Center Pivots

Center Pivot with some hay down

What happens when the pivot pumps too much water to the wrong place and floods the ranch road

End of center pivot

Farmer fixing pivot. How would you like his job?

The modern farm homestead in the distance

Hay down on part of the field, our place in the distance

All over the West, one sees big green circles of irrigated ground which can be any one of a variety of grasses. In this area alfalfa is better suited to the type of soil which usually is very alkaline and has to be amended with lots of fertilizer. This type of irrigation uses a tremendous amount of water. Some irrigation wells are one thousand feet deep. Our neighbor has an empire of pivots, one pictured here. He's up on one  in the fourth photo, trying to fix something.  The photo at the bottom shows some of the hay down and our place on the distant horizon. Some of the alfalfa is sold locally, some goes to Idaho to dairy feed lots, some is sold through brokers and goes as far as Japan. The is rural America at work for you.