Irrigation advice

Help Support CattleToday:

stockbub

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 3, 2011
Messages
83
Reaction score
0
I was reading some previous threads and my question varries slightly. We do not have a hugh well for our operation. Just a 2" well. I would love to dig another well, but will have to expand slower then of course I would like. We have already ran water lines all around our propert (around 90 acreas). My plan was to fill several ponds as quick as I could (12 GPM *60 min * 18 Hrs = 12960 gallons approx.) I know, not very fast. We do have some what already in ponds as well. We have a 3 " Honda WT 30 DX that will pump 319 GPM(http://www.hondapowerequipment.com/prod ... d=WT30XK3A). It has max pressure of 35 PSI. All these things we currently own. I would have to purchase lines to be able to move around and other items.

While running gas pump, I would have to throttle down because of volume and sprinkler heads. Is this doable? I have to think of ways to get some water on my pastures or will start having to sell things. from pump to where the sprinkler lines were I was going to use collapseable pipe and then convert it over to PVC for a fitting to go to sprinkler heads. Before investing all this money I want to make sure it works and also do to budget, will have to add to things slowly.

Any suggestions.

Bubba

How is your research going "uncle". I think you are thinking about this same topic except you are starting off with a well.
 
Hey Bubba,
I'm afraid you would have to spend more than you can justify. It takes 28,000 gallons of water to put 1 inch on one acre and artificial water is less effective than rain, so you would need 2 or 3 inches of irrigation water for every 1 inch of rain and it still won't green up like it will with rain.

I have about a half mile of underground 6 inch pipe and a pto pump at one of my ponds, but I quit using it because it's so much trouble and so much less effective than rain. I just sweat out the dry spells like this one we're having right now.
gabby
 
For what its worth.......if you look into " tiling" ground which is used to drain a field and also to keep the water table right in a big field that the area is getting average rainfall. My idea is to use that sort of benefit ( tiling) to be able to
keep the water even in an average rainfall and not let it get away. When its real dry you ought to be able to pump water into the main " tile" and irrigate the " spyders" Its about capturing the water when it does rain as much as it is anything. If it all bleeds down into the earth it don't help much either....
 
This subject is quite difficult for someone like myself who has never tried to irrigate grass! I have the advantage of a 70 year old dad who use to irrigate cotton but that is a very different thing all together.

The expense is quite high to say the least even if you have a well as you still have sprinkler systems and underground feeder pipe... looking at $75K right now! The problem for me is that I am working this deal on borrowed money so I have to be able to make payments which is huge if you can't make them but and this is a BIG BUT... if my carrying capacity is increased then it would make sense.... no increase then it is a bad, bad idea!

The idea of doing it to keep cattle is a tough decision as I am also in that position... I am "caking" now and have about 30 days more grass and I am done. My heifers still look pretty good but my older cows with calves look like crap...fix'n to strip them off! And if I sell them I know that I won't get anything for them and will loose a ton of money on them... I don't want that of course. I am afraid that if I do that then when and if it ever rains again :bang: what I get for the stuff I sell off will do little more than make a down payment on starting over.

I am in this situation where if I sell off then later I will have to borrow money to buy back... If I put in the irrigation then I have to borrow money now, but if it does not improve my stocking rate then I will again loose money!

I think that I will get some improved stocking rates with the irrigation and doing more of a managed type grazing then the cell grazing that we do now but how much I don't know? I read an article in Acres magazine a week or so back called "Tall Grass MOB Stocking" that is really interesting but the numbers that the author is running on land seem crazy... Joel Salatin says that he is running 400 head on 1.5 acres for 1 day. I don't need to run nearly so many to make my deal work :lol: !! Read it here http://www.acresusa.com/toolbox/reprint ... alatin.pdf

The system that I am looking at is called K-Line and requires 70 gpm for a 14 pod system which covers about .91 acres per set ( I need 11 systems to cover in 7 days). It works out to about 3" in a 12 hours set and then is moved. I have about 220 acres that I am looking at doing this on with improved grasses (WB Dahl and others) and legumes (white clover and maybe hairy vetch) all in multi-species plots. My hope is to graze each paddock 1 -2 times per year with my calves, older/kept heifers, grass fed steers and maybe some stockers if I can handle them to help my income.

That is my deal... and my confusion and frustration! Tough decision and lots of money. But if I knew I could improve my stocking rates and how much then my decisions would be much easier... if I can get "Salatin" type results then I am all in! 8)

Uncle
 
I can't see cows paying for an irrigation system. Farming maybe at 7$ a bushel corn, but feeders, and stockers at $1.50 or less and droping just dosen't work out to me. Good Luck, borrowed money has to make money now or.....?
 
uncle":1r5ragy1 said:
This subject is quite difficult for someone like myself who has never tried to irrigate grass! I have the advantage of a 70 year old dad who use to irrigate cotton but that is a very different thing all together.

The expense is quite high to say the least even if you have a well as you still have sprinkler systems and underground feeder pipe... looking at $75K right now! The problem for me is that I am working this deal on borrowed money so I have to be able to make payments which is huge if you can't make them but and this is a BIG BUT... if my carrying capacity is increased then it would make sense.... no increase then it is a bad, bad idea!

The idea of doing it to keep cattle is a tough decision as I am also in that position... I am "caking" now and have about 30 days more grass and I am done. My heifers still look pretty good but my older cows with calves look like crap...fix'n to strip them off! And if I sell them I know that I won't get anything for them and will loose a ton of money on them... I don't want that of course. I am afraid that if I do that then when and if it ever rains again :bang: what I get for the stuff I sell off will do little more than make a down payment on starting over.

I am in this situation where if I sell off then later I will have to borrow money to buy back... If I put in the irrigation then I have to borrow money now, but if it does not improve my stocking rate then I will again loose money!

I think that I will get some improved stocking rates with the irrigation and doing more of a managed type grazing then the cell grazing that we do now but how much I don't know? I read an article in Acres magazine a week or so back called "Tall Grass MOB Stocking" that is really interesting but the numbers that the author is running on land seem crazy... Joel Salatin says that he is running 400 head on 1.5 acres for 1 day. I don't need to run nearly so many to make my deal work :lol: !! Read it here http://www.acresusa.com/toolbox/reprint ... alatin.pdf

The system that I am looking at is called K-Line and requires 70 gpm for a 14 pod system which covers about .91 acres per set ( I need 11 systems to cover in 7 days). It works out to about 3" in a 12 hours set and then is moved. I have about 220 acres that I am looking at doing this on with improved grasses (WB Dahl and others) and legumes (white clover and maybe hairy vetch) all in multi-species plots. My hope is to graze each paddock 1 -2 times per year with my calves, older/kept heifers, grass fed steers and maybe some stockers if I can handle them to help my income.

That is my deal... and my confusion and frustration! Tough decision and lots of money. But if I knew I could improve my stocking rates and how much then my decisions would be much easier... if I can get "Salatin" type results then I am all in! 8)

Uncle

Ouch! I am generally in your situation, however our system is no where near as expensive as yours. We are going to take a hit on selling some timber in the current environment to purchase our system, but you cannot eat timber and I don't see the housing market going up anytime soon to boost timber prices again in the near future. I spoke with our ATS irrigation in Brenham yesterday sizing up two pod systems. One system for a 60 gpm pump and another for one at 25 gpm on a smaller pasture. I don't have my notes in front of me, but the larger system would have a 2.8 gpm sprinkler head on each pod and the smaller one was going to use a 2.3 gpm on each pod with ~45 lbs of pressure at the head. I was going to drive up today and pick them up, but got stuck in the office.
 

Latest posts

Top