Special Irrigation Issue
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GAZETTE-TIMES
D.O.Nelson Is True Believer in Sprinkler Irrigation
By KIT ANDERSON
D. O. Nelson Is a believer
in irrigation.
It made it possible for him
to grow potatoes on land that
several years ago wasn't ev
en supposed to be good
rnough for dryland wheat.
In fact, a land board had
recommended that Nelson not
farm the ground.
This week, he was to fin
ish a potato harvest that he
hoped would yield more than
20 tons per acre.
Irrigation made it possible.
It all started back in July
of 1967, when Nelson con
tracted a well driller to drill
on the Nelson-Tucker ranch
near the Boardman Bombing
range, of which he Is half
owner. The well was successful, to
say the least, but not until
the driller had gone 1,000 feet
underground.
It was then that water
came from the hole in great
amounts. First tests indicated
from 1,300 to 1,700 gallons
per minute, but on a third
test, 2,800 gallons per minute
came from the well.
Nelson uses a 400-horse-power
diesel engine to pump
the well, which is 16 inches
in diameter.
That amount of water was
estimated then to be able to
irrigate two sections of
wheat, or a lesser amount of
row crops, using sprinkler ir
rigation. As a matter of fact, it now
4
Installment of Sprinklers
Gains Efficiency Growth
If you are now dry farm
ing your land or if you're
applying water by flood irri
gation it will pay you to in
vestigate the advantages of
sprinkler Irrigation before
you go through another crop
year.
If you're irrigating your
land for the first time, you'll
find sprinkler irrigation will
in most instances eliminate
need for land leveling. This
is because the piped pressure
system and overhead sprays
distribute water evenly over
the contour of the land.
If you're now flood irrigat
ing your land, you can stretch
your water supply irrigate
additional acres by chang
ing to sprinkler irrigation,
because sprinklers use less
water and do a better job.
Sprinklers will gain land
for crops that otherwise
would be lost in ditches an
acre or more for every 40 ac
res you farm.
And of great importance,
sprinklers will save you all
the time and work it takes
to maintain and regulate wa
ter in open ditches.
Irrigates with Well and Pond
A deep well and pump are
the water source for a hold
ing pond that enables Gene
Sharrow to sprinkler-irrigate
an 80-acre tract of arid land
at his Surprise Valley ranch
in northern California.
Output of the deep well and
pump (1200 gallons per min
ute) fills the 375-foot-long,
70-foot-wide and 14-foot-deep
pond with 54-degree water.
Taking water for the irri
gation system with a 30
horsepower electric pump at
the far end from the wells
makes the holding pond doub
le as a settling basin, keeps
sand and gravel out of
sprinkler lines.
Sharrow irrigates 40 acres
of truck garden, potatoes and
barley with a self-propelled
pivot-type sprinkler system
mounted on steel towers and
wheels. Sprinkler heads are
spaced 32 feet apart on 620
feet of pipe. A gun-type noz
zle shoots a stream of water
an additional 80 feet as the
pipeline slowly pivots in a
giant circle.
At its fastest setting, the
watering system can com
plete one revolution around
the field in about 16 hours,
distributing one-half inch of
water. Allowing for evapora
tion. Sharrow figures he can
apply one inch of manufac
tured rain to this 40 acres in
two and one-half days.
The remaining 40 acres is
in alfalfa and Is sprinkled
with a wheel -move system.
Applying irrigation tripled
the alfalfa yield. Sharrow
now gets three cuttings a
year as compared with a sin
gle cutting when the crop
was dependent on natural
moisture.
Sprinklers Cover Hilly Ground
"It takes a sprinkler system
to put water where it's need
ed on the hilly type ground
I farm. Putting the sprinkler
system to work during a full
months to build water tabie
for next year's crop increases
my alfalfa seed yield as much
as one-third."
This is the report of Karl
Ganz, Route 1, Touchet,
Washington, who uses a 40
horse power electric pump to
push irrigation water to
sprinkler lines more than 100
feet above the pumping sta
tion on the bank of the Tou
chet River.
Ganz starts the irrigation
season in mid-spring and con
tinues until the latter part
of June, preceding alfalfa
seed harvest. With the crop
off, he resumes irrigation in
early fall and continues as
long as weather permits, ap
plying nine to ten inches of
water in 72 hour sets.
"My experience proves this
building up of water table
with autumn and early win
ter irrigation is of great val
ue to next year's crop," said
Ganz. "It adds from 100 to 200
pounds of seed per acre to
our yield."
Needs Irrigation in
Rainy Area
"Our sprinkler irrigation
system means the difference
between a crop and no crop
at all even though we get 40
inches of annual rainfall,"
said Robert Leabo, who has
190 acres of irrigated mint
land at his Route 1, Turner,
Oregon farm.
"This heavy rainfall comes
mostly between October and
May, ' with only occasional
rain during the prime grow
ing season.
"We rely on our electric
pumps and sprinklers to sup
ply us man-made rain when
we need it."
Leabo has a 40-horsepower
electric pump at an irrigation
canal and a 25-horsepower
pump lifting water from a
creek. He irrigates around
the clock, two sets a day.
In addition to irrigating his
crop, Leabo uses the sprink
ler svstem to apply liquid ni
trogen at intervals through
out the growing season. This
leaf-feeds the plants for fast
er results, and it saves him
two weeks of work each year.
"Applying fertilizer this
way is just as easy as set
ting the timer on the kitchen
electric range," he pointed
cut. "You just set it and for
get it."
As Printed in Pacific Power
& Light Company FARM
NEWS
Irrigates two fields of pota
toes, totaling 237 acres, as
well as two sections of
wheat.
Or, if he chooses. Nelson
can use four sections of
sprinklers on wheat instead
of the potato crop.
For irrigating the potatoes,
Nelson uses two Raincats,
electrically propelled sections
of pipe mounted on wheels.
On a 110-acre section of po
tatoes across the road from
his house, the unit is 1,140
feet long, and takes 16 hours
to make a complete revolu
tion. On the larger potato field,
127 acres, the unit measures
1,320 feet.
With the Raincats, Nelson
can put .35 inches of mois
ture on the field in a 24-hour
cycle.
On his wheat fields, the
farmer uses trimatic sprink
lers, which water a section of
the field at a time, rather
than going in a circle.
Hooked up to his Raincat
sprinklers are fertilizer units,
enabling him to put fertili
zer on the crop at the same
time he waters. He adds
three pounds of N-Sol 23 per
acre on each revolution.
It's not cheap to irrigate
the crop. Nelson will tell you.
He figures it costs him SaOO
per acre to grow his potatoes.
And that's in addition to the
original cost of the irrigation
equipment.
The seed for the smaller
field of Norgold potatoes
alone cost $100 per acre, and
had to be shipped from North
Dakota. The seed for the field
of Russets was obtained from
Burns and Klamath Falls.
It actually was irrigation
that got him started on pota
toes, Nelson says.
'We had to have a crop
that would bring more in
come if we were going to ir
rigate," he reflects.
Potatoes are definitely
bringing more money than
wheat, even when the wheat
averages 70 bushels per acre,
as it does on his irrigated
wheatland.
On the open market, in the
first week of his harvest, bak
ing potatoes brought five
cents a pound. Some brought
only two cents, but they
weren't average.
Nelson hopes to have four
and a half million pounds of
potatoes off his 110-acre
field. And he hopes to get
30 tons per acre off the larger
field of Russets, which fig
ures to be about seven mil
lion pounds.
That's a lot of spuds. And
it's possible because of irrigation.
Wafer Abundant
Oregon, Idaho, Montana
and Washington all appear to
have ample water supplies
for irrigation this year, and
also, low-elevation snow in
many areas could cause
high water damage.
Oregon has near-record
snowpack, according to the
Soil Conservation Service.
Montana's Upper Columbia
and Missouri Rivers have
mountain snowpack ranging
from 130 to 200 per cent of
average. Similarly, the Idaho
and Washington water out
look is excellent. The snow
pack south of the Snake River
is one of the best in recent
years. The snowpack is heavy
in the U. S. portion of the
Columbia Basin but falls to
about average amounts on
the Upper Columbia and
Kootenai Rivers in British
Columbia.
As Printed in Oregon Farmer
We1 re Ready...
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CO.
Heppner and lone
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