Before visiting the link from the
Circle Ranch on using the Keyline Plow, here are some things to think
about in order to see the financial benefits as many people can see
the benefits, but think it is too expensive. Yet these same people
are busy making diversion dams and dirt tanks which help some, but
basically are diverting water or holding it so it can water a few cow
and evaporate.
The
cost of sub soiling with the Keyline Plow runs $20 an acre, which
does sound expensive, until you compare the results. $20,000 put into
subsoiling 1,000 acres of ground with scattered grass and forbes will
explode with the first one inch rain (remember, that 1,000 acres just
received 27,154,000 gallons
of water which would have run off). This explosion of grass and
forbes will slow the water and make each subsequent rain be more
effective.
Grazed
properly this can amount to 7 to 9 days of feed for 1,000 cows, or
7,000 grazing days the first year. If one continues to graze
properly, the feed will continue to improve for several years and
continue to hold its feed value (not to mention the wildlife habitat
it creates.) Now lets compare what that same $20,000 will bring with
conventional uses.
Dirt
Tanks- Will hold water for cattle without producing feed. They will
also evaporate water (at a pan evaporation rate of 88” or 55
gallons per square foot) lose 2,395,800 per acre. Figuring the cost
of water being .005 cents per gallon, one is basically throwing away
$11,979 worth of water per every acre of water held in dirt tanks. If
you have 100 acres of water in dirt tanks, you are basically throwing
away $1,197,900 worth of water each year.
Diversion
dams- These will create some feed growth but basically still divert
billions of gallons of water off the ranch rather than into the
ground. Many also have a tendency to wash out and need to be repaired
after a few years.
Hay-
At $230 A 1,000 pound cow eating 3.5% of her body weight will eat 35
pounds of hay a day. To feed 1,000 cows per day would take 17 bales
per day. $20,000 will (almost) buy 87 bales of hay which would feed
1,000 cows five days.
This
means that spending $20,000 to run a Keyline Plow in the proper areas
your money produces nearly twice the actual benefit of hay. While it
would be nearly impossible to calculate the true value of diversion
dams, they are of minimal benefit as they are still diverting water
off your ranch, rather
than putting it into the ground. Dirt tanks have some benefit if you
do not have pump-able water, but otherwise you are letting millions
of dollars worth of water blow away in the wind.
Now that you have an idea of the cost/benefit ratio of the Keyline plow, take a look and see what they have done with it on the Circle Ranch in far west Texas!
