In the summer of 2006 Jerry Wright and Margot Rudstrom from the West Central Research and Outreach Center in Morris along with Vince Crary, County Extension Educator, Otter Tail County New York Mills, worked with the Dan, Rosie and Joel Middendorf Dairy Farm north of Verndale, MN. to investigate how water moves and is utilized within the upper soil profile of an irrigated and dry land portion of a rotational intensively grazing dairy pasture. The second objective of the research was to quantify the impact on forage yield and quality and economics of adding irrigation to a rotational intensively grazed dairy pasture. The final objective of the pasture irrigation project was to provide educational opportunities for irrigators and dairy producers considering adding irrigation to their rotational grazed pasture

The summer of 2006 proved to be a good year for the research to start as we had little or no rain in July and August so the only pasture that still produced forage was the irrigated portion of the pasture. The dry land portion of the pasture did not produce any forage samples for July and August.

The Pasture Irrigation Research at the Middendorf dairy farm will be continued for the 2007 growing season. This research has proven to be of interest to area livestock producers interested in grazing and pasture irrigation possibilities. The research results for 2006 were presented at the Central Minnesota Irrigators Corporation, CMIC, annual meeting and an update of this year’s research will be presented at the 2007 CMIC annual meeting.