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Central Nebraska | have 120 acres of drip on fields less than 40 ac and some pivot corners. Saves more water than gravity, but not a pivot. Have better yields with a pivot by far. Seems to take as long to manage that as it does 5 pivots. You can't water in pre-emerge chemicals or water up crops. One thing we are running into now is that after 12 years of drip our pH levels r dropping on the 0-8" sample. (we have a lot of Ca in the water here already so, liming is rare).
For pivot corners it is more cost effective to put a swing arm on, especially if you have a nice square field.
Drip irrigation would work a little better if you buried the tape on 60" centers and then planted 30" rows 15" on either side of the tape, then it kind of acts like gravity irrigating every other row.
Oh and buy a good spade and scissors to fix the rodent holes. | |
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drip tape vs pivot
