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I am considering flooding 50 acres of corn but I have no idea what the cost of pumping that much water would cost. I assume it depends on what kind of pump you have but on average how much would it cost in fuel to flood around 50 acres?

KC KONG wrote:I am considering flooding 50 acres of corn but I have no idea what the cost of pumping that much water would cost. I assume it depends on what kind of pump you have but on average how much would it cost in fuel to flood around 50 acres?

what are you pumping out of? (pond, river, well, etc...)

There is a nice river/creek that boarders the ground. I assume that holds enough water to pump from. There is also a well that is very deep. I think I could siphon water from the well because it is higher up on a hill. Arent most wells really easy to pump dry? Pump for a day then let it fill up for two days and so on?

So you'll be using tow type pump to pull from the river?

pumping from the river would be ideal I just want to know roughly how much it is going to cost.

KC KONG wrote:pumping from the river would be ideal I just want to know roughly how much it is going to cost.

Average depth?

18 in average depth.

If I did the math right its around 16,150,000 gallons. for an average depth of 1ft

10-15ft of vertical rise (depending on the river level) to crest the bank plus a levee.

Price of diesel in your area?

That is if you're planning on using a diesel tow pump.

Price of diesel in relation to gpm of the pump with fuel consumption while running at rated speed. Plus the cost of renting/buying the pump and hoses unless you already have one.

rebelp74 wrote:Price of diesel in relation to gpm of the pump with fuel consumption while running at rated speed. Plus the cost of renting/buying the pump and hoses unless you already have one.

Yeah! Yeah! What he said.

what size pump would you suggest? Is a 6in big enough?

KC KONG wrote:what size pump would you suggest? Is a 6in big enough?

Its not the size of the hose that determines the amount of water pumped, its the impeller diameter. Pumps are designed to run at either 1800 or 3600 rpms to get the rated flow. just for an example, a 6x4x10 (6 inch intake x a 4 inch discharge x a 10 inch impeller) with a rated flow of 400 gallons per minute at 3600 rpm's would require around 50hp to run efficiently. Too many rpms or to few and the pump will run to the left or right of its curve causing damage to the pump. Also, as far as your calculations of the required gallons to "fill" the field, I would add at least 50% to compensate for ground saturation.

I get closer to 25mln gals, without compensating for saturation.

@ 400 gpm it will have to run about 1,000 hours as well - figure 4-6 gals fuel/hour