Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 14, 1969)
Special Irrigation Issue Page 6 THt wtrmtn GAZETTE-TIMES Crop Irrigation Nation's Prime Water Consumer By M. N. LANGLEY The earth's total water sup plyespecially its fresh wa ter supply needs to be put in perspective. Estimates have been made that there are ap proximately 326 million cubic miles of water on this earth. This is reassuring until you consider that about 317 mil lion cubic miles of that total supply is salt water in the oceans, and an additional 1 million is salty ground wa ter. This leaves 8 million cu bic miles of fresh water, or less than 2',a per cent of the total world supply. But here again, 7 million cubic miles is tied up in the polar ice caps, and the remaining 1 million cubic miles of fresh water is largely confined to our underground aquifers. Hence, only about one hundreth of one per cent of the earth's water supply 33,400 cubic miles makes Winter Upkeep Adds to Life Of Water Gear Without good maintenance you cannot expect your equip ment to last or operate sat isfactorily. The following are some suggestions: Store aluminum pipe off the ground and away from birds and animals to protect it from chemical and phys ical damage. Inspect coupler gaskets and store them in water. Replace those with hard or cracked edges. Clean gasket seats. Repair bends and leaks. Inspect sprinkler heads. Repair or replace those with bent parts, weak springs, or those that do not rotate prop erly. A sprinkler should ro tate one to two turns per minute. Many times replace ment of the washer and smoothing the washer seat will correct rotation problems. Inspect nozzles for enlarge ment. The size of the nozzle is stamped on it. Use the shank end of a drill bit to check the wear by inserting it into the nozzle. Check horizontal centrifu gal pumps. Remove suction cover and check wear at the impeller eye and wearing ring. Replace and repair if the clearance is greater than recommended by the manu facturer. If leakage through the packing gland has been excessive, remove the gland and packing. Cheek wear on the shaft sleeve. If worn or grooved, it should be replac ed. In reassembling, always use new packing. Turbine pumps. Have thrust bearing checked once a year. This should be done by a ser vice man. Following a long shutdown, start oil drippintj in oil-lubricated deep-well turbines a week before start ing. Electric motors. Check re sistance of insulation (meg ohm check) in large motors annually. A change in resist ance readings from year to year will provide a guide to baking and revarnishing schedules. Store small motors in a dry place. Check con tacts on starting switch and main switch for burning. When starting in the spring, be sure rotation is right. In iiotw lit hiiTh winter humid ity, 480-volt motors should be j ih.iiniii.ihK- Hried heforp beine ' hooked up. This can be done by heating or by an electri cal short circuit. The latter should be done only by a qualified service man. As printed in "Sprinkler Irrigation in the Pacific Northwest A Trouble Shoot er's Guide". up the fresh water stored in lakes (30,000 cubic miles), the atmosphere (3,100 cubic miles), and the world's rivers 300 cubic miles). The wise use of water and water con servation in connection with irrigation involves utilization ot a total supply of fresh sur face water and ground water comprising only one- or two hundreth of 1 per cent of the earth's water supply at any moment. And when this sup ply is limited only to the wa ter in the atmosphere and in the earth's rivers at any mo ment, then only about one thousandth of one per cent of the earth's water supply is involved. To paraphrase an old say ing, its "water, water every where, but mighty little fresh water within the economic reach of the farmer!" The earth's total water sup ply remains almost constant, going through the hydrologic cycle of evaporation from the ' land surfaces, and transpira tion from vegetation; conden sation in the atmosphere, and nrorinitatinn hack to the Wa ter and land surfaces. Water falling on the land surfaces may become soil moisture and support plant growth, it may enter ground water aqui fiers, or it may run off into streams. Of course, water in the latter two stages finds its way often after use and reuse, back to the ocean again. Use of Water for Irrigation The dynamic nature of the hydrologic cycle is illustrated by the fact that while the earth's entire atmosphere holds only about 3,100 cubic miles nf water at anv mo ment, the average annual niofinitntinn in the conti nental United States alone is annroximatelv 1.430 cubic miles in volume. In 1909 irrigation will rep resent more than 80 per cent of the total consumptive use nf the water withdrawn from streams and the underground in the United States. Irriga-, tion consumptive use toiaieu 57.1 million acre-feet in 1900, about 84 per cent of the to tal use for all purposes. By 1905, irrigation consumptive use had increased to 72.5 mil lion acre-feet, about 83 tier cent of a total use of 87.1 million acre-feel. Irrigation Trends The Bureau of the Census lakes a census of irrigation once each 10 years and col lects some limited data on irrigated acreages each five years in connection with its census of agriculture. The last such census was in 190U, tm.ilW, r, intnrim r-nnvlte in ' mill cm 41IVV....1 -.. 1904. Reclamation conducts a rather complete annual cen sus of the irrigated acreage and crop production on fed eral reclamation projects, but this represents less than 20 per cent of the total irriga tion in the United States. In any event, judging from the best data we have been able to assemble, irrigation n general and sprinkler irriga tion in particular, has been expanding significantly. Dur ing the 10-year period, 1958 through 1967, the total irrigat ed acreage in the United States increased from about 30 million acres to more than 45 million acres, an increase of aporoximately 26 per cent. Of these acreages, about 3.2 million acres were irrigated by sprinkler in 1958 and T.6 million in 1907, an increase of over 4 million acres of 130 per cent during the 10 ye"r period. This increase of more than 4' million acres in sprinkler irrigation over the past 10 years is shared by a!l reg ions of the nation hut it has been especially marked in the West. Nearly a third i 1,335,000 acres occurred in ; the Pacific region. Here the sprinkler irrigated acreage in creased from about 925,000 acres in 1958 to 2,260,000 in 1967. The growth of sprinkler ir rigation on the Columbia Bas in Project in Washington has been much more dramatic than the national average. The total irrigated acreage on the Columbia Basin Project increased from 238,300 acres in 1958 to 452,800 acres in 1967. Of these acreages, about 54,800 were irrigated by sprinkler in 1958 and 179,700 acres in 1967, an increase of about 125,000 acres or near ly 230 per cent during the 10-year period compared to the national increase of 130 per cent. The project's distribution system was initially laid out for gravity irrigation and most of the farms were init ially irrigated by gravity flow, so this gain in sprink ler irrigation represents a major transition. The Trend Towards Sprinklers Several economic and phys ical factors have caused these trends toward sprinkler irriga tion. Foremost is the oppor tunity to substitute electrical energy and capital invest ment (that can be amortized) for labor that is becoming more costly and less readily available. For example, the capital cost of a self-propelled sprinkler irrigation system is approximately the same as the cost of leveling land and developing a farm irrigation system for gravity irrigation. The cost of maintaining the two systems is also about the same. Therefore, a major eco nomic consideration by the water user is the relation ship between cost of power to provide sprinkler pressure for a unit of water and the cost of irrigation labor to apply an I'tiual unit of water by eravitv irrigation. As labor costs have risen and electrl nnl nnwpr rates have declln- nri it has t-xvnme more and mnrn fnnuihlo fnr the farmer to substitute electrical power for farm labor and convert to sprinkler irrigation. With sprinkler Irrigation the farmer can irrigate: (1) Shallow lands, without disturbing the topsoil by land leveling; (2) Steep lands without problems of excessive runoff and soil erosion; ana (3) Sandy lands, without excessive deep percolation and related fertilizer leach ing. a a result of these advant ages, lands which would have been considered nonirrigable for gravity irrigation are fre nuentlv susceptible for sprinkler irrigation. This con vertibility permits a consoli dation of individual farming operations and ot project ais Iribution systems to most ef fectively serve a given acre age. We are studying compara tive costs between open can al fnr eravitv irrigation dis tribution svstems and for Knrinkler irrigation for an ar- pa of aDDroximately 20,000 mwc in thp fiarrison Diver sion Unit in North Dakota. Preliminary indications are that a closed pipe system de cWmuri fnr cnrinklpr irriga tion can be constructed with in the cost range of an nnen ranal pravitv system as originally planned ior mat ar oa Thic io nnssihle nartlv be cause a dominantly closed ninfl svslprm for sDrinkler ir- ricrjitinn means that a much more comDact area of land can be served for a like irri gable acreage. RRIGATIQN SYSTEMS "If you can plow it Farmore can irrigate it!" a Field Engineering Service Complete Well Testing Automatic Irrigation Systems Irrigation Parts & Supplies Installation Service Estimates and Financing Available RAINBIRD EQUIPMENT RED JACKET IRRIGATION SYSTEMS LAVNE & BOWLER RAINCAT PIERCE IRRIGATION "COVERING ALL OF EASTERN OREGON" FAMHORE Pump and Irrigation Athena Ore. Ph. 566-3533 We Sell More Than This i - ' t. : 3 mi This Much More: CORNELL IRRIGATION PUMPS RAINBIRD SPRINKLERS STEELUME COUPLINGS RISERS WESTERN HYDRAULIC SPRINKLER MOWERS Pettyjohn's FARM AND BUILDERS SUPPLY Heppner Ph. 676-9157