Irrigation questions for coastal bermuda

[johndeerefarmer]

Has been awful dry here in north Texas this summer. So far have only got one cutting of hay.

Was wondering if it would be economically feasible to have a well drilled to irrigate out of? About three years ago, when I checked it was about 1000' down to the Trinity where the good water was. At that time a well would have cost $10,000.
Then I would need some sort of irrigation system.

How many gpm would you need out of a well?

How many gallons of water does it take to apply 1" to an acre.

Is it worth it to irrigate coastal bermuda? I round bale it mainly for my own use. I typically cut it at about 5 weeks and get around 12-14% protien. I guess that I could find some dairy farmers that would pay me a premium for my hay because the cheap cattle producers around here won't..............

 

[Tully]

1 megalitre = 4" on a hectare or about 9.5 " on an acre

thats about the extent of my knowlege
Tully
My irrigation pump is a 40 hp submersible pumping 24000gal/hr from 70' at about 60psi ,this runs 35 sprays this is about 1" an hour & costs about $5/hour (electricity) to pump from 1000' would be an enourmous cost!!!

 

[Soapweed]

How many gallons of water does it take to apply 1" to an acre.

Just had to try this mental exercise, and here are my findings. A mile is 5280 feet. A square mile is 5280 x 5280 or 27,878,400 square feet. An acre is one/sixty-fourth of a square mile, or 43,560 square feet. The square root of 43,560 is 208.71, so an acre is 208.71 feet by 208.71 feet. 208.71 feet = 2504.52 inches. In "square inches" an acre is 2504.52 x 2504.52, or 6,272,620.4 square inches. A gallon is 231 cubic inches (there are 7.48 gallons per cubic foot, or 7.48 gallons per 1728 cubic inches). Divide 6,272,620.4 by 231, which would be 27,154.2 gallons of water to cover an acre with one inch of water. Putting this into perspective, if we tried to irrigate an acre with an inch of water by using our fire-fighting sprayer, which holds 200 gallons, it would take almost 136 sprayers full of water to get the job done.

My advice on your prospective irrigating project is "don't do it." You would be money ahead to just sit in the house and play tiddly-winks, or solitaire, or even just fiddle around on the bull session. You'd probably even be money ahead if you spent a lot of time and money at the corner bar. Just say "NO" to the irrigating. Don't forget, my advice is plumb free. Take it for what it is worth.

 

[Mike]

Only way I could make it pencil was to drill a well to fill a pond, or reservoir. Then I pump it out of the pond with the tractor to a "Self Reeling" irrigation system. Go to www.kifco.com to see one.

A pump at 1000 feet deep that would push water with that amount of head, plus give enough pressure to irrigate with would be awful expensive.

Soapweed is correct. About 27,000 gallons to put one inch of water on 1 acre.

You can buy lots of hay for what you would have in a system.

 

[Faster horses]

Good pencil pushin', guys!

And there are other things to consider. For instance, here we have some salty ground and some salty water so irrigating is not feasible from that standpoint. Wouldn't take long to plumb ruin the ground.

 

[baling wire]

Just drilled a new house well this spring 320' 9600.00 with submersable. The way our water table is dropping starting to wish we didnt have irrigation wells.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

I'm no irrigation expert but don't dairy farmers feed 18 to 20 % protien alfalfa.

 

[cowsense]

BMr.......but some will claim that you are an "expert" irritator.....you've been pretty quiet lately.....hopefully your recovered from the Deadwood trip and get back to full form......GOOD LUCK :twisted:

 

[pknoeber]

Was wondering if it would be economically feasible to have a well drilled to irrigate out of? About three years ago, when I checked it was about 1000' down to the Trinity where the good water was. At that time a well would have cost $10,000.
Then I would need some sort of irrigation system.

How many gpm would you need out of a well?

How many gallons of water does it take to apply 1" to an acre...

Holy wow!! I need to find your well driller. To put in a 1000' deep irrigation well here in SW KS I'd guess that you'd be looking at a minimum of $50K (casing, 8" bowls, wellhead, irrigation pad etc...) and then you'd have about another $40-50K to put up a center pivot. That would irrigate about 125 acres & you would need at least 4-500 gallons/minute flow. Add onto that the $15K motor you'd need to pull from that depth & it gets expensive mighty quick.
I agree with the other guys, it's probably not worth the investment/effort to irrigate it. Sure might be cheaper to just buy hay from somewhere that produces it cheaper. Good luck.