Friday, April 28, 2023

Starting Water

April in the Big Horn Basin is all about irrigation. You can't wait until your crops need water to get your sprinklers going. Therefore, we took the time to get the sprinkler pipe laid out so when the water is in the canal we are ready to irrigate. 


Of all the forms of irrigation in the Basin, hand-line has to be the worst. No body wants to move 40' joints of pipe twice a day. Fortunately with pivot sprinklers, few guys have to. Hand-line works good for our little corner of hay because we can string it all out and not have to move it until we cut the hay. But the initial layout is definitely work. 


Because our plot is newly established, getting the right sprinkler placement is still a work in progress. We had to add a section of pipe in the mainline, so we tied Whitehorse to one end and winched it along. Worked good.


Two corners we water. It's questionable if it's worth the effort, but if you don't plant hay you're gonna grow weeds. 


Bring on the water. 

When you're a one weekend a month farmer like I am, you've got to make hay while the sun shines. I do all the manual labor when I come home, but it's up to Dad to keep the water flowing. I'm confident he'll do us good. Now that the crop is more-or-less established, I hope to get two solid cuttings. Three are normal in the Worland area, but ours is mostly grass so we'll have to see how it rebounds. Only one way to find out.


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