Dairy farm irrigation

[Cowski]

Does anyone know why this doesn't happen in the UK as in NZ? Is it lack of cheap water?

We are spring block calving on light land in a rain shadow and one of the biggest problems is the drop in grass quality when it stops raining. Grass gets stressed and grows stem and seed heads rather than leaf which crashes the milk unless we feed at great expense.

Our farm layout and contour means we could only irrigate with K-line or reel and gun so probably not economical anyway.

 

[jimmer]

i tanked water out of the river on to a field last year and it made bugger all difference , 2400 gallons to the acre

 

[dazza b]

i tanked water out of the river on to a field last year and it made bugger all difference , 2400 gallons to the acre

I would think to make a difference you would be best putting a 1000g to the acre on in evening every other day to reep the benefits

 

[Princess Pooper]

I know of someone near Lincoln who used to have potatoes and has an abstraction licence from the local watercourse so is geared up for irrigation and irrigates his grassland for the dairy instead.

 

[KennyO]

i tanked water out of the river on to a field last year and it made bugger all difference , 2400 gallons to the acre

1" of rainfall is roughly 22000 gallons an acre.

 

[KennyO]

Does anyone know why this doesn't happen in the UK as in NZ? Is it lack of cheap water?

We are spring block calving on light land in a rain shadow and one of the biggest problems is the drop in grass quality when it stops raining. Grass gets stressed and grows stem and seed heads rather than leaf which crashes the milk unless we feed at great expense.

Our farm layout and contour means we could only irrigate with K-line or reel and gun so probably not economical anyway.

Water source is going to be you're biggest problem and then infrastructure.

If you have a river source. Spud irrigation kit will be going cheap this year. Simple rainguns ain't too dear. Good pumpsets and layflat are more costly. Then there is the hassle- they don't call it irritation for no reason.

 

[Cowski]

2400gal/ac is 2.5mm light drizzle. To get us back on track with growth after a dry spell we need the magic inch so do that 10 times and it may grow. The amount of water you need to shift is colossal. A single rotarainer needs 47l/s roughly 530 tanker loads per day.

 

[TomB]

Pretty much what Kennyo says, you would probably need to build your own reservoir to store from the winter. It does't help the maths that some years you wouldn't use it at all. It's always at the back of my mind tho if the right situation (grant?) came up.

For us in a traditionally summer dry area I think we are better off split calving so half the herd is dry during the end of June and July when growth slows/stops. It also helps with milk contracts...

 

[multi power]

2400gal/ac is 2.5mm light drizzle. To get us back on track with growth after a dry spell we need the magic inch so do that 10 times and it may grow. The amount of water you need to shift is colossal. A single rotarainer needs 47l/s roughly 530 tanker loads per day.

i done some irrigation when i was in nz, went round the farm every 11 days, think it was something like 3 inches of water every time, that was borderdyke so litlirly just flooded the paddock, neighbour had 2 rotarainers n they each would have covered about 5ha each in a 12 hour run

 

[neilo]

When we put the separator in at home (early 90's), we put in a ring main round a lot of the farm with the intention of using a hose reel irrigator to put the diluted separated liquid on through the summer. It was an absolute PITA to do, needing someone to keep running after it, checking the pump tractor, and moving the reel. After a couple of years, the hose reel was pushed back in the nettles and an umbilical contractor comes in as and when. Made one hell of a difference in a dry year, even on heavy clay.

 

[Irish NZ]

Irrigation is a huge under taking for a place where your grass gets "stressed" not burnt to a crisp like it does in Canterbury. The volume of water required is massive and the ongoing labour and maintenance to keep a irrigation system going is pretty sizeable. I run rotorainers, huge center pivots and border dyke systems and they are systems you would only undertake if you really really really could not manage without. Instead of going the whole hog and start putting on water maybe you should at other alternative solutions like a summer safe crop such as chicory. I'm currently using it here in the north waikato (where conditions can become challenging in summer with poor grass growth and poor grass quality) and it awesome. ME of 13 and it the type of feed that they can just always fit in even after a big feed of grass. Last year during a drought it was measured(independently) growing 18ton/ha. Best I have heard is 24 tons. We use it as part a regrassing in program.

 

[multi power]

What about autumn calving?