hard working pump motor stays cool and lubricated.  Without water, the friction and the heat it generates cause the motor to eventually overheat and seize up.

A dry well is the last thing a rancher wants to hear.  It means that the well will have to be dug deeper or even a new well dug altogether.  It also means a new pump to drop in the bottom of the well.  Neither part of this fix is easy on the pocket book. 

Our most recent troubles are just a few of the breakdowns to a downed well.  Power shortages, electrical surges, sand in the water, well cave ins, corrosion due to acidic water, and like have been known culprits farmers and ranchers have battled to keep their wells pumping.  Regardless of the problem, a fix is always in the making to get the water flowing again.

It might be easy to think a well in the middle of the desert isn't something too special but in a day and age where every acre is precious, it is almost miraculous.  Producing beef on land that would be totally useless otherwise is near magical.  It may just be, well, water, but taking water to lands that can’t provide its own makes beef more abundant and affordable for you and me.