Buffalo Rapids Arra Watershed Project Tour

The Buffalo Rapids Watershed Project is located in parts of Custer, Prairie, and Dawson Counties. An earlier construction phase of this project improved efficiency of both the water delivery process and on-farm irrigation systems. In this phase, funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the practices address farm management and usage of irrigated water through land treatment contracts to improve on-farm irrigation efficiency and save approximately 400 acre-feet of water annually. The group visited the Tibbetts property near Terry, Montana, where work was completed on one of the on-farm land treatment contracts funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. A large pivot system was installed; pipeline was buried at the site to improve delivery of irrigation water. And so we're going to idle the engine back to maybe save some fuel. There's no way, without the stimulus, we could have been able to do that. You know, create the jobs for people making the pivot and hauling it out and putting it up. So, and not only that; it's conservation so it's a win-win deal. When you irrigate and irrigate efficiently you can grow so much more on the same acres. And if you put the water on exactly right at the right time you don't need near as much water. And we're going to be able to save some fuel because we use literally the same power to irrigate 200 acres as they used to use to irrigate 80. And also we are going to, hopefully, save about 30 percent of the water that was used to irrigate this ground before. Which is a huge savings when you consider keeping the water in the river for the fish and downstream recreational uses and, hopefully, creating some jobs for some people - supporting that industry, also. And keeping the nitrogen and other effluent from flowing off the fields and back into the river. This stuff costs a lot to put on in the first place. And if we can keep that nitrogen and phosphorus and other types of elements from going back into the river, that's important, too. Because not only are they expensive to buy, but they're also not really that good for overloading the river system. And saving pumping costs. And we really think that we can get better crops with overhead irrigation because you can put the water on in a timely fashion.