Solar power

[redpoint5]

rooster's post corroborated mine in the power estimate for farming. I took a high end consumption figure from a forum thread discussing fuel consumption per hour. Of course, it depends on what you're doing. Tilling and grading probably takes the most energy, especially the deep tilling that goes 3 ft deep. Harvesting probably doesn't take so much. Applying pesticides perhaps the least demanding of tractor operations.

[oil pan 4]

The first big item on a farm to repower with renewables would be irrigation pumps.
Each farm can use hundreds of horsepower worth of pump power and these pumps run most of the year and best of all, they don't move.
Easy, right?

[NeilBlanchard]

With proper soil management, we wouldn't need irrigation pumps.

[redpoint5]

Many (most?) irrigation pumps are already electric. They simply need the source energy to be "clean".

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

The first big item on a farm to repower with renewables would be irrigation pumps.
Each farm can use hundreds of horsepower worth of pump power and these pumps run most of the year and best of all don't move.
Easy, right?

Yes! And even if the individual sites were remote enough that it was otherwise cost-prohibitive to run a power line in to the well,I wouldn't mind government assistance in electrifying the wells.A one-time investment,paying dividends for the life of the farm.
With satellite remote-sensing and drones now helping farmers reconnoiter the best irrigation practices,having the electric power available might even allow never-before-possible electric technology into the fields.
We have some real issues regarding depletion of non-rechargeable aquifiers.

[oil pan 4]

West Texas still uses natural gas powered pump engines, but they aren't as common as they were even 20 years ago.
The majority of irrigation users use electricity.

For my 16 inch bore well I am going to try and use 24 volt pumps and my 24v 255ah forkliftbattery.
But when I run the pump power calculations I'm only getting like a 2/3 of s gallon per minute which sucks.
What I might do is get a 24v pump that can run up to 48v, during the day I can run the pump straight off panel power at 40 to 50 volts during the day. I should be able to get 1gpm at 48v.

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

With proper soil management, we wouldn't need irrigation pumps.

You must have never been to new mexico or west texas where the heat is so intense it will fry seedlings. Rain fall varies between 3 to 25 inches per year and thats only what I have seen in the last 10 years.
What works on the east coast don't work out here.
Soil management is no substitute for water.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

You must have never been to new mexico or west texas where the heat is so intense it will fry seedlings. Rain fall varies between 3 to 25 inches per year and thats only what I have seen in the last 10 years.
What works on the east coast don't work out here.
Soil management is no substitute for water.

I've been to both. Farming doesn't make sense there - period. When everything required for crops to grow has to be provided artificially it is a sign that plants crops weren't meant to grow there.

We should be farming productive land and raising livestock on marginal land. Instead we use productive land to raise crops to feed to livestock.

[oil pan 4]

People have been conducting agricultural here for up to 10,000 years, some of the oldest irrigation systems, ditches, rain channels, wells known to man were found south of here.
The problem is farmers grow stuff that doesn't have any business growing out here.
Dry land corn and sorghum does fine, as long as it doesn't rain too much and we don't get one of the years where it doest rain for 9 months. 80% of the time it grows good on its own, 90% of you just add water as needed.
They mostly raised live stock around that valley with some of the world's oldest irrigation systems.
Grow stuff that lives here, use irrigation as insurance and to get more crop.
The biggest crop here is beef and milk.

[sendler]

Originally Posted by JSH

I've been to both. Farming doesn't make sense there - period. When everything required for crops to grow has to be provided artificially it is a sign that plants crops weren't meant to grow there.

We should be farming productive land and raising livestock on marginal land. Instead we use productive land to raise crops to feed to livestock.

The market supplies what buyers demand at the cheapest price.

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by sendler

The market supplies what buyers demand at the cheapest price.

A lot of farmers, ranchers and dairy people here fled California in the 1980s and 1990s when they went full retard on environmental over regulations.