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Water requirements

11 posts
  1. Fleegel Timothy
    Fleegel Timothy avatar
    10/25/2011 3:10 PM
    I've been asked to find out how much water is needed for golf course turf. We're in the process of being sold and they are on the water rights part now. We're in eastern WA, average about 11" of precipation annualy, and are covered with snow for about 4 months a year. If anybody has any sources I'd appreciate it. Oh yeah, I was told this today and they need it by tomorrow afternoon.



  2. Tod Blankenship
    Tod Blankenship avatar
    0 posts
    10/25/2011 7:10 PM
    Hey Tim,

    Check out the link below. Go to Chapter 2 and you should be able to extrapolate based on your acreage to get a rough number. Hope this helps!

    http://scholarsarchive.library.oregonst ... sequence=1



  3. Keith Pegg
    Keith Pegg avatar
    0 posts
    10/25/2011 10:10 PM
    Tim,

    In your area, I would do an Acre feet calculation and use your evaporation rate to come up with a number of inches used in a season.
    Start with maybe April about 1" M 3" J 5" J 5" A 5" S 5" O 3" N 1" that is about 28" or 21/4 Acre feet x how many Acres you have of irrigated turf 40 or so might be an average course greens and tees take a bit more so round up. Rain more than ½ in the winter so have maybe 4 or 5" off the top so figure 80 Acre feet of water. In gal that would be like 16.6 million gal maybe?

    Keith Pegg
    Japan



  4. Fleegel Timothy
    Fleegel Timothy avatar
    10/26/2011 12:10 AM
    Thanks for the help. I also talked to an irrigation specialist and he put together a quick spreadsheet for me using my zipcode and straight ET. He came up with approximately 207 A/ft. We've been using 240-250 the last few years.



  5. Kenneth Ingram
    Kenneth Ingram avatar
    18 posts
    10/26/2011 6:10 AM
    Tim- It's right under your nose. GCSAA's Environmental Profile done a couple of years ago. Best water use data I have seen for golf courses. Good luck. Kenneth Ingram, UMD



  6. Ronald Conard
    Ronald Conard avatar
    4 posts
    10/26/2011 8:10 AM
    ingram said: Tim- It's right under your nose. GCSAA's Environmental Profile done a couple of years ago. Best water use data I have seen for golf courses. Good luck. Kenneth Ingram, UMD



    http://www.eifg.org/programs/EIFG_GCEP_Vol_2.pdf



  7. Sean Hoolehan
    Sean Hoolehan avatar
    0 posts
    10/26/2011 9:10 AM
    Tim,

    If you have ponds that you fill with the same source of water as your irrigation do not forget to include your evaporated losses.



  8. Fleegel Timothy
    Fleegel Timothy avatar
    10/26/2011 10:10 AM
    Thanks again. Kenneth is it bad that I had no idea that existed? Thanks for the link Ron.



  9. James Schmid
    James Schmid avatar
    1 posts
    10/26/2011 3:10 PM
    timfleegel said: Thanks for the help. I also talked to an irrigation specialist and he put together a quick spreadsheet for me using my zipcode and straight ET. He came up with approximately 207 A/ft. We've been using 240-250 the last few years.



    If you already know how much water the golf course needs why are you trying to do all of these calculations? If you have been using 240-250 Aft. each year then you need 250 Aft. per year



  10. Fleegel Timothy
    Fleegel Timothy avatar
    10/26/2011 10:10 PM
    It's not about how much I use. It's a water rights thing. The current owner also owns the water rights and part of the sale is a portion of the water rights. The past few years I've used 240-250 but the guy here e me was using 330-340.



  11. Ashton Alan W
    Ashton Alan W avatar
    10/27/2011 8:10 AM
    Tim,

    Thought I'd pass along that, here in AZ, our ground water allotment is based on 4.9' of water for turf each year... we get 6.2' for evaporative losses for the year... blows my Board away when I explain that the turf uses less water per acre than what we lose to evaporation from 4 surface acres of lakes!



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