Five Marys Water Project

Water is a big deal out here in the West. It’s a precious commodity that we rarely have enough of. When we bought our ranch, Brian and I each had a non-negotiable to build a ranching operation and family business. His was water… mine was good internet 🙂

Over the years, we’ve made a lot of improvements to use our ground water as efficiently as possible and are currently upgrading our irrigation pivots to a high-teach LEPA (Low Energy Precision Application) system by Nelson Irrigation. We pump most of our water from the ground and our aquifers are usually replenished each year from mountain snow melt. We also have a small irrigation ditch that we share with other ranchers and we get a turn to divert the water to flood irrigate some of the pasture, but it depends heavily on how much snow pack we get – our only water storage up here.

We have several agriculture wells and we pump water up from the ground and then use VFD’s (Variable Frequency Drives) to control the pressure to only use as much water and power as we need to irrigate our pastures or fill livestock water troughs. We upgraded a lot of our wheel lines to more efficient center pivots that use technology to irrigate our fields with just the right amount of water. Since then, the technology has really improved and it was a good time for us to invest in it. As the need to conserve resources like water and energy increases, low energy solutions like this become a critical option.

These sprinkler heads can be operated at very low pressure (6 psi versus 15 psi) and they are spaced closer together for better uniformity. They can be installed low to the ground for hardly any wind drift or evaporation. Ours are a little higher than most because we have rotational grazing fences to go over and cows who like to play with them!

We’re using the new Nelson Bubble-Wide spray plate at just 6 psi to make the most of our water. Since they ‘bubble’ instead of spray like a sprinkler, the water doesn’t evaporate on the way down and the saturation of the ground is much higher. The Nelson team in Walla Walla, WA is pretty obsessed with saving water, saving energy, and doing a better job of irrigation… so are we!