Pature Irrigation

[midtncattle]

What does it actual take to irrigate pasture? I am talking water amounts, options for sprinklers, and price. Let's use a 10 acre paddock as a starting point. Please let me know if you do irrigation on any level.

[Runaway Deere]

8 hrs 12 checks.10 inch pipe with 3 1/2 to 4 inches open on the head gate 25 feeders during the season lots of clover. Wife calls her pasture STEROIDS.... Lol

[midtncattle]

I don't know that I copy. Could you be more specific? Thanks.

[cross_7]

What does it actual take to irrigate pasture? I am talking water amounts, options for sprinklers, and price. Let's use a 10 acre paddock as a starting point. Please let me know if you do irrigation on any level.

231 cubic inches in a gallon of water.
1" of water over 1 acre is roughly 25000 gallons
if i were to try and irrigate a 10 acre place i would use a sideroll sprinkler so i didn't have to move pipe.
water requirements and sprinkler size is going to depend how much and often you want to water.

[Dave]

There is 27,154 gallons of water in an acre inch. Two inches of water over 10 acres is 543,080 gallons. You need a lot of water. The amount of water you need for the season or per irrigation will depend on several things. The water holding capacity of your soil and the consumptive use of water by grass in your area are the two main ones. If you are sprinkler irrigating (either hand lines or a wheel line) you probably need at least 300 gallons per minute to affectively run the system. At 300 gallons per minute it would take a little over 30 hours of continous running to apply 2 inches of water to 10 acres. Do that... ballpark, once a week. Running a 20-30 hp pump 30 hours a week can expensive.

[Stocker Steve]

[quote="cross_7"]

231 cubic inches in a gallon of water.
1" of water over 1 acre is roughly 25000 gallons
if i were to try and irrigate a 10 acre place i would use a sideroll sprinkler so i didn't have to move pipe.
water requirements and sprinkler size is going to depend how much and often you want to water.
/quote]

why do you only see sideroll sprinklers in the west?

[dun]

why do you only see sideroll sprinklers in the west?

Labor is cheaper then equipment. Where we were we only used a couple of them the rest were all center pivots.

[midtncattle]

Sounds like it is not a viable option.

[Dave]

[

why do you only see sideroll sprinklers in the west?[/quote]


Wheel lines are getting to be relatively uncommon here. Pivots are used in the big agriculture areas. And hand line has pretty much gone the way of the buffalo. Nobody wants to spend all there time changing hand line. Changing 40 foot sections of 4 inch pipe, now that brings back some bad memories from the miss spent days of my youth.

[cross_7]

by Stocker Steve » Wed Jun 27, 2012 2:00 pm

231 cubic inches in a gallon of water.
1" of water over 1 acre is roughly 25000 gallons
if i were to try and irrigate a 10 acre place i would use a sideroll sprinkler so i didn't have to move pipe.
water requirements and sprinkler size is going to depend how much and often you want to water.
/quote]

why do you only see sideroll sprinklers in the west?

most everything here is 1/4 mile center pivot, but there is a lot of drip tape going in, it just cost a lot to install.
the sideroll sprinklers are out dated and can be bought for the money here.
around here if you could put down an 1" every 2-3 weeks you could grow plenty of grass, the problem is it cost a lot to pump the water and you can make more money watering cotton instead of grass.

[Stocker Steve]

One of the better dairies here runs cows mostly on purchased byproduct supplement while grazing clover/grass planted on sand & under a pivot. He claims after a number of years they are up to 7% OM. Seems to be a real money maker. Key is what crop (rotation) will pay the bills?

[Reloadem]

Where are you, and what do you have for a water source? (lake , pond, well) Water rights?
Irrigating at night is much more efficient than fighting the wind and sun during the day.

[midtncattle]

I am in Middle TN. I have a creek and spring fed ponds.

[Reloadem]

you really do have a lot of options, provided you have water rights. I like to use a irrigation pump with 1 horsepower per acre, can be done with half that though. For a small area, like your 10 acres, hand lines (3" x 40' sprinkler pipe) are probably the most economical, check out K-line http://www.rxplastics.co.nz/index.cfm/1,232,0,46,html , lot of pastures done with it. Wheel lines are the most hassle when you are not using them. Always in the way and harder to get out of the pasture, you could use a big gun and hose reel, more options too. But usually it comes down to one thing, what you can afford.

[Stocker Steve]

you really do have a lot of options, provided you have water rights. I like to use a irrigation pump with 1 horsepower per acre, can be done with half that though.

What is a way to calculate or measure water capacity from:
- a dug well
- an excavated surface pond

I have one each on opposite sides of a field