# Irritating hay???



## ANewman (Sep 20, 2012)

What kind of irrigation systems are y'all using for hay crops? What kind of hay are u watering?
Anyone using these or something similar?
http://www.k-linena.com/


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## urednecku (Oct 18, 2010)

Looks interesting. I a have about 15 acres I've been trying to figure out an en-expensive, feasible way to irrigate. I'm gonna watch this thread for more info.


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## askinner (Nov 15, 2010)

I am using handshift pipes, and a soft hose irrigator on alfalfa. I have seen those K Lines over here in Australia, they look really easy, but I don't think I would get the volume of water through them though. I am putting down 400 gal a minute with the above combo, the K line only looks like it has a 2 inch hose?
Side rolls, hard hoses, and pivots are the most common down here, but they are all very pricey.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Wow, never seen a system quite like that, I doubt that it could put down enuf water with those small lines......it's all relative to how much time you have I guess. Can't push much water through a small hose pipe. This is my set-up on a 10 ac field; kifco hard hose traveler 330' 2" hose with Nelson big gun, about 2000' of 4" main lines with 5 risers installed in flush boxes in the ground, 3phase submergable 10hp pump, pumps to 3ac pond, 30hp 3phase rainbow centrifugal pumping out to the kifco. 150 gal @ 170psi. About the least expensive way I could find to effectively irrigate. Costs me about $400 and 2 days to get 1" of water down. I mainly used it for establishing the grass, cost is prohibitive unless absolutely necessary. Hope it helps.


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## ANewman (Sep 20, 2012)

Somedevildawg, so basically u are pumping from a well into a retention pond, right? How long does it take u to fill the pond and how long can you water?


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

Interesting concept. Possibly would be better then sprinkler pipe that we sometimes use here for new seeding where we flood irrigate and a couple places where our pivots don't hit. It looks easy to drag around, but I wonder how easy it is to roll up and take out of the field. For larger acreages I think the Kifco thing would do better though that is pricey. We use pivots for most irrigation and I'm waiting for the day that the pivots don't make tracks.


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## urednecku (Oct 18, 2010)

Teslan said:


> We use pivots for most irrigation and I'm waiting for the day that the pivots don't make tracks.


Thought about this thread... http://www.haytalk.com/forums/topic/17974-forage-folk-innovations/page__hl__+pivot%20+tracks#entry82659
talking about these people. http://www.autodrytrack.com/


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

Yes I'm considering the auto dry track system. I'm not entirely convinced it would work how I am hoping it would work for $600-$800 a pivot tower. I'm wondering how well the solenoid system on it holds up over time. Solenoids tend to stop working fairly often. If only pivots could just float with no tires. Much like the skate boards in Back to the Future 2.


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## askinner (Nov 15, 2010)

A place I know uses an old cement agitator truck to deposit rock in the pivot tracks. I'm not a fan of introducing any rock in to any field, but I suppose if you dug the rock back out before working it, it might be alright?


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Skinner not sure about that rock digging deal, them damn tracks is a problem for sure, just have to deal with them I guess teslan, I always thought they ought to try high flotation tires of some variety, I guess width becomes a limiting factor. 
Anewman, that's exactly what I do, the pond has been there for about 80 years, never has been dry, close but not dry, not sure how long it takes, I have a pipe with markings on it that I can tell the level, when I'm irrigating I run the pump 24 hours a day into the pond, I pump out much faster than I can pump in. If it looks like I will be irrigating, I ck the level and turn on submergable to get a bit of buffer before I crank up the 30 hp unit. I believe I spent about 10k on the entire system - the submergable and 4 " well, and a lot of back breaking work for about a month in July.... Lets see, paid 4k for the kifco (used) about 2k for PVC and 4k on pump, so close to that figure......and a whole lot of work (just in case I didn't mention, or was ignored). Hope it helps


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## ANewman (Sep 20, 2012)

somedevildawg said:


> Costs me about $400 and 2 days to get 1" of water down. I mainly used it for establishing the grass, cost is prohibitive unless absolutely necessary. Hope it helps.


how many pulls or area covered during a two day period?

I might could handle a 2" hose but the bigger ones would require too many gpm for my situation I think.

In my area there are not many irrigation systems that I know of. A sod farm has several center pivots and reels. I know of only two more pivots in a 30 mi radius.


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## askinner (Nov 15, 2010)

somedevildawg said:


> Skinner not sure about that rock digging deal, them damn tracks is a problem for sure, just have to deal with them I guess teslan, I always thought they ought to try high flotation tires of some variety, I guess width becomes a limiting factor.
> Anewman, that's exactly what I do, the pond has been there for about 80 years, never has been dry, close but not dry, not sure how long it takes, I have a pipe with markings on it that I can tell the level, when I'm irrigating I run the pump 24 hours a day into the pond, I pump out much faster than I can pump in. If it looks like I will be irrigating, I ck the level and turn on submergable to get a bit of buffer before I crank up the 30 hp unit. I believe I spent about 10k on the entire system - the submergable and 4 " well, and a lot of back breaking work for about a month in July.... Lets see, paid 4k for the kifco (used) about 2k for PVC and 4k on pump, so close to that figure......and a whole lot of work (just in case I didn't mention, or was ignored). Hope it helps


I have seen some pivots here running a track system similar to tracked skid steers. Not sure how they perform, but they'd have to be better than tyres?
I agree on the rock, no way I'd be putting rock in my field, they seem to breed in my hay field as it is without introducing any other species lol!


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## askinner (Nov 15, 2010)

askinner said:


> I have seen some pivots here running a track system similar to tracked skid steers. Not sure how they perform, but they'd have to be better than tyres?
> I agree on the rock, no way I'd be putting rock in my field, they seem to breed in my hay field as it is without introducing any other species lol!


This is what I was thinking of:


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

I've heard those things just end up shredding tires and ending up making more of a mess then anything. Some are putting 3 tires instead of just 2 at each tower and I've been told that works fairly well. We have a track closer that works ok. Pivots are fine for fields that are ripped up every season or like alfalfa every few years, but grass hay can be a grass field forever. There is where the tracking problems are. Also for pivots that don't go in a complete circle is where tracking really can occur. Also if the field has hills where the water runs down a track and sits in some low part of a track is where the worst happens.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Ditto for all of the above....Newman, I can irrigate my 10 ac in two days, that's 5 complete pulls of my hose and using 3 risers, the risers are in the middle of a long narrow field, after one pull, I have enuf soft hose from the riser to the kifco that I don't disconnect, just hook the kifco to my kubota rtv and spin it around and pull 180* from the direction it just pulled. So with one riser I pull approx 700' x 200', then move to the next riser, do the same and the last riser just makes one pull. I also have two additional risers on the livestock pasture, 5 ac, to put water down there. That takes another day if I irrigate that as well. Now sometimes after application of np&k I speed the gun/hose up to put down about 1/4 to 1/2 inch and can do that a bit faster. If there is no rain on the horizon after I spread, I usually will do that, doesn't cost as much to do it, putting down an inch of water means the gun is moving really slow. And costing additional $


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Bottom line is this, I'm glad I have the ability to water but i can tell you there is a reason why you don't c irrigated hay field very often. COST. Two years ago we were coming off of a severe drought, forecast was for a dry summer again, first cutting lived up to that billing, dry, dry, made an executive decision to water, watered that crop 3 times, figure in np&k and h20 and a poor yield (just don't do what MN does) left me with about 100$ in fixed cost per bale. Then we started getting water (thank you MN) well needless to say I was hung in those 100$ bales of grass.....a huge loss made even bigger when a few neighbor friends of my sons decided to blow off some firecrackers in the same general vicinity.......you know how this one ends......every last one of those bales went up in smoke. So I guess I had it coming, now I used it extensively while getting grass est. now purty much relegated to using it in the fore mentioned application. Hope it helps


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## ANewman (Sep 20, 2012)

Thanks for the info. I'm just trying to figure out the most cost effective way to go about it. I'm doing small squares and mainly looking at how to boost production... get the most out of what I have. If I could get another 100 bales/ac that's grossing $500/ac more.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Wow, I don't think I would look at it like that, only because I don't think I can possibly do that, if we get rain, I can get x, without and irrigating I get x-30% at least. By soaking in my np&k I figure that in my fert. Cost which makes it larger but I think more effective than leaving it lay for several days on the surface. I usually square my field as well, but you will find yourself still praying for rain so you don't have that added expense. My Alicia does well on one inch per week, if I don't get any rain for 14 days I start considering cranking up the irrigation







. Btw my squares weigh in at 65-70lbs so an addition of 100 bpa (6500#) just ain't gonna happen I'm afraid, I usually get about 70-80 bpa on average.


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## ANewman (Sep 20, 2012)

I shoot for 50# bales. I'm talking 100 bpa for the entire growing season. I've got Vaughn's hybrid Bermuda. I avg 240-260BPA now. A sod guy told me that under irrigation Bermuda, will almost double production... I don't hardly believe that but it's got me thinking...


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Maybe for sod, but I don't believe you can do that with forage grass. Lots of sod down here and you will never see a sod farm without a pivot on it, ever. Conversely, you never see a hay field that's irrigated, unless you happen up on some idiot like myself. Another thing I've found is that sod farmers don't know anything about growing forage Bermuda, they'll have you spraying things like MSMA before its all over. One thing is for sure irrigating hay will irritate the hell out of you (sorry couldn't help it). Hope all of this helps you in your decision making.....


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## ANewman (Sep 20, 2012)

Thanks for the info... I'm just trying to look at some different angles


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Teslan said:


> I've heard those things just end up shredding tires and ending up making more of a mess then anything. Some are putting 3 tires instead of just 2 at each tower and I've been told that works fairly well. We have a track closer that works ok. Pivots are fine for fields that are ripped up every season or like alfalfa every few years, but grass hay can be a grass field forever. There is where the tracking problems are. Also for pivots that don't go in a complete circle is where tracking really can occur. Also if the field has hills where the water runs down a track and sits in some low part of a track is where the worst happens.


I'm surprised somebody hasn't come up with rubber tracks for a pivot, kinda like some of the after market kits you see for combines.


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

mlappin said:


> I'm surprised somebody hasn't come up with rubber tracks for a pivot, kinda like some of the after market kits you see for combines.


You mean like these.

http://www.zimmatic.com/downloads/ZTraxFlyer1.pdf


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