Every crop farming operation, from a modest potato farm to a sprawling wheat farm covering thousands of acres, requires a prodigious amount of water, and a private water bore providing clean, uncontaminated water throughout the year can be a tremendous boon for any farmer.

However, you will need a powerful pump to draw all that water to the surface where it can be used, especially if your farm's bore is particularly deep. While a variety of powerful and efficient surface-level pumps can be used with water bores, submersible pumps installed within the bore itself have a number of advantages over their surface-dwelling brethren. 

What are the advantages of choosing a submersible pump for my farm's water bore?

Never needs priming 

Surface-level pumps will need priming before they are activated for the first time, and every time after that when they are activated after an extended period of disuse -- this draws water into the pump before the motor activates, protecting the pump from overheating. Priming a pump can be a difficult and time-consuming process, especially if you are relatively unfamiliar with bore pumps.

Submersible pumps have the advantage of never needing to be primed before use. Since they are installed below water level inside your bore, they are already filled with water when they are activated, saving you time and energy.

Energy-efficient

The unique submerged position of a submersible pump also has another advantage -- because the pump does not need to use energy drawing water into itself before pumping it to the surface, submersible pumps tend to use significantly less energy than surface-level pumps. This makes them considerably cheaper to run and reduces the energy consumption and carbon footprint of your farming operation as a whole. 

Long-term reliability

A pump that doesn't have to work hard to force water to the surface will always last longer than one that does, and most submersible pumps will last significantly longer than surface-mounted pumps before they start to wear out and parts need to be replaced. Because they are constantly submerged in water, submersible pumps also run at a lower temperature, helping to avoid long-term reliability issues caused by constant overheating.

Easier to find solids handling models

No two farm water bores are quite alike, and while the water drawn from a freshly-drilled bore may be virtually untainted, water taken from older, degrading bores can contain a significant amount of soil and solid matter. To deal with this without damaging your irrigation system, you'll need a pump capable of handling solids -- this is a much easier ask if you choose a submersible pump, as most solids-capable pumps suitable for water bore usage tend to be submersible.