Since we are in the “slow” season, I’ve been reflecting back on the irrigation season here in Wyoming. As of the time of this post publishing, we’ve only had about 23-25 inches of snow down low. This time last year, we had 40 inches of snow down low. Up high, where it really matters, they are over the average snowpack for the year.
This is my very, very humble attempt of explaining a little bit how irrigation is done on the ranch. This is certainly not all inclusive and I’m probably messing up most of the information.
This is the main water head gate called the Big Bear. This creek, the Paint Rock, flows through the ranch property. It is where the ranch gets most of its irrigation water. Locals call the creek or any creek, “crik”.
All the water from the creek comes from up high in the Big Horn Mountains. The water levels are determined by snow pack and snow melt. This particular point on the creek is at about 4,700 feet above sea level.
Board dams to help control water levels. Matt floats out the boards and secures them in place with the creek rocks. He wears chest waders as the water is ALWAYS cold.
Black heavy duty plastic that comes in rolls is wrapped around the boards to control the water levels even more.
The Ditch rider puts regulation tags on head gate to regulate water levels. State Engineers office helps control the water on creeks and streams so people down the creek have the opportunity to get water for irrigation. Each deeded land has certain “water rights” and “ditch rights”. Those rights determine how much and how long the deeded land or ditch can run water.
Water head gate. Different from the southern term for a cattle chute.
Water flume and water level gage at the head gate. You figure out the flow based on the size of the flume and the height on the gage. Most aren’t concerned during “high water” or when we have the spring run-off from the snow in the mountains. Our high water times are usually from May to end of June. Water levels are usually not regulated until mid-July to mid-August. Regulation times all depend on how much water is coming down from the mountain and creek levels.
Water riser with valves. You open the valve to get water to the irrigation line. The huge main water pipes are buried under the ground to the different risers in the pastures. All the pastures have different names. We have Rhinehart, Feedlot, Ball Field, Sheep, Orchard, Office, Numbers 1-10, The 140, Medicine Lodge, Caines Corner, Buck, Red Hills, Game and Fish, Campground, Lower Fox, Fox, The island, Library, School, Telephone, #5, #4, Meadowlark, Meadowlark West and so on and so on.
Water coming out the gated pipe.
Wheel lines. There is a motor in the middle of the line that is used to move the wheel lines into position for the day. It is very labor intensive and takes a good while to move them a few feet. It is by far the least favorite way of irrigating around here.
Pivots. The ranch has 6 main center pivots that are used during irrigation season. Coming from Kansas, Matt worked with 25 or more pivots. Six pivots are pretty easy to manage.
All the green areas that you see from a Google Earth image, those areas have been irrigated. We live in a “high desert”. If the land is not irrigated through flood irrigation, pivot irrigation and/or wheel line irrigation, then most plants and grasses die.
Matt does all the irrigation for the ranch. There are 1400 acres for irrigation. That includes all the grass pastures and alfalfa pastures. He has a pretty good organized system to rotate water irrigation through all the pastures and alfalfa. Depending on the field most of the irrigation is on a 12 to 24 hour schedule. He goes and checks and changes water in the morning. By late evening, he makes his rounds again and changes where the water is coming out of the pipes, if there are any pivot problems or moves flood dams.
At the end of the season, the pivots are flushed, lines are flushed and winterized, pipe is picked up and stacked on the sides of the pastures. The pivots are all shut down, checked over, gears oiled, and winterized.
The goal every year is to have the pipe and pivots shut down and winterized by early October. The winter is spent on projects and maintenance on equipment, planning, cow movements, selling calves and getting ready for spring. Irrigation season kicks up again in mid-March, weather depending and ranch activities (i.e. snow, rain, mud, cows on pasture, etc.)
