Late-winter sorghum and other ranch scenes

[whitewing]

Well, our wet season (winter) is winding down here so I'm squeezing in some last minute planting, albeit under irrigation. I'm still hoping for a decent rainfall or two during December to help me out with some sorghum I planted near the end of October, but that's by no means a certainty.

Here are some pics I took over the last few days.

This piece was planted in mid September and looks to be ready for harvest within a few weeks.

This piece was harvested at the end of October and has some decent second and volunteer growth. Still not sure if it'll be worth reharvesting or simply cutting for my animals.

The sorghum in the foreground was planted at the end of October. It's still hanging in there, and actually has water in place if I choose to irrigate, but I'm hoping it'll make it without any help.

Here's a shot of my deepest pond, 60 feet. Yes, you read that right, it's 60 feet at its deepest. The levee spans a huge, deep ravine and the pond-side was dug much deeper to recover the clay to make the levee. This pond took about a month to complete and was finished in April of 2007. Two years of drought didn't help as it finally reached full capacity this past year. I've now got a 3 inch line running from the nearby river so I'll be able to maintain it at this level fairly easily. It's the main pond I use for my irrigation system.

The sorghum in the foreground was also planted in late October while that in the distance was planted this past week.

Here are a couple more shots of my water cannon in action.

Getting ready to refuel the water pump.

Water's critical at my place. Here's a shot showing a couple of the ponds. I've built 5 so far with one more planned for 2011. It'll be below the sorghum in that first photograph I posted.

 

[Angus Cowman]

nice pics
how do you like your water cannon and how many acres can you irrigate with it on each set
I have been looking into buying one for a couple of fields
they are long and narrow about 300 ft wide

 

[ga.prime]

whitewing, what kind of trees are those you have left growing in your fields?

 

[Jogeephus]

Beautiful country. Looks like your hard work is paying off.

 

[whitewing]

nice pics
how do you like your water cannon and how many acres can you irrigate with it on each set
I have been looking into buying one for a couple of fields
they are long and narrow about 300 ft wide

AC, I looked at a number of systems, evening considering one with fixed heads and a network of buried lines covering the fields. I chose this system for simplicity and cost.

I've got a single main line, 4 inch diameter, of high pressure (125 working pressure) plastic semi-flexible piping buried and running down the middle of each pasture. It's all interconnected and uses a single extraction point (the pump pictured above). Every 25 yards I've got a valve and hookup point to extract water.

The pistol itself can be operated in a 360 or something less if desired. It delivers water 25 - 30 meters in one direction or 50 - 60 meters when operating in a 360 and easily overcomes our constant easterly winds. I can position the cannon where I want it, connect the water line to the nearest extraction point, anchor the tow line hundreds of yards away, and let her rip! The system uses the same water that's being sprayed to turn a turbine and slowly reel in the tow line, moving the cannon along and dragging the water line behind it. From a long distance I can glance at the unit and tell if it's moving or not because it's got a secondary spray head mounted on top of the turbine that turns counterclockwise parallel to the ground. If the turbine's not moving, the spray head is not spinning.

It's an effecient and simple system that doesn't require much maintenance or much observation. I've got something on the order of 2200 meters of main line buried and spanning almost 70 acres of pasture and can cover virtually 100% of it with this cannon.

A local machine shop owner recently visited the ranch and wants to build several more units for me. I'm conident he can build them locally for much less than I'd have to pay to import them from Brazil. The pistol head I can buy locally. I've calculated that my water pump can handle up to 4 cannons at a single time.

 

[whitewing]

whitewing, what kind of trees are those you have left growing in your fields?

Most of those are the national tree of Venezuela, the araguaney, though some are also "arboles de aceite" or oil trees. The araguaney produce beautiful yellow flowers a couple of times a year. It's really dramatic too because one day they're green and the next they're covered in yellow flowers. Here's a pic of one flowered.

I like them both but am partial to the oil trees. They grow much like southern oaks with branches that sweep down towards the ground and providing lots of nice shade. Interestingly, the bark on the oil trees can be bright yellow or beige.

 

[TexasBred]

Love it !!!! You're doing a lot of things right !!! Keep up the good work and send me my plane ticket when you're ready for me to come down. :mrgreen:

 

[Kingfisher]

HaHa. I like the " snorkle inlet" on the yellow water truck! Let me see one of these " Rivers" your catching water from please. Thanks in advance.

 

[whitewing]

HaHa. I like the " snorkle inlet" on the yellow water truck! Let me see one of these " Rivers" your catching water from please. Thanks in advance.

The southern boundry of my place has about 2 kilometers of "river" as they call it here. I'd call it a creek actually. It does have water year round and at times is darned scary, like when it overflows its banks. It dumps into the Rio Amana which then crosses two states to empty into the Atlantic just across from Trinidad.

I'll get some pics one of these days when I venture down there. The river's at least 90 feet below the rest of my ranch.

 

[upfrombottom]

I'm curious as to what methods you use to harvest the sorghum?

 

[whitewing]

I'm curious as to what methods you use to harvest the sorghum?

I've harvested once this year using a traditional combine. During the drought years of 2008 and 2009 I used my pasture harvester to remove as much material as possible for my animals and then let them graze the rest. I'm now seriously considering a harvester that I can mount on my tractor. It won't be nearly as fast as a combine, but then I won't have to wait for someone to arrive with equipment either.

Here are a few shots of that first harvest.

 

[Poundsy]

Always interesting to see how it is done elsewhere. I love the pics. Had a friend take a trip down to Brazil this summer for a crop tour. Hopefully I get pulled to go next year. Would love the chance to see the country first hand.