East of Broken Bow | Thndrstrck - 2/19/2024 18:54
What costs are included in $130 for irrigation? Fuel, repairs, and depreciation?
I must be an Illinois hobby irrigation farmer. Our handful of pivots ranged from $25-$40/acre to run last year. Put on roughly 6 inches of water, but I try to be conservative with water usage.
The $130 was the average out of pocket costs for fuel and repairs to irrigate the last 3 years. No depreciation included.
If you only watered 6 inches, you probably would have been considered a hobby irrigator around here.
We were in as bad a drought as we have had the last 2 years. Last year I applied as much as 18 inches of water. Keep in mind, from January 1st through April 20th, we had 0.05" of moisture. Got over a half inch on April 22nd or 23rd which was 10X our year to date total moisture (and most of that came as snow with a wind that blew it in the ditches). The guy who grows seed corn test plots made 6 circles with his pivot before he ever planted.
So, if it cost you up to $40 to put on 6 inches, and it cost me $160 last year to put on 18 inches our costs per inch aren't that different. If I could run electric, I'd be about 25% less give or take.
Edit to add: I've been lucky the last couple years and have had little for repairs. I would say 90%+ of my cost was fuel and maintenance. I didn't count depreciation because it wasn't out of pocket.
Edited by HuskerJ 2/20/2024 08:05
|
IL Crop Breakevens
