25 acres & trying irrigate hay

[dkwally]

blueriver, I have been to the Smith Irrigation site and they sell Kifco pumps as is the D3/50 I had looked at. The reel that never materialized was also a Kifco (I think). What information am I missing??? Thanks for the interest. Wally

 

[blueriver]

blueriver, I have been to the Smith Irrigation site and they sell Kifco pumps as is the D3/50 I had looked at. The reel that never materialized was also a Kifco (I think). What information am I missing??? Thanks for the interest. Wally

The problem I had with Kifco ... no answers to my emails to the rep, no answer to my voicemails to the rep ... when I called them to ask questions and get prices I was informed that I needed to contact the rep ...

Terry at Smith, answered every email and was very informative ... took the time to answer every silly little question I could think of ... so I bought from Smith.

 

[gabby]

Hey dkwally,

I've been growing Coastal hay in east GA near Augusta all my life and I've never seen a drought year reduce cuttings by more than one, from three to two.

It's a lot cheaper to just lose a cutting than to irrigate. If you miss a cutting you can still utilize most of the fertilizer when it does rain so it's not a total loss.

I have a pto pump in one of my ponds with 6-inch underground pipe that terminates near one of my hay fields but I have never irrigated it.

Here is a picture from a couple of weeks ago of that non-irrigated field, first cutting, which was a month late due to drought. I should get one more cutting.

Gabby

 

[dkwally]

Gabby, From what I can extract from serious hay people around here the number of cuttings on a 28 day cycle is 5 here in central Texas. We are so dry that my first cutting was 25% of the best cutting ever and this was fertilized. There is question whether I will even get a second cut. I think irrigation is the only way I can get through dry years and the only way to get beyond 3 annual cuttings (my best thus fare). Thanks a lot for your input.
Wally

 

[gabby]

Gabby, From what I can extract from serious hay people around here the number of cuttings on a 28 day cycle is 5 here in central Texas. We are so dry that my first cutting was 25% of the best cutting ever and this was fertilized. There is question whether I will even get a second cut. I think irrigation is the only way I can get through dry years and the only way to get beyond 3 annual cuttings (my best thus fare). Thanks a lot for your input.
Wally

We get 45 inches/yr average rainfall and I see no way to get 5 cuttings out of that unless you're just cutting a bale or two per acre. I assume I'm about as far north as you are. Cutting every 28 days/5 times per year without irrigation is theoretical be nice in my book. I let my hay get thick enough to start falling down, usually takes at least 6 weeks. My horses and cows eat it gladly and they stay fat.

Also, you will struggle to get enough psi for a traveling gun irrigator with a pto pump and a small tractor.

 

[dkwally]

Thanks for the input. Must answer this question about bales per acre on this short cycle. If two bales per acre is really close to the max then my planning for this just does not work. However, one cutting some years ago came out to about 5 bales per acre but not on the 28 day cycle. Thanks for the comment on holding water pressure on a pto pump. Maybe a booster pump is necessary but at any rate I'll look further into this.

 

[gabby]

Good luck with your project dk. Sorry to be negative about it but I've been down your road myself. One inch of rain on one acre = 28,000 gallons of water. However, it takes a lot more irrigation water to equal an inch of rain and it won't green up as well so you're paddling upstream in a lot of ways - financially as well as the sheer volume of water required.

Booster pump? Now you have two pumps and motors to worry about!

 

[David Devuono]

And to think I just bush hogged 20 acres over the past two weekends just to keep the weeds and forest at bay. Farmer neighbour has discovered that it does not pay to spend $10,000 dollars to earn $7,000 to save $2000 on his taxes. Result he no longer needs the hay or what ever (weeds) that they have been baling for 80 years on my field. Running the town dump and driving a school bus is working better for him.

 

[dieselscout80]

We get 45 inches/yr average rainfall and I see no way to get 5 cuttings out of that unless you're just cutting a bale or two per acre. I assume I'm about as far north as you are. Cutting every 28 days/5 times per year without irrigation is theoretical be nice in my book. I let my hay get thick enough to start falling down, usually takes at least 6 weeks. My horses and cows eat it gladly and they stay fat.

Also, you will struggle to get enough psi for a traveling gun irrigator with a pto pump and a small tractor.

Gabby,

I have a question for you since I'm just over by Columbia, SC.

I grew in south central Montana and there on irrigated ground we got two cuttings (quite often we got three) of hay. I'm trying to understand why here in the south we only get 2 to 3 cuttings a year too why is that? I have one thought about it that it's related to the hours of sun light. I spent five years in Anchorage Alaska and there lawn grass grew so fast that it need to be cut about very three days to keep up with it. In Anchorage it was still light enough to ball softball at 11:00pm without lights.

Could just be the amount of sunlight and maybe the angle of the sun?

Can you help me understand this?

ps great looking hay. :thumbsup:

 

[gabby]

Hey Montana Diesel, welcome to the Sunny South! Wish it was a little less sunny and a lot more rainy.

Three non-irrigated cuttings is about as good as it gets because there's always at least a dry spell or two every summer so you always lose some growing time along the way. You're doing good to cut every 6 weeks starting sometime in June. Add 12 weeks for two more cuttings and you're well into September and that's if it doesn't get real dry somewhere along the way. It can also get too rainy for too long and keep you out of the fields when it needs to be cut which can upset your schedule.

Usually it's late September or October before the third cutting is ready. But then there are years like this one where it looks like we'll be lucky just to get a decent second cutting.

And don't forget the armyworms. It's time for them now. They can wipe out a cutting real fast.

Don't know about the hours of sunlight. I suspect water has more to do with it in the lower 48. Good luck!
gabby

 

[charlz]

This area is primarily set up for flood irrigation but potatoes and sod are better irrigated with sprinklers. Typically you see a trailer mounted pump system that is powered by a 4 or 6 cylinder diesel engine. Trailer makes it easy to move around as crops rotate season to season. The mainline is 6 or 8 inches and laterals of 3 inch handline.

Even used the pumps are thousands of dollars and mainline and handline is not cheap stuff, plus all the valves, fittings etc. Then you get to move the handline twice a day everyday all season long I used to get 10 cents a pipe as a kid, 'changing pipe' was the big summer job for kids. Wheel line would help but still not 'set it and forget it'.

If your fields are flat with a gentle slope you could look at doing flood irrigation with gated pipe. Gated pipe is sold $'s/per foot though... not cheap. Takes a lot of water to flood irrigate but you only have to do it once a week or so. I believe pump motor sizing is less since it is not a pressure system, just lift and dump into a ditch or mainline going to gated pipe.

You would really have to sell hay at a premium to offset the startup and ongoing costs. You are also subject to energy swings, price of diesel or electricity if you go with a permanent electric setup. I know the electricity prices are really hurting the farmers around here and we have fairly cheap power being mostly hydro. The farmers also get a discounted rate.

 

[charlz]

BTW your local extension service office should be able to help you come up with the irrigation schedule. This is how much water and how often and depends on soil type, crop, climate etc. Once you have that you can figure out the laterals and thus the main line. How many sprinklers you end up with running at the same time and their output dictates how large a pump you need. How large a pump helps figure out how much water and how much fuel/electricity etc.

 

[dieselscout80]

If your fields are flat with a gentle slope you could look at doing flood irrigation with gated pipe. Gated pipe is sold $'s/per foot though... not cheap. Takes a lot of water to flood irrigate but you only have to do it once a week or so. I believe pump motor sizing is less since it is not a pressure system, just lift and dump into a ditch or mainline going to gated pipe.

My Father In-law use to use poly pipe in Missouri to irrigate rows like corn/beans and for flooding rice fields. You poke holes in it where you want the water to come out. Poly pipe is designed for one time use, but it can be rolled back up and used again. IIRC it was about 8" - 10" in dia.

Field Poly-Pipe Irrigation for Typical Level Grade Farming