On 11/27/02 7:43 PM, in article ,
"Aido" aido_at_mybad_dot_co_dot_uk wrote:

I've just flown from Las Vegas to Philadelphia this morning and I'm hoping
someone in here could offer some advice..

About 60 minutes into the flight, I'd guess we'd have been over Utah or
Colorado, the passenger next to me remarked on the crops she could see -
basically they all appeared in circular formations, I can't really explain it
but check out http://www.mybad.co.uk as I've put a very simple GIF file there
to
demonstrate what we were seeing, it's only a few kb but I didn't want to
attach
a binary in here..

Basically the crops are being grown in perfectly circular formations within a
square field (we call them fields here in the UK - not sure if they're
referred
to the same in the USA - basically the growth area that's fenced / hedged off
from the next area) - these patterns are repeated quite a few times...

She explained that she's travelled over here about ten times over the past
five
years but no-one has ever known how they grow so perfectly round since they're
so large (we were quite a distance up and they appeared to be almost the size
of
quarters)..

What are they likely to be growing and why / how do they grow the crops this
way??

Thanks in advance for any advice as this has been puzzling her for the past
five
years and I said I'd have a go at finding out!!

Regards,


Aido


It's because of center pivot irrigation systems. The irrigation system
rotates around a fixed point. The water and power supply for the system
attaches at that point. There are thousands of these sprinklers in farming
areas. The circles you're seeing are probably 1/2 to 1 mile across. Most
irrigation systems are set up to irrigate a quarter section. That size would
make a 1/2 mile circle. Crops ore planted in a straight line just as in
conventional farming. The perfect circle effect you see is just the watered
area. The crops aren't usually planted that way.
Irrigation is pretty common in states generally west of a line running from
the west border of Minnesota south to the Gulf of Mexico. The farther west
one is the drier the climate. The Front (eastern) Slope of the Rocky
Mountains is dry because the mountains block the rainfall.
Eastern Nebraska gets about 26" of precipitation a year. That's enough to
raise crops if the rains come at the right time. Crops usually stay green
all summer even if they don't produce much. You probably wouldn't notice
the irrigation systems from the air but they're here. Nebraska had about
6.9 million acres of irrigated cropland in 1997. Just under 63% of that
was irrigated with pivots. There's more pivot irrigation now as farmers
quit using less efficient methods.


Dean






-----= Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =-----
http://www.newsfeeds.com - The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World!
-----== Over 80,000 Newsgroups - 16 Different Servers! =-----