Water cannons

[brs]

Interested to know how these work for whoever has used one. R u able to get rid of all the water in low areas. With the price of land from what I can see not sustainable, trying seed the most acres possible on what we have. Thanks

[seldomseen]

I have never used one but there was a few in the area for awhile. Our land is slightly rolling with they odd pot hole and I would see these cannons blowing water up on to high ground just have it all run back into the pot hole. The water comes out of those cannons with such force that it would pack the land so hard water would never go in.
If you are able to blow the water into a ditch or creek they might be ok.
I don't think any of the ones around here got used more than one year.

[brs]

Never really thought of ovepacking but can see it would at 1000 gal a minute. Also thought of those hose reels that u can pull out and they put water on 11 acres it says as the hose retracts.

[Guest]

No theyre useless . Problem is the water table . Guys that used them
Here would finds sloughs full in the morning just from ground seepage . On these nothing was running back in . Luckily they leased it for one year and were able to give it back

[farming101]

Completely depends on what kind of soil you are putting the water on and how much is there already.
The cannons are not labour intensive so that's a good thing. The traveling guns are a fair bit of work.

[Farmfleury]

I have used one that does not have a gun on it.
Instead of spreading the water close we hook up pipe to it and run it into a ditch or over a hill or two into a dry hole.

Works great and easy to back up into water hole.

[Quadtrack]

I've owned one for 27 years-one of the original flexi coil. The new ones that Double A trailers build look better built as a neighbor has one of those.
We have flat land with a few shallow potholes here and there. 2 to 6 per quarter. Pump them out in the spring, mid April or so, and they are almost always dry and seed right through. Maybe 2 years since buying the pump they have filled up some again from a late snow or rain. Years like this last one seeded and combined every one, and entire crop was good.
Have never noticed anything negative where the water was sprayed on, like overpacking. Not an issue here whatsoever-6% organic matter in black soil zone.
I spend a week and 100 tractor hours a year pumping to seed 3000 acres corner to corner. Not sure how the economics work out but sure seems efficient to go up and down with the drill. And sprayer. And combine.
They are not any good for large sloughs/lakes. Small to medium potholes that take a hour or two to pump, and would be dry by mid June on their own.
We've endured a lot of criticism from onlookers over the years about how it wasn't worth doing. Whatever. Actually part of the motivation for starting back when was quack grass was a problem with tillage dragging it all over, and grew in the wet holes and spread from there. Dry them out and seemed to get a better handle on it.
Some of those same neighbors now own pumps too.
So clearly they are not a machine suitable for all areas or all farmers. But will never sell mine and will keep using it til I retire. Very good fit for our farm.

[farmaholic]

;-) Do you need a permit to use it from the Water Security Agency? The same agency that rubber stamps works done in a C&D Area but won't be liable or stand behind the C&D if there's court action against those works from outside it's boundaries.

[farming101]

When 1 inch on a quarter is 3.63 M gallons and you have 50+ M gallons laying on a quarter you realize the size of the problem.
A 16 inch low pressure would make your water move but then you have to have somewhere for it to go.
Long term the water has to go back where it came from. This year put a big dent in our excess water problem.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

I have used one that does not have a gun on it.
Instead of spreading the water close we hook up pipe to it and run it into a ditch or over a hill or two into a dry hole.

Works great and easy to back up into water hole.

You must have different soil and water holes than we do here in the gumbo. Can't drive within 100 yards of a water hole without getting stuck, and would make a 1/4 mile of ruts to get that close. I think they would be a great idea, but haven't figured out how to use one without making more mess. If nothing else, it should help to lower the water table on the land surrounding where the water was standing so it isn't so saturated. What we really need is one powerful enough to send the water all the way to farmaholic's place, solve two problems at once.

[farmaholic]

You must have different soil and water holes than we do here in the gumbo. Can't drive within 100 yards of a water hole without getting stuck, and would make a 1/4 mile of ruts to get that close. I think they would be a great idea, but haven't figured out how to use one without making more mess. If nothing else, it should help to lower the water table on the land surrounding where the water was standing so it isn't so saturated. What we really need is one powerful enough to send the water all the way to farmaholic's place, solve two problems at once.

....lol, as long as it falls as rain I'm ok with it!
When I have enough and tell you to turn it off, will you?

Give some to biglentil, sumdumguy and bigzee too.

Now if you could only sell it....what would it be worth? Higher priced than rent, fert, seed or any other major input.

[SASKFARMER3]

Now this moves water to bad the Gov wouldn't let it be build.

[sumdumguy]

Last night on Channel 69, they were talking about geo-engineering and they can easily and cheaply spew sulphur into the atmosphere with planes to block the sun's rays. They believe that this is a much more economical way to deal with global warming, BUT some one should tell them that all the penguin pups but two died in the antarctic because the ice got too thick and they couldn't find food. Global warming-my arse!