Pipes or Pivots
#bfrdpwy #aginternship #RightRisk
This week, I learned a lot about irrigation. We have gated pipe back home, so I knew the basics about it, but I questioned why they use 10 and 12-inch pipes because back home we use 8-inch. I learned that to have enough pressure and get the water to the end with a free-flowing irrigation system, you have to use a bigger diameter pipe. They use the creek to irrigate, so there isn’t a lot of water pressure to make sure the water flows until the end of the pipe. With any gated pipe, you need to make sure that it is on a slope so the water is able to flow through the field without much pressure. Back home, we use pumps, so I wondered why they have such big diameter pipe!
The one thing I would challenge this week would be why have pivots in fields that are perfect for gated pipe too. It would save much hassle with oil and electricity to have a free-flowing gated pipe in some fields rather than a small pivot. I understand that a pivot is definitely less work than a gated pipe!
I also have more questions about how their irrigation system works. It is great that they have free-flowing systems, but I would like to know how they get the water to flow through the pipes and what setup they have. I also want to talk about the different types of irrigation systems and why they chose pivots and gated pipe without a pump.
I plan to use what I learned this past week on my family farm. I have learned many ideas that would help my family’s operation and make our farm more efficient. There are places where we could use a free-flowing system for irrigation, but we have a pump for all of our gated pipe. I am very excited to return home and implement what I have learned here to help my family!
Submitted by: Danielle Wadsworth
Edits by: GrowinG Internship Team
