Kinda OT Irrigation

I see an ad listing used center pivot irrigators. I have never been around any, but there are some in the area. Can they be used of hilly land or for flat land only? I have see a few on some pretty hilly land, are they some special kind? My farm is fairly light soil with some pretty good hills on one end, but I have about 40 acres that I think could handle one. Where can you go to find out more info about whether they will work on your farm? I know I would need a well, my well is about 360', so I"m sure it would be expensive to have another one drilled. Seen a used one advertised for just under $9000, no idea what a new one would cost. Any thoughts?? Chris

Just Google Center Pivot Irrigation. Lots of hits. They do need relativly flat fields.

For 40 acres you may have enough well already, that would probably be 3 or 4 towers. Depending on how hilly and permeable your land is you may need a good bit of H.P. at the pump or a booster pump to overcome system pressure loss to maintain 50-70 psi at the nozzles. If compaction is not a problem and your soil takes water easily then you can go with a low pressure system, 20-35 psi, even in rough ground this will take much less H.P. at the pump, the water is cheap, its the fuel to pump it that makes or breaks an irrigation system.

You don't want a "used" pivot.

Allan

I'll second that. Unless it's only couple years old and they're only taking it out to put up houses, or something. Otherwise, you're just buying one that somebody else is tired of messing with. By the time you pay to have it dissasembled, trucked, re-nozzled for your application, reassembled, and set up, you won't come out ahead, and you'll just have an old worn out problem. There is a reason they are cheap.

David

I would make sure you have a complete plan, budget and all permits before spending money. It could add up to a lot of money.

Yeah,

And well sand has a nasty abrasive trait about it. Always seems to cut thru on the bottom of the pipe :>)

Pivots really DO have a shelf life.

Allan

I been on some pretty hilly circles that were previously nonirrigatable.Steep enough to generate a pretty good "pucker factor".

First step is to know how many gallons per minute you well will produce on a continuous basis, and what flow is needed for the pivot you are looking at.

(quoted from post at 07:08:23 12/30/12) I see an ad listing used center pivot irrigators. I have never been around any, but there are some in the area. Can they be used of hilly land or for flat land only? I have see a few on some pretty hilly land, are they some special kind? My farm is fairly light soil with some pretty good hills on one end, but I have about 40 acres that I think could handle one. Where can you go to find out more info about whether they will work on your farm? I know I would need a well, my well is about 360', so I"m sure it would be expensive to have another one drilled. Seen a used one advertised for just under $9000, no idea what a new one would cost. Any thoughts?? Chris

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You can climb a good hill with one. They were meant to do just that and then folks started putting them up on flat ground to be more efficiant. First thing to look for on a used one is the condition of the pipe. Check for rot, and tire condition. Then inspect the structure and gear boxes and lastly check out what kind of motors it has. If they are old vertical ones you are probably looking at replacing them to horizontals. As far as the well goes you are probably wanting it to be pumping 800-900 gallon per minute at 40 psi. This may require rebolling it. I've been running used pivots for a while now and have good luck. You can update the old ones for far less that a new. In my area a new pivot is running around $80,000 to $100,000. The price for underground with wire is about $10,000 for 1/4 mile. I just redid a well and put in underground,and a used pivot moved and erected and a sprinkler package with rotaters and drop nozzles for just under $40,000 this fall. Hope this helps you.

Good advice so far and I'll add that there are some very good used ones being traded in by those who had a VERY good year and are updating or adding a corner system. The trick is to tell the good ones from the worn out junk with problems. If you are far away from lots of pivots and the service crews, the last thing you want is a tempremental used pivot with no help nearby.

The cheap way to move one locally is to move an entire tower at a time with a truck on one end and a steering dolly on the tail end. That saves a pile of money on the move.

I have a Greenfield mini pivot from Zimmactic 660' with a end gun. When my pivot is on the low side end is only 10' above the water source when it is 180 degrees it is 90+ feet above water source, my 20hp pump puts out about 235gpm @ 100psi. I have tight soil so i run Nelson rotators regulated to 12psi. Some towers climb up to 20% which is at design limit for 90' spans,I have 4 90's and 3 100,s I've run this system for 13 years. My pumping costs were at 90 per ton this year driest year that the pivot been in use.
I will buy a full sized system next time, I've been around pivots long enough now to buy a used system.
About 50% of the new systems here are T&L oil drives as very few rancher here are good at trouble shooting electrics.

Super99, Irrigation systems do cost and there are sur-enough issues.......
Water:::: Amount, Depth, how strong. In the Panhandle in the 80s if your well was strong enough to handle 80 acres of row water, Full irrigation Corn,,,then you well would handle a 120 acre, 1/4 mile sprinkler,,,, 800 gallons/minuet +. -->+++.
Lay of the land Usually on pretty flat but that doesn't mean a thing ,,,for a regulator can be put on just above each nozzelle <(ms) They will only allow so many gallons/minuet go through so it allows the entire length of main pipe to stay full and not have soupy wet places or desert dry others.
Tow-able /non Tow-able,If you have 40 acres that will handle a sprinkler, You will soon discover an adjacent 40 acres that can be cleaned up with some land leveling, and shaping so you get 2, 40 acre fields in play for the initial investment of 1 machine.
A tow-able would probably be you first preference. 1 machine, 2 pivot pads, and underground to each from your well/wells gets you going. Usually in the past most farmers I knew bought tow-ables first off. 1/4 milers, so one machine could water a circle of summer crop and a circle of winter wheat or oats.
The problem with that is in the spring when corn needs to be up and going you may need one last round to finish off wheat before cutting. Many farmers get tired of doing this dance, So after a few yrs most farmers will start filling the vacant circles with Non-tow machines so that head ache of moving machines in between 2 crops doesn't have to be messed with. At that time all you have to do is open up one valve and close the other is the hardest work in changing water from one crop to another/
Also Pivot pressure Has come down over the yrs, Those old Water Drives required 90 + lbs at the pivot to operate. Now most have gone to Ultra low pivot pressures <20 lbs. the wear and tear on pumps. is waaaay less.
Micro switches and how a system stays in line when in a run operation.
I will allow changing a flat tire on a tower is brutal but has to be done from time to time.
NEVER, NEVER, NEVER park a tractor, truck, Combine over a Sprinkler track or in the path where an on comming sprinkler is running. You forget about it and Sur-ernough a sprinkler will walk, crawl all over it,, it knows no stop. Vehicle damages and sprinkler crashed.
As Far a sprinklers go ONLY 3 word says it all,....Its a VALLEY!!! enough said.
Go educate your self, Visit with local farmers about their wells, and machines, Local Dealers!!!
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At first I would say stay away from a used machine. Until you get really educated on what you are thinking on doing. and then look only at Galvanized units, Run backward from old raw painted steel units,
Hope this helps.
Later,
John A.

My neighbor had an old yellow and orange painted unit in the mid 70's that he ran every summer. Then he added a Zimmatic that would move to another point in the 1/2 mile field he had. He also had a traveling gun unit.

He had pretty good crops off his sandy soil back then. He had a 403 IH and only combined beans, he hired his corn combined.