Best option to irrigate 7 acres

[RT520]

I live in Western Montana where water is hard to come buy. The area I live in has an irrigation ditch that supplies water but I don’t have any rights to it, and I’m not able tk get access to the ditch. I would like to be able to irrigate my 7 acres for my 4 horses to graze all summer.

My thoughts are this. I believe that there is either I leak in the irrigation ditch or a spring on my property. I live on a hillside and I have an area that has cattails and a bunch of cottonwood trees. It’s usually pretty wet in there even in the heat of summer. I was thinking of possibly putting in a collection system but I’m not sure if there’s enough water to irrigate.

The other thing I was thinking of was putting in a cistern tank to my existing well system to the house. My well pump is at 335 ft and had a static water line at 285 (20 years ago)
It had a flow rate of 18 gallons a minute. It’s a 3 hp pump but it’s 40 years old! Not sure if that’s the best idea, don’t want to dry my well up.

Any ideas or suggestions would be awesome!

Thanks,
Riley

 

[Valveman]

If the well has a recovery rate of 18 GPM, it should make 18 GPM 24/7. That is over 25,000 gallons per day, which will do a lot of irrigating. With 15-18 GPM zones you will have to just keep it running to get across 7 acres, but it can be done. With a 10,000 gallon cistern you could irrigate with 30 GPM for 12 hours.

You might also dig a catchment area in the spring and see how much inflow it has?

 

[Sponsor]

 

[WorthFlorida]

Are you planning to install the irrigation system yourself or have it done by a contractor?

 

[RT520]

I’ll probably look into having someone do the work once I figure out the best option.

How big of a catchment would I need to dig to give me an idea of flow rate?

 

[Valveman]

Usually the larger the catchment area the greater the inflow. I would start with about 4X4 and as deep as needed.

 

[WorthFlorida]

7 acres is a lot of pipe and wiring. Pipe, irrigation pump, sprinkler and zone sizing can be tricky plus any elevation concerns. Draining the system for winter is also needs to be considered. It'd be best to get an irrigation specialist in on this.
I

 

[RT520]

I’d like to use either 3” irrigation pipe with heads or get 1 1/2” fire hose to drag around and use a wheeled sprinkler.

 

[WorthFlorida]

Wheeled may be better for your terrain if you have a lot of rock. Trenching and hitting rock will be a chore. I would contact your local co operative extension. Ask if watering will keep the native grass growing for grazing as you expect it to be. Watering the native grass too late in the fall may not allow it to naturally harden for the winter. Then at the first freeze it may be damaged and not recover fully in the spring. If you must plant grass seeds what would be the type for grazing and with the soil condition. Just concerns on my part since this can get real expensive and not get the benefit you want.