Irrigation on Pastures

[Old Red]

I was thinking about setting up some irrigated paddocks to try it out. We had a pretty dry year. Has anyone heard of this new thing called K-line Irrigation. I think it is from New Zealand, I would be interested in hearing about it if anyone had anything to share.

 

[Lazyacre]

I saw the system at the Arkansas Cattlemen Conference last weekend. It looks to be a very simple system. The dealer for Arkansas is a personal friend and he says it is the best thing going for pasture irrigation and the price is not that bad. There is a website to look it over... k-linena.com I think.

 

[MrBilly]

I have seen a video of it in action. It does look good and we have investigated it pretty thoughly including a site plan. It certainly is cheaper than guns and pivots. My only concern is the time it takes to move the thing around and the fact that it has to work so many hours per day to get a small area wet - with the cost of fuel and electricity sure to go up again, what will this cost/acre ?????

Compents seem inexplensive, the real expense is laying out the underground pipes and the upright water taps. For a small area, one could use above ground flex pipe, but to do it right I think it will take us underground.

Billy

 

[Stocker Steve]

I do not see how you can afford to irrigate crops at today's commodity prices. For grazing I think you would need to look at the cost of irrigating vs. buying forage or renting most pasture. One traveling gun was put in near me, but there was some cost sharing done. When I have been tempted to irrigate, I always think back to all the work with moving above ground pipes and guns when I was a kid...

Neighbors beg me to buy their hay most years so that has been my drought insurance.

 

[Stocker Steve]

I have seen a video of it in action. It does look good and we have investigated it pretty thoughly including a site plan. It certainly is cheaper than guns and pivots. My only concern is the time it takes to move the thing around and the fact that it has to work so many hours per day to get a small area wet - with the cost of fuel and electricity sure to go up again, what will this cost/acre ?????

Compents seem inexplensive, the real expense is laying out the underground pipes and the upright water taps.



Billy

: Do the economics work out when you include labor??:

 

[MrBilly]

Don't know.

The Kline is easy to move, hook to an ATV and away you go. I think the cost of labor is low. The cost of energy will be high at todays fuel costs.

Billy

 

[gabby]

I do not see how you can afford to irrigate crops at today's commodity prices. For grazing I think you would need to look at the cost of irrigating vs. buying forage or renting most pasture. One traveling gun was put in near me, but there was some cost sharing done. When I have been tempted to irrigate, I always think back to all the work with moving above ground pipes and guns when I was a kid...

Neighbors beg me to buy their hay most years so that has been my drought insurance.

I agree with Stocker Steve.
gabby

 

[Old Red]

I have seen a video of it in action. It does look good and we have investigated it pretty thoughly including a site plan. It certainly is cheaper than guns and pivots. My only concern is the time it takes to move the thing around and the fact that it has to work so many hours per day to get a small area wet - with the cost of fuel and electricity sure to go up again, what will this cost/acre ?????

Compents seem inexplensive, the real expense is laying out the underground pipes and the upright water taps.



Billy

: Do the economics work out when you include labor??:

I have heard from some users that it is costing them about $2.50 /acre-inch applied for the electricity and then I was told it takes them about 5 minutes per line of K-line to move it. They are irrigating 50 acres with 5 lines so it takes a person about 25-30 minutes of labor to do that. So it is costing this person about $200/week to operate his K-line system, that is labor and electricity. I can't feed hay for that price. I think it looks attractive, I just need to look at the numbers to see if I can justify the investment in the system. I am not worried about the operating costs. It would be nice to be able to predict the amount of forage I am going to have from year to year.