Today was the first time I have stepped foot on a green. It was such a nice green. A nice round hole in the northeasterly corner. Perfect for a golf ball. The grass was so short, and the ground so soft that my boot felt cushioned with each step on it. I felt like I was walking on a carpet. I walked to the center of it and stabbed a nail in the ground. That is the center of where the new cattle holding pen will be.
My client bought an 18 hole 253 Acre golf course and is turning it into a cattle farm. If ever I wished my GPS was here, it was today. I ordered it this morning before I left. I'll get the new GPS unit sometime next week if all goes well.
We are splitting it up into smaller feed lots so they can rotate their cattle every month or so.
It's the most field I've seen on a survey in a LONG time. Our long shot of the day was to locate a cemetery on the farm 1650 feet. I drove all the way there right up the paved cart path. If every job was like this one.....
Any golfers out there are probably cringing right about now.
First big rainstorm One-Ton Bessie will put some new holes in that green with her hooves. There is an incredible market value difference between cow pasture and a commercial golf course. Something smells and I don't mean BS.
The golf course was a bust. They averaged about 8500 golfers last year. They needed about 15-20,000 to make a profit. It's been for sale for two years and my client bought it.
He is one of those guys that made big money in oil and gas. His company sells some part that every oil and gas well has to have on it. I've already surveyed over a thousand acres for him. This is his latest investment.
Some golf courses being turned into farms here in Michigan too
Too many golf course, not enough BS. As Yakov Smirnov would say: "What a country!"
DONT EAT FERDINAND THE BULL!
Wow. Who knew?
surveyorsam, post: 334667, member: 10176 wrote: Some golf courses being turned into farms here in Michigan too
They turn the belly up golf courses into condominium developments in FL. B-)
The development my folks live in (Sarasota) has a golf course. My mother has tinkered around with golf, also enjoys watching folks play through while sitting on the lanai.....
I don't know of many small courses that make a profit to speak of. As the economy worsens, people begin to cut out those $50 days at the course. I can absolutely see courses getting bought right for farms. Think about it. There is a TON of infrastructure already there that the cattle producer loves. There are WATER lines running all over, hard paths to drive in the winter and rain, typically creek crossings, AND power for special pumps or whatever. One man's course that is making no profit is another man's market value property with tons of bennies. Also, there has been (on most) enough engineering done so that it doesn't flood (for the most part).
Golf Courses are huge water wasters. The best alternative is xeriscaping but that is not happening. Personally I am quite glad to see them re-purposed into something logical.
Peter Ehlert, post: 334729, member: 60 wrote: Golf Courses are huge water wasters. The best alternative is xeriscaping but that is not happening. Personally I am quite glad to see them re-purposed into something logical.
Golf courses do provide wildlife habitat.
I don't know the exact numbers, but I suspect that an agricultural land use would use much more water.
No comparison. Livestock ranging on that area would use a minute amount compared to watering greens and other areas of a golf course.
imaudigger, post: 334741, member: 7286 wrote: Golf courses do provide wildlife habitat.
I don't know the exact numbers, but I suspect that an agricultural land use would use much more water.
xeriscaping also provides habitat. habitat for the native animals.
true, agricultural land can use a lot of water, but there is also a product to be derived, and it depends on the type of agriculture.
I live in the desert. The few golf courses we have here are xeriscaped out of necessity. Tourists are often shocked and repulsed but the lack of green lawns, but they do say that it does not hinder the game. I have Not been a golfer since I was in High School, about 5 decades, so I am biased.
Holy Cow, post: 334745, member: 50 wrote: No comparison. Livestock ranging on that area would use a minute amount compared to watering greens and other areas of a golf course.
I don't know if I would agree with that statement, unless you were talking about dry range land.
But again I'm no expert.
Most golf courses have engineered sprinkler systems and many use recycled water.
They have lined ponds. Sprinklers are on timers and only run as long as necessary.
Pasture irrigation is not exactly a science. I believe when I irrigated for my grandpa, he was supposed to get 10 acre foot of water each irrigation cycle.
If I'm doing the math correctly, that is 3.2 million gallons every irrigation cycle, which was every 3-4 weeks.
That number sounds high, but I do remember it being a lot of water. The longest we would have the water would be 1 day.
Irrigating for pasture use is rare. If Mother Nature doesn't drop enough rain, you cut back on the number of animals. In areas with lush pastures some farmers have been able to do what they call intensive grazing where you divide the overall tract into multiple little tracts and put far too many livestock on it, but move them to the next little tract after a matter of a few days. In those cases they normally must provide drinking water because there aren't as many ponds as lots.
Irrigating cropland is an entirely different circumstnace.
Holy Cow, post: 334762, member: 50 wrote: ...Irrigating cropland is an entirely different circumstnace.
Yeah. To the tune of about a $1200 a month electric bill.
Holy Cow, post: 334762, member: 50 wrote: Irrigating for pasture use is rare. If Mother Nature doesn't drop enough rain, you cut back on the number of animals. In areas with lush pastures some farmers have been able to do what they call intensive grazing where you divide the overall tract into multiple little tracts and put far too many livestock on it, but move them to the next little tract after a matter of a few days. In those cases they normally must provide drinking water because there aren't as many ponds as lots.
Irrigating cropland is an entirely different circumstnace.
In my area, the pasture is a mix of fescue grass and clover. Pasture is either irrigated and grazed, irrigated and baled, or a combination of the two.
Either way - it's either irrigated and green or it's star thistle and weeds. People that own very large tracts of land get away with dry range land grazing by rotation like you mentioned, but they usually have to move the animals up into the high country this time of year.
In Oregon a Land Surveyor has the opportunity to become a "Water Rights Examiner". Agricultural Land owner is allowed to pump so many acre-feet of ground water in a year, determined each year, and the water rights examiner is in the business of determining how many hours the irrigation system can be run without going over the allotted amount. I haven't added this certification but I have attended a couple of the seminars that the state land use board puts on. It is quite a complicated calculation, involving the pump capacity, the length and diameter of pipe, the number of sprinkler heads, the orifice size of each nozzle, and I'm not sure what else. It's a particularly big deal in the eastern part of the state where land and sunshine are plentiful but water is not. Holdings will be very large, for the water rights, but only a small part can be irrigated to a degree necessary to yield a crop. And various types of crops have different water needs.
With regards to golf courses, man does not live by bread alone. I can think of worse uses for land than a golf course. In lower California drought conditions may dictate emergency limits on the watering of golf courses. Probably not so much in WV.
Norm, we are in the preliminary stages of studies that will probably lead to the situation you describe above.
Basically they are studying the water table to determine how irrigation affects the river flows.
It's centered around the salmon issue and spawned by several lawsuits by a local Indian tribe.
There is no doubt that the water aquifer is not an endless resource and commercial farming is depleting it quickly in some areas.
My uncle just had an Ag. well drilled. Over 1700 gallons per minute. I do not think there are any restrictions on how much he can use that well.