Table 1. Typical Sizes of Irrigation Systems and Their Investment Values 



on Dairy Farms. 



1 Exclusive of the costs of developing a source of water. 



2 Source: Kottke, M. W., Capital and Labor Efficiency in Irrigation, Storrs (Connec- 

 ticut) Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin 345, May 1959, pp. 4 and 14. 



3 Source: Unpublished data prepared by the Department of Agricultural Economics, 

 Pennsylvania State University. 



* Not given. 



Investment. The initial outlay for a system will run between SI. 200 anrl 

 S6..500. Some typical irrigation systems used on several different sized dairv 

 farms are shown in Table 1. A survey of farms u^^ina; irrisation indicated 

 that the average investment required to irrigate 40 acres in 1957 was S4.808. 

 Operations almost twice as larse only required about S700 more investment. 

 Smaller systems specifically designed for certain farms were estimated to 

 be as low as $1,284 for a 10 acre operation. Proper design of a system may 

 help to minimize total investment. The amount required for each farm de- 

 pends upon not only the number of acres irrigated but also the distance 

 from water source to fields, the size pipe used and the size of motor re- 

 quired. 



Irrigation crop equipment, of course, lasts over a period of years. Thus, 

 this sizeable initial outlay would not have to be made again for an irri- 

 gation system for perhaps 10 to 20 years. Instead of looking at the initial 

 outlay, it would be well to convert the ownership cost to an annual basis. 

 For a 40 acre operation the annual ownership cost in terms of depreciation, 

 interest, taxes and insurance averages about $575. 



Fuel Cost. The main cash operating cost is fuel. Depending on how fre- 

 quently one irrigates and on how much water is applied the fuel consump- 

 tion rate varies between 20 and 30 gallons per acre (Table 2) . 



As an example, a farmer's yearly fuel costs for irrigating 40 acres could 

 be expected to be about $250. On the different sized operations it varies 

 from an average of $90 to an average of $480. 



Labor Requirement. One of the obstacles to irrigation in the past was 

 the hard work and time-consuming task of moving pipe in the fields. The 



