Green Pastures for my horse in the Desert?
Green Pastures for my horse in the Desert?
by Michelle Shelton, Arizona Horse Property Specialist
Yes, you can have green pastures in parts of Arizona with flood irrigation.
Many people that move to Arizona or contemplate moving to Arizona think it is going to be brown, dusty or sandy and well…the desert.
Gilbert Arizona is a beautiful town and Gilbert horse property has a lot to offer its homeowners. One such thing is flood irrigation. Flood irrigation gives horse property owners the ability to have a green pasture for their horses to graze. Many areas of Arizona that are horse property do not have flood irrigation.
Flood irrigation is also very affordable for the most part. There are some areas of Arizona that you have to be careful of as they are private companies and charge high fees for irrigation. We can guide you to the homes with more inexpensive options if that is what you choose.
Horse property owners in Gilbert love the farm type feel. It really has a Midwestern feel to many parts of it and there is farm land all around.
How does flood irrigation in Gilbert work?
The two largest companies that supply water for flood irrigation in Gilbert are Roosevelt Water Conservation District and Salt River Project or SRP. Roosevelt is located at Higley and Williamsfield RD on the Northwest corner. When you first purchase a home in Gilbert and your home is on Roosevelt Water District, you will go in and establish an account. You want to make sure you go in on a business day before 4:00 PM. They are typically open until 5:00 yet they don’t establish new accounts after…I think it is 4:30 PM. To establish an account you will need to put money…say $100, in an account and they draw off of that money. As your account gets low you simply add more funds to it.
Normally in the hotter months property owners will receive flood irrigation two times a month. There is a board in the neighborhood that has a sign up sheet on it. When you want water you will get a schedule and go and sign up for water. The workers from the irrigation district will come and take the sheet and assign times for you to receive your water. Somewhere on your property is a port or several ports and you will open those during your time-slot and allow the water to “flood” your property. Depending on how big your horse property is, you will decide how much time it will take to flood it all. For example, I have a 1.02 acre horse property and my husband and I have a barn and we have closed off our backyard and put in a pool and put it on sprinkler systems so we get one and a half hours of flood irrigation.
The Roosevelt Irrigation District RWCD has a Main Pumping Plant that pumps surface water from SRP’s South Canal to the head of the Main Canal. RWCD constructed a 3.5 mile underground pipeline from the CAP canal to the Main Canal to receive CAP water. RWCD has approximately 50 wells that have a capacity to pump about 85,000 AF of groundwater each year. In addition, RWCD uses industrial effluent received from SRP’s San Tan Generating Station that is located in the Town of Gilbert.If you don’t really know what flood irrigation is and you are not from Arizona but would like more information on horse property that has flood irrigation you can read more about it here:
