southern MN | Urban Chick - 1/11/2026 17:24
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. Some are concerned about the noise of pivots or big guns. 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. 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.
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?
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.
I live in Minnesota the south central area where we get too much rain on dirt tha doesn’t drain water very well so. Spend $1000 an acre to drain the ground. I know very little about irrigation.
I commend you for asking some farmers for advice on irrigating 80 acres of 9 different small fields.
A million dollars to do this is just unbelievable expense. So you are getting a few extra replies here…. But it is just kind of mind blowing to see such an extravagant amount being spent on what appears to be fire suppression only on 90 acres, with no income from the expense.
Wow.
I would think the underground irrigation as others mention would fit your situation much better than pivots. It appears you are growing ‘crop’ that does not disturb the ground often, and would be very comparable with the underground ribbons. And out of sight.
Pivots are kind of designed to be most efficient covering a big area -300 acres or so. Small patches they are very costly for what they can cover.
I think all irrigation ends up having maintenance and repairs. I’m sure your current setup has some. So you would be familiar with it. On here I often read of the repairs and clogging and so of the pivot systems. Sort of non stop issues…..
I wonder if you could modernize your current type of irrigation for less, but keep it to what everyone in the neighborhood is familiar with.
Those traveling guns would be cheaper, but do take a person to move them, monitor them, and they do have a bit of noise with them. I’d look into those except for maybe the noise of operation would be a hang up.
Very interesting thread. Wow.
Paul |
I need some advice
