Overview

""[Keeping It Green] belongs on the grass farmers' bookshelf. It's succinct, practical, and dedicated precisely to irrigation. We can all be thankful Jim put his years of personal and consulting experience down on paper.”—Joel Salatin, cofounder of Polyface Farm; author, Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal Whether you live in a high rainfall area or the arid West, irrigation can even your production and boost profits, with the proper management. Keeping It Green explains how to implement irrigation or work with an existing system. It begins with an understanding of soil-water-plant relationships that make grass grow, then determining water demand. With 17 years of experience managing both flood and sprinkler systems in an 8"" annual precipitation environment, Gerrish explains the pros and cons of each. Chapters include the following: • Flood irrigation • Solid set, hand lines, wheel line systems • Working with line-pods • Center pivot designs • Surface drip systems • Fertigation and effluents for soil nutrient management • The economics of irrigated pasture • And more. Using diagrams and illustrations, Gerrish details cell designs and grazing with irrigation. He covers operating expenses for water and labor to help determine cost per acre and the value of irrigation. Depending on the class of livestock, he offers suggestions for the best system to fit producers' needs. Keeping it Green was written for both the beginning irrigator as well as those who have spent their farming or ranching lifetime in an irrigated environment.

Full Product Details

9780986014772

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Reviews

"""When we started dabbling with irrigation on our farm some 20 years ago I sure wish I'd had Keeping It Green, A handbook for creating and managing irrigated pasture as a reference and protocol. It would have shortened our learning curve. But even after two decades of irrigation, I found Jim Gerrish's new book full of helpful information. Few people could possibly match Jim's breadth of experience with irrigation. [...] Billed as a handbook, don't let the size of this book fool you. It belongs on the grass farmers' bookshelf alongside lengthier tomes. It's succinct, practical, and dedicated precisely to irrigation. We can all be thankful Jim put his years of personal and consulting experience down on paper."" --Joel Salatin, Farmer and author"

Author Information

Jim Gerrish through his American Grazing Lands Services, LLC, has consulted worldwide on both irrigated pastures and native rangeland as well as for livestock producers in high natural rainfall environments. Prior to moving to Idaho where he manages a ranch unit consisting of 450 center pivot irrigated pastures, he spent over 22 years as a researcher of beef-forage systems on the faculty of the University of Missouri. He also turned a marginal crop farm into his own highly productive 260-acre commercial cow-calf, sheep and contract grazing operation.

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