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Q: What is the optimum number of pods per line to use on a portable pasture irrigation system?

A: “There is a tremendous amount of portable pasture irrigation now being installed around the country. With so many people now designing these systems, I am often asked to comment on the ideal length of a line of sprinkler pods. While a line of K-Line pods with sprinklers inside can be as short as 2 or 3 pods in a line or as long as 14 pods per line, the ideal length is 8-10 pods per line. Most sprinkler pods are spaced 40-50 feet apart on the special 40mm K-Line tubing, so an 8-10 pod line is 350-500 feet long. This length is easy to move, has very good uniformity with a good choice of sprinklers and output rates, and is efficient in minimizing moving time. With an ATV and a quick shifter trailer, this length of pods can be moved in 3 minutes or less. We have a K-Line system in Indiana at Hoosier Grassfed Beef with 23 lines of K-Line about that long that does an excellent irrigation job on 130 acres of beautiful rolling pastureland. They can move the 23 lines in 45-60 minutes, normally. Since the riser supplying irrigation water to a line of sprinkler pods is normally located halfway down the length of the field, an 8-10 pod line covers a paddock that is 700-1000 ft. in length which fits well with rotational grazing layouts, locates stock watering troughs within a convenient distance for grazing animals to reach (often water lines for stock watering troughs are installed as the system is installed) and is a good efficiency match for the other considerations of good grazing management.” 

John Nye

CEO

K-Line Irrigation, North America