watering/irrigating pastures

[theoldgreymare]

After two summers with drought conditions wreaking havoc on our pastures, we need to start planning for this summer. Last year, we used the tower sprinklers to try and get some water on the pastures but it was an overwhelming task moving them around in the late afternoon and evening. It kept the pastures alive until cooler weather but was not the most practical or convenient operation.

This year, we are thinking of buying one of the water tanks on a trailer that has the drop down arms for spraying and runs off of the tractors PTO. Sorry, I forget what DH called them. Anyone use one of these? Any other suggestions that don’t involve a permanent irrigation system (too much area to cover and not enough in the budget to do it!). Thanks in advance!

[Tom_King]

It takes a LOT of water to do any good. If I’m remembering correctly 1/4" on an acre is something like 6,500 gallons.

[MikeP]

If you are talking about irrigating acreage, you need too much water to do it with a tank. A good deep well and some irrigation equipment will do it. Maybe just $15,000 and you’ll be in business!

For example, you need to apply about an inch of water per watering to do any good. One inch of water on one acre is 27,154 gallons of water.

Seriously, the practical solution for dealing with drought is to either buy extra hay or cut down the numbers of grazing stock.

[tuppysmom]

We irrigate our place with well water.

We have a pressurized mainline. It runs at 52lbs of pressure. Our smaller mainlines are 4 in and they feed into 3" handlines. At 52lbs a 3/8 in sprinkler nozzel will put out about 1 inch of water in 24 hrs. We have runoff at about 24 hrs, so the pipes have to be moved every 24 hrs to not waste water. We are putting all the pipe underground with pop up sprinklers 'cause we’re getting really tired of moving pipe. LOL

[theoldgreymare]

Hmmm…this is not sounding promising. We currently have 20 grazeable acres. Here’s another thought: we have a large, deep water pond that is spring fed that even in drought conditions holds a significant amount of water (no idea how many gallons). Would it be possible to use a trash pump to divert water into mainlines somehow?

Our wells have enough pressure to run irrigation (or so DH tells me) but I don’t even want to think what the electric bills would be to run the pumps long enough to do any good.

[tuppysmom]

Electric bill to run pumps 6 days a week, 24 hours a day, to pump water for 360 acres is near 40k for the season. Season is mid April to the end of Sept.

Pumped water is very expensive. I wish we were on the canal system here. That water comes from dams thru canals. It is much more reasonable.

I would think that you could easily set up a system to pump from the pond. At least you could keep the dust down and the grass alive during dry weeks.

[theoldgreymare]

@tuppysmom;3874709

Electric bill to run pumps 6 days a week, 24 hours a day, to pump water for 360 acres is near 40k for the season. Season is mid April to the end of Sept.

OMG!!!

[seabreeze]

Okay, so with an (possibly) oversimplified basic division approach:

$40K for 360 acres…
20 acres is 1/18 of 360
1/18 x $40,000 = $2,222.22
6 days a week reduced to 3 days a week of irrigation =
1/2 x $2,222.22 = $1,111.11 for electricity to pump 1" of water 3 days/wk on 20 acres. That sounds reasonable.

[MikeP]

The pond changes the deal. It will be easy to set up an irrigation system from your pond, and not too expensive.

There should be somebody in that business near you. Get them out there, look at the available options they offer and get an estimate, you could be pleasantly surprised.

[tuppysmom]

Our water assessment is $2800 for the 6 month season, for 20 acres.

The electric charge would be much less to pump from a pond. Lifting the water 400 ft up from a well is much more expensive.

[theoldgreymare]

We are going to have a farmer friend over next week to take a look and offer his opinion on the best way to go. I would like to get this done in the cheapest way possible as we are hoping to clear some additional land for pasture in the fall and that is not going to be cheap (even after selling the trees for timber). Thanks for all of the replies!

[Tom_King]

In years when there has been plenty of rain, irrigation systems and parts can be found pretty cheaply used. Check some of the state ag “for sale” sites.
http://www.ncagr.gov/paffairs/AgReview/class/2-09equip.htm

A local farmer was telling me that now most people are going to underground systems instead of spraying it into the air. I haven’t really looked into it yet though.

I do have an overhead system planned out for our place. If you have a large supply or water like a pond or lake or rock quarry, the way to do it is to find which sprinkler heads will cover your ground and design backwards from there. We don’t have three phase current coming back in here so I’m planning on using a diesel unit.

Here’s a good place to start:
http://www.nelsonirrigation.com/products/index.cfm?id=5

Kifco reels has a lot of useful info on their site too even if you aren’t going to use a reel, they have good charts on coverage for width by pressure and volume using the nelson big guns:

http://www.kifco.com/ag_irrigation_specifications.html

I’m looking at pumps like these:
http://www.tuckaseeirrigation.com/NEW%20Diesel%20engine%20drive%20water%20pumps%20TI%20for%20dealers.pdf

[theoldgreymare]

Thanks for the links Tom!

[NancyM]

We irrigate 50 + acres. Out of the creek that runs through it, and with an irrigation well as well. Two pumps, one smaller, one large. Cost for the year… $2700. We use reels, we have two big ones. They require a large tractor (90 horse JD) to pull them, but smaller ones can be pulled by smaller tractors. A smaller one may be OK for what you are looking to do. We like the reels better than moving pipe by hand daily. Reels can be pulled in several different directions, so variation of where you put the water is easy. Reels are pulled out in the morning, and set to draw themselves up to the water source outlet in any number of hours you like. Good deals may be available on second hand reels from farmers or dealers. Bringing power into your water source for your pump may be expensive.

[Tom_King]

I forgot this link. A good company to deal with.

http://www.irrigationparts.com/

They also have better charts on their site than the ones I posted above.
http://www.irrigationparts.com/products/nelson/nelson_150.aspx

[nelieto06]

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