Blackshirt Feeders water offset approved
By Diane Stamm
High Plains News
Plans for the Blackshirt Feeders continue to move ahead.
At Tuesday’s Upper Republican Natural Resources District board meeting, the feedlot’s plan to retire 13 pivots in southwestern Nebraska was approved.
Dean Settje with Settje Agri Services and Engineering and Brandon Larson with Spuds and Suds were at the meeting to answer questions.
At the August URNRD board meeting, Settje walked the board through the proposed feedlot’s projected water needs, for both the cattle and the methane digester.
Settje showed annual water use calculations of 1,260 acre/feet for livestock consumption and 509 acre/feet for the proposed methane digester, which will use effluent from the feedlot. Settje also showed a net gain of 507 acre/feet from storm water, leaving a net total use of 1,262 acre/feet or nine pivots.
The plan for the feedlot also allows for processed water for irrigation of 578 acre/feet of water or 4.1 pivots, giving the feedlot a net use of 684 acre/feet.
Those 13 quarters have 1,668 allocated acres with 1,807 acre/feet of water. The quarters could still be farmed with irrigation until their water is needed at the feedlot, at which time they would be retired.
Forty acre feet of water is allocated for any commercial use. URNRD manager Jasper Fanning said the feedlot will come to the URNRD at each phase of construction to request however many acre feet it needs over its allocation and what pivots it plans to retire to offset that use. Fanning said the URNRD will look at the feedlot’s historical use throughout the process.
The quarters to be retired are 12 miles from the proposed well site, north of Haigler.
Settje said Blackshirt Feeders would drill three or four wells between three sections of land. The feedlot would need a maximum of 725 gallons per minute at any point of a year.
The URNRD board was presented models by their staff of 40 years and 100 years. There was little difference between the two. The models expect an immediate draw-down in the area, but then aquifer levels would remain consistent.
As plans for the 150,000-head feedlot move forward, Settje said they are hopeful work can start late this fall or in early spring. The feedlot could start bringing in cattle by next fall. Settje estimated the feedlot would bring in 10,000-head of cattle every month or two for around three years until it reaches capacity. Methane digester construction will lag about a year behind the feedlot.
Later discussion at the meeting included board members discussing modifying allocations, for both irrigation and commercial uses.
Fanning said rules for offset acres are about to become more specific, not a one time calculation, but continuing requirement.
Among the proposals was lowering the five-year irrigation average to 12.5” annually. It is now set at 13” annually.