Page 23 - Logan County Farm Outlook - Spring 2013

2013 LOGAN COUNTY FARM OUTLOOK MAGAZINE. LINCOLN DAILY NEWS.com March 21, 2013
23
pond where water could be drawn
into the irrigation system. This is a
viable means of supplying water for
irrigation, but in a dry year,
pond levels will drop just as
will creeks, rivers or lakes.
Another consideration
is how much irrigation a
farm would need. On a
pivot system with 900 feet
of rotating sprinklers and
a 100-foot end gun going
a full circular rotation, the
land mass covered would
be only 72 acres.
This assumes that the
field would be configured in such a
way that the pivot could run a full circle,
which in many cases it cannot, which
means producers are using too much
tool. On the other hand, in fields that are
larger than 80 acres, for example, this is
going to equate to not enough
tool. Thus, multiple systems
are going to be needed.
A study conducted in
2008 by the three Alabama
universities in cooperation with
the United States Department
of Agriculture showed that
on a 60-acre field, the cost of
installing an irrigation system
could run as much as $73,000
all-inclusive. In the study,
the research considered the
drilling of a well, installation of a pivot
with an electric drive system, all the
sprinklers, and associated hardware and
installation.
The study also concluded that the
annual cost of operating the 60-acre
system would be over $8,300, or $138
per acre. This cost was figured assuming
7 acre-inches of water applied annually.
It was also based on electricity at a cost
of 10 cents per kilowatt-hour, repairs
and maintenance of the system, and
labor calculated at only $8 per hour.
Considering the most recent study is
five years old, it is safe to assume these
figures are conservative.
In addition, if the system is driven
by a fuel rather than electricity, Fulton
estimated that the cost of running the
system could go up by a few hundred
dollars an acre.
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