Please help I need to water 2 acres often & cheap

[stevenf]

I wanted to list this in tractor projects but I figured the moderators would move it to here anyway. I have successfully gotten our food plots plowed, seeded, fertilized and disked in. Three hours after we finished it started raining and rained a gentle 3 inches of rain over 2 days time. Its now 10 days later and everything is coming up beautifully. I have the ability to water a 2 acre plot close to the well but moving one of the tripod type sprinklers around is a pain and you end up stepping on the new plants. I'd love to hear from anyone who has devised a way to water large areas short of installing a sprinkler system. My well is set at about 60lbs so I've got good pressure but I'm thinking if I could figure out a drip method that wouldn't break the bank or I've considered elevating the sprinkler on a wire suspended thru the plot about twelve feet in the air should do it and having a high tension wire strung between a pole on either end to pull the sprinkler back and forth on but my CFO rolled her eyes at this idea so I'm looking for anything that the TBN brain trust has come up with. Any hillbilly method is fine Please share your inventions last planting everything came up, the drought continued and it all went right back down into the dirt we'd been without measureable rain for 8 months.
Thanks
Steve

 

[deerefan]

Fabricate a misting system w/ pvc. I did this a couple years back and it worked great. I drilled several tiny holes in the pvc and suspended it using tposts about 5 ft above the plot. The pressure was at about 65 lbs on the well and it worked great.

 

[beenthere]

Sorry, but shouldn't mother nature take care of the wild animals. If a drought, then they might have to fend for themselves.
Can one be sprinkling water on food plots during a drought from a water aquifer which neighbors are also depending on for their water? /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[scesnick]

I don't really think this is going to help you with your situation but here is what I do.
I have about a 2 acre food plot also. unfortunately I do not have a well anywhere near my plot. So, I rigged up a 55 gallon drum in the back of my yamaha Rhino and a small generator and pump. I just fill up the drum from my stream and transport it to the plot that way. Then I just use the pump to hose down the plot.
It takes a few runs back and forth but i only do this when it hasn't rained in a while.

 

[HappyCPE]

This thread is near to my heart. I was going to do nearly the same thing as you, except with a plastic tank attached to a HD carryall on the 3ph. How large a pump are you using? My creek runs dry but I also thought about a 1000+ gallon cistern fed from my barn roof. I figure my carryall solution will cost around $600 but the cistern, plumbing and foundation is big bucks.

 

[stevenf]

beenthere, I know you can get all sorts of beliefs from people when it comes to wildlife management which is how the state classifies our ranch in agricultural terms and I hear what your saying "BUT"
Mother Nature did a real fine job of taking care of her creatures before we started encroaching on their food and water sources and shooting every known predator into virtual extinction course we have replaced one of the predators with a new one it has 4 tires and goes vrum vrum.
We make most of our living and have for the last 3 years by managing our ranch for wildlife and allowing hunters on the ranch for a fee, frankly I don't see the difference between a farmer irrigating his field so he can harvest it and sell it to feed and cloth his family and a wildlife management landowner irrigating his food plots to keep the wildlife healthier and resulting in better trophy class animals which nets food and clothes for him and his family. We are a low fenced ranch so they aren't herded into a corral and shot in the head they have to be hunted like anywhere else its just mine are healthier providing they choose to stay on the ranch.
Steve

 

[stevenf]

Well here's what I tried I'm not sure if its going to work yet since I didn't get to turn it on until after it was well dark I mounted an impulse sprinkler on a 10 foot 3/4" pipe and drove a 10 foot tpost in the ground to stabilize it instead of the 85' circle it was intended to water it now gets out about to a 200' across circle I still need to switch the water source to direct from the well head instead of a hose bib but it looks like it may have the ability I was looking for. It won't save the entire plot but a 200' across circle is way better then it all going to waste if the drought continues.
Thanks everybody that responded the pvc idea mounted in the air will be my next attempt if this doesn't work out.
Steve

 

[kensfarm]

"I mounted an impulse sprinkler on a 10 foot 3/4" pipe and drove a 10 foot tpost"

I mount the 2 impulse sprinklers I use on the top of 6-8ft stepladders.. easy(easier) to move around.. I'm using a deep well pump pulling the water from a creek.

 

[stevenf]

Ken, I had bought one of the tripod type sprinklers they sell at TSC but it only raised to about 4' high and the coverage wasn't as good as I'd hoped. The reason for the semi permanent mounts with the tpost is I have mules and donkeys roaming around and they'd turn over pretty much anything if it looked fun to play with. I'm also trying to avoid walking in the plot to move the sprinkler around so that I don't have to get all muddy and kill some of the seedlings in the process. The trial run this morning in the daylight was pretty darn good but I'm going to have to pull the tpost and move it to an end and add another sprinkler done the same way with a valve between them so I can water 1/2 the plot at a time that way I can hopefully salvage all of this plot if it gets really dry since the other 7 plots are all way out of range of hose they'll perish if the drought continues. I'm really proud of this one its 100 yards in front of our house and it really looks good. Hopefully the drought is ended and I can use my portable pump to get water out of one of the creeks to water with but after last years results I'm not going to wait until its to late to start watering, I lost everything including my rye grass. Our creeks and 2 of our lakes are still dry as a bone.
Steve