Watering fields with a slurry tank

pat73

Just wondering has any one done this.Im in limestone ground with about 2 or 3 inches of soil above the rock.Great land most of the year but 2 weeks with out rain and grass stops growing.With this heatwave its like i have all the fields sprayed off with roundup.I have a river passing through my place and was thinking of watering the field beside the river.As i havent done this before i was wondering is it a waste of time and diesel.Im in the calf to beef game mostly calves at the moment so no big demand for fields of grass thank god.

greenfield21

Not worth it with tanker, 1 inch rain is 27k gallons per acre. Try pipe it and let us know results.

Melodeon

We did the sums on this back in 1970something, during the last proper drought.
1 inch of water on 1 acre is in the ballpark of 22,000 gallons, if I recollect correctly.
We had a 'big' vacuum tanker for the time (1300 gallons!), so elected not to take the ides any further.

patsy_mccabe

One mm of rain per Hectare is 10m3 of water. 10 IBCs full.

Say my name

It "kind of" can make a little difference.
I've done some paddocks with watery slurry and you can see the difference in them and other ground.
However if you put it out in the daytime in full heat a lot of it will just evaporate off the soil. Especially if there's not much ground cover or you go with a low rate.
And then all you're left with is a thin salt layer on the top of the soil. Well that happens anyways in soil when it dries out but it could possibly happen worse if you went with a low rate in the middle of the day.
That mightn't be too bad if that salt layer stayed on the very top but if you got a few mms of rain and no more and then another dry spell that salt is now washed around the plant roots harming the plant further.

So to answer the question. It depends.

Mooooo

Once you'd start you'd have to do it every day till rain comes id say, at a very high rate

Markcheese

How much would it cost to get an umbilical system out and how much could they put out in an hour.. Or how many acres could they do... Especially if it was hooked up to a rain gun?

Probably best done late in the evening or first thing in morning so neighbour's love you...

Wessel3

ive done it on rocky bits where the soil is thin around 6 pm, keeps it from burning. plenty of spud men irrigate every year for the earlies