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Bow Island, Alberta | I will answer your questions based on what happens in Southern Alberta. We have about 1,500,000 acres irrigated, probably over a million acres by pivot. Most of this is in "irrigation districts" that supply water by canal. So most of the water is pumped out of a dugout beside a canal. Every year, more of the area has gravity fed pipelines installed instead of canals. Most of our pivots are around 900 gpm for a standard 1/4 mile machine. This puts out about 1/3 inch per day, which is about equal to the water consumption of most crops during peak season.
1. Row crops are planted in straight rows. Grain is sometimes seeded in a "D" shape. Most spraying would be done in straight rows. Harvest of hay crops is usually done following the wheel tracks. Grain harvest is done either way.
2. Not much chemigation happens here. Quite a bit of fertigation, but mostly as a top up and not as the main application.
3. Almost all system have end guns with booster pumps. On our farm,we use mostly Iwob sprinklers at 10 psi or rotators at 20 psi.
4. Corner systems (that's what we call them) are not too common on standard quarters. They are more common on odd shaped fields where the corner system irrigates much of the way around the circle. A corner system likely triples the service and maintenance requirements of a system. Lots more things to go wrong and more likley to get stuck.
5. Corner systems are designed to apply the same amount of water as the main machine. End guns should as well, but are more affected by wind and also drop the water harder so can cause more lodging in some crops. To properly operate a corner system or even end gun, you need to have extra capacity available when these are not on, so need larger pumps, mainline, etc which is "wasted" when the corner is not on.
Hope that helps.
Edited by willvr 7/30/2009 16:21
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Center Pivot irrigation questions
