Building an irrigated alfalfa field

   / Building an irrigated alfalfa field #1  

flusher

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Location
Sacramento
Tractor
Getting old. Sold the ranch. Sold the tractors. Moved back to the city.
My neighbor is adding another 12 acres of alfalfa to his existing 20 acres. Previously he chisel plowed and disced the ground using his articulated IH 4366 (165 hp engine)

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This week he fired up the D7 Cat with the laser drag scraper and commenced leveling and sloping the field for surface flood irrigation.

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Here's the rotary laser on the big tripod. That's my neighbor's small tractor, a MF-294 (74 hp engine, 67 hp pto).

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With the price of irrigation district water, fertilizer, and seed going up all the time, you have to get the field draining correctly from the start or you're wasting time and money.
 
   / Building an irrigated alfalfa field #2  
So for a surface flood, what degree of slope is he after ?
 
   / Building an irrigated alfalfa field
  • Thread Starter
#3  
So for a surface flood, what degree of slope is he after ?

Don't know. I'll ask him next time we talk. I think it's not more than a few degrees of slope.
 
   / Building an irrigated alfalfa field
  • Thread Starter
#4  
My neighbor is adding another 12 acres of alfalfa to his existing 20 acres. Previously he chisel plowed and disced the ground using his articulated IH 4366 (165 hp engine)

DSCF0052Small-2.jpg


This week he fired up the D7 Cat with the laser drag scraper and commenced leveling and sloping the field for surface flood irrigation.

DSCF0215Small.jpg


DSCF0208Small.jpg


Here's the rotary laser on the big tripod. That's my neighbor's small tractor, a MF-294 (74 hp engine, 67 hp pto).

DSCF0207Small.jpg


With the price of irrigation district water, fertilizer, and seed going up all the time, you have to get the field draining correctly from the start or you're wasting time and money.

Sorry--editing photobucket files and lost some links
 
   / Building an irrigated alfalfa field
  • Thread Starter
#5  
So for a surface flood, what degree of slope is he after ?

Finally got a chance to talk to my neighbor. The field is about 9 acres with N-S and E-W fencelines. The irrigation main and valves run E-W along the North fenceline so the flow of the irrigation water has to be set N-S. The checks run N-S and are 108 feet apart. The N-S slope between check is formed by the laser grader and is about 0.3 deg. The field has a natural E-W slope and the area between the checks essentially form a series of terraces to handle that E-W slope and keep the water flowing N-S.
 
   / Building an irrigated alfalfa field #6  
That looks like an expensive endeavor... for alfalfa. Interesting process, too. Never considered that there must be significant changes made to the topography to flood irrigate - but haven't had much exposure to irrigation in Alaska! (If the topsoil is peeled off down to the B or C horizon in order to get the right elevation - do they excavate the B or C and put the topsoil back?)

That tractor looks like an orchard or vinyard machine; and those trees across the way, look like some "money" crops!

Thanks for the pics. Learn something new all the time on TBN.

AKfish
 
   / Building an irrigated alfalfa field
  • Thread Starter
#7  
That looks like an expensive endeavor... for alfalfa. Interesting process, too. Never considered that there must be significant changes made to the topography to flood irrigate - but haven't had much exposure to irrigation in Alaska! (If the topsoil is peeled off down to the B or C horizon in order to get the right elevation - do they excavate the B or C and put the topsoil back?)

That tractor looks like an orchard or vinyard machine; and those trees across the way, look like some "money" crops!

Thanks for the pics. Learn something new all the time on TBN.

AKfish

Nope-no excavation/topsoil backfill---just ripping, discing and then leveling/grading with that laser-controlled scraper.

It's a MF-294 with orchard fenders. My neighbor uses it for discing, ripping with a single-shank subsoiler and planting with his Brillion seeder.

Those trees are part of an olive orchard--several thousand acres of olive orchard around here along with almonds, black walnuts, and prune plums (Sunsweet).
 
   / Building an irrigated alfalfa field
  • Thread Starter
#8  
That looks like an expensive endeavor... for alfalfa. Interesting process, too. Never considered that there must be significant changes made to the topography to flood irrigate - but haven't had much exposure to irrigation in Alaska! (If the topsoil is peeled off down to the B or C horizon in order to get the right elevation - do they excavate the B or C and put the topsoil back?)

That tractor looks like an orchard or vinyard machine; and those trees across the way, look like some "money" crops!

Thanks for the pics. Learn something new all the time on TBN.

AKfish

My neighbor turned on the irrigation today. The alfalfa was planted about 2 weeks ago and benefited from about 2 inches of rainfall a few days later. Photos follow:

Those concrete things are standpipes that act as hydraulic capacitors between the irrigation district water main and the feed pipes in the alfalfa field.

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The water feed for this part of the field is in the lower left corner of the photo.

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The long mound of earth is one of the checks that help keep the flow moving North to South over the field.
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   / Building an irrigated alfalfa field #9  
Looks great! Water appears to be pretty evenly distributed over the entire field. Your neighbor did it up real well.

Lookin' forward to the first bales layin' in the field.

Thanks for the pics.

AKfish
 
   / Building an irrigated alfalfa field
  • Thread Starter
#10  
Looks great! Water appears to be pretty evenly distributed over the entire field. Your neighbor did it up real well.

Lookin' forward to the first bales layin' in the field.

Thanks for the pics.

AKfish

Yep--we'll find out in a few months if all that effort will pay off.
 
 
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