Urban Chick - 1/11/2026 18:24

Hello.

I live in a subdivision. It has 9 fields between 5 and 12 acres each and totaling 80 acres. When the subdivision was established in 1970 there were very good water rights. To maintain the water rights the subdivsion did some flood irrigation. At some point irrigation was upgraded to several wheel lines and hand lines. That worked fine for quite a long time because we had a farmer who would come and move the lines if we gave him the alfalfa hay. The farmer quit because hay prices are down. So last summer some of us volunteered to move the lines and we did quite well. We once again gave the hay away to a different farmer if he cut it and took it off the property. He got two cuttings.

Now we are trying to figure out what to do because we cannot count on homeowner volunteers to move the lines. We do NOT care about farming the ground, but we do want the fields to be green (ish) for fire protection and for asthetics. So we formed an irrigation committee to figure out how to accomplish irrigation. The committee's answer was pivots. They are proposing nine pivots that will provide from 1.3 to 6 acres each (semi-circles). And TWIG solid set for some of the corners and odd-shaped ground.

Many homeowners are concerned that the pivots will look industrial in this rather pastoral setting.

---They will. Many will consider them to be an eyesore, and they are even more 'industrial' looking up close than just driving by. Also keep in mind they 'move' on their own, so any neighborhood kid that leaves their bicycle in their path runs the risk of having it run over. They move slowly, but have the power to climb right up and over the hood of a car.

Some are concerned about the noise of pivots or big guns.

Pivots themselves are pretty quiet. The noise potential will be more at the pump site, depending on how the pump or pumps are powered. Electric not too bad, diesel will sound like a tractor running. Either way you will have a pump whine. The loudest thing on a pivot would be the booster pump on the end gun, if it has one.

Some are concerned that other irrigation options were not analyzed, such as paying labor to move the wheel lines and hand lines. The pivots/big guns are estimated to cost $1 million, but the committee members concede it may be more. The homeowners have not been given any estimate of operation costs such as labor to tend to the pivots.

----Pivots need to be tended. They will be pretty problem free for a few years once initially set up and running, but do require annual maintenence like checking gearbox oils, fixing flat tires, etc.

The irrigation committee has called the pivot system "push button, you can run it from anywhere in the world". But a farmer tells me they actually take a bit of labor to clean nozzles and filters. That farmer has two brand new pivots covering 80 acres and says he spends 2-3 hours a day tending to them. But we would have nine pivots so that has to be more time to deal with individual pivots.

-----I run 3 pivots and daily tending can run from a half hour to a half a day, depending on if anything goes wrong.

In an effort to mitigate the industrial look, the committee has said it is looking at mini pivots like the Reinke minigator. Does anyone have experience with that? Do they operate well?

-----Works as well as any other pivot for small fields. One thing to consider with pivots would be that they will leave tracks, and require a concrete slab at the center point to anchor to.

One thing I might suggest instead of pivots would be run underground pipe to a strategic location at each field, and then water with a volume gun or traveler. A volume gun uses a large nozzle that will rarely plug, and can be parked off the field when not actually irrigating. Ditto a traveler. Depending on water GPM you may be able to run more than one at a time.

Some links to what I am talking about:

https://www.alltexirrigation.com/micro-rain-traveling-guns

https://www.kifco.com/OurProducts/Water-Reels/tabid/101/Default.aspx

Any and all advice is so appreciated. Including comments about noise (there are homes bordering the fields), labor to keep them running, anything else you might think of.
Thank you.