Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Corn Ranching... #makeitrain

Some of the bigger farmers around here have put in center pivot irrigation. Most that I've seen are pumping out of streams, and with the lack of recent rains, those streams are getting low. There may be a few that have dug some deep wells, but the water table here can be an issue.

Hey Sam, I would have never guessed that you raised corn up there. What is the intended purpose, will you chop it or let it mature? All the corn here tasseled out around the 4th of July. Hope you get the rain you need. St. Louis would gladly give you some!

Dang Sam, I thought with all that rain you folks got a little bit ago you'd be set for a bit longer.

Orion. 13" is about our yearly total. Currently sitting at 102F and 9% humidity at the official station at the airport in town. 103F and 13% in the microclimate of my back porch, probably higher RH because I watered the lawn near the deck this morning.

We've had a grand total of less than 4" moisture since the first of the year. And less than 8" since the water year started on Oct 1. Satellite, and looking out the window, shows some clouds, radar shows some moisture but what I saw yesterday from the few popup clouds we had never made it to the ground (that happens with single digit RH)

Oh well, couple of more years of this probably, then a big snowfall followed by warm rains and our little dry wash will overflow again. Hasn't ran at all this year.

Got a half inch last week and .39 today. Only 4.69 inch since first of the year. Have 160 acres in dryland corn and with these rains it may make it. Was starting to brown before last weeks rain. Our wheat only ran about 15 bushel, but enough to make contract, and have had electrical issues at the bins, but that was fixed today. Haven't had enuff rain to make our creek flow since 2018........

Hahaha!

But don't you whine none!

Thanks for all the replies and field reports.


Scott, only hops around here are hoppers!


Anson, this is late planted silage corn. I doubt the short stuff will have enough time to make good cobs but you never know. We blend the silage with grass and alfalfa so if nothing else it will help cut down on dust when we fill bunks. Straight chopped hay into the bunk is a dusty mess.



Geno, most of the ground is hanging in there but the sandy stuff just can't hold for very long. The river bottom soil is funny, sandy streaks here and there.

And we've had heat as well, nice this week but back up over 100F in a day or two.




My dad was baling this morning by himself because my baler broke down. So I moved a bunch of chit down to the river and then later on we started setting up. Didn't try to pump any though, still had to get the ditch setup. Gonna hit it early tomorrow and beat the heat.

How much water are you allowed to take out of the river each year?

If this global warming thing pans out they’ll be able to grow corn halfway to the Yukon. Just think of all the new available crop land!

I'd love to see you set that up and run it Sam.
Totally foreign to me, the amount of water you need to move
to be effective has to be tremendous.

Only irrigation on a big scale here is for sweet corn.
Dry year, things dry up. Not often it's bad enough to be a crop failure.

I do remember rolling three and 4 windrows together to get one worth
bailing in the 80s when I was working farms.


Wish I could send you some rain.
At our house it has rained everyday since Saturday morning.
Several good storms, this morning was a nice producing shower for
over an hour. No idea how much. Quantities don't matter to me,
We aren't making any decisions based on it.

Steve, I would have to ask management that question.


We have flow meters that show current gpm's and record acre feet.

Luckily it hasn't got to the point where there's been any problems. Generally speaking regarding water issues here locally, no fights lately.

We need mountain runoff to keep it filled up and flowing.




Ruffcut, Trudeau is gonna shut farming down!





Dillon, hope to be pumping tomorrow!

We did get the old Perkins running today. Took four tries, air in the fuel lines.

Sam,
What are your fuel gph?

Pumps are a constraint load, you gotta be burning some good
money running them at Brandon $/gal.

Dillon, it burns about 2 gallons per hour and pumps 2500 gpm. The ol' Perkin's doesn't even know there's a pump hooked up.

Compared to fertilizer the increased fuel cost is actually minor.




We went down this morning and tried to prime 'er up. Spent a couple hours and used all the old tricks but the river was just too low. Our pumps use a Venturi vacuum off the exhaust and we just couldn't get enough suck to bring the water up the intake pipe and into the pump.

We got within 13" of vertical lift and it would stall out.



So I thought we can't raise the river but we can lower the pump. 9 hours later we are pumping water!


It got a little western using two handy man jacks and trying to keep the pump in the same place.

Wow.
Would have never thought you could move that much water that
cheap. That's a lot of money daily, but a tiny fraction of what I expected.

Would have guessed at least 100gal a day.


Glad you have it flowing. Hope it continues.

That straight 6 Perkins runs around 1400rpm, just purrin' along.

Sam
Great vid and pics. Good luck with all that You have going. I sure enjoyed the short visit the other day. Next time we need to have a couple of beers. You've got a complicative operation going up there.

Brad, good to see you as well man!


Come back over when the wheat is cut.

Sammo.... that thing doesn't have a foot (check) valve on the intake? That should keep it primed in between irrigations.

It has a foot valve but we couldn't pull enough water in the suction pipe to get it primed to begin with.

Glad to see you are getting water now.
Hope you will not have to do it very long before Mother Nature can start helping you out.

Those pics are GREAT it shows what Farmers and Ranchers have to go threw to make a living and supply everyone's table with food.
Thanks for everything you do.

I thought this was cool.


See how the corn on the right is nice and happy green while the the stuff on the left is starting to curl.