F3
FARM & RANCH
THE NORTH PLATTE TELEGRAPH
DECEMBER 2021
Aggie field trip views irrigation system
you realize that there is a lot more to the whole system than Lake Mac.” Allison Wilkens of Gibbon is a sophomore agronomy major who is in the irrigation man- agement course, on the NCTA crop judging team, and a member of Farm Bureau. “I was not famil- iar with the canal system before this tour,” Wilkens said. “I thought out at Lake McConaughy was cool because they built the dam many years ago, and it is still intact to- day.” “Big Mac” is the pri- mary storage reservoir for CNPPID, which de- livers water to more than 109,000 acres of crops along the south side of the Platte River, between the towns of North Platte and Minden. CNPPID also provides water to irri- gation projects serving an additional 100,000 acres along the North Platte and Platte Rivers, which converge east of North Platte. “Being able to go see the huge generator and how they produce pow- er was interesting,” added Wilkens. “I also thought it was cool when we went down to the Gothenburg con- trol center and see how they controlled almost everything from that location.” The educational trip started at 7 a.m. and ended back at campus at 5 p.m. “Dr. Ramsdale has been taking NCTA students on tours of Central’s hydro-irriga- tion project for several years to learn about wa- ter, power and other natural resources,” said
By MARY CRAWFORD NCTA News CURTIS —Nebraska water issues and irri- gation management are some of the leading top- ics in Brad Ramsdale’s college classroom. After all, many crops need consistent water supply for top yields. Nearly 8.6 million acres of Nebraska’s cropland are irrigated by surface gravity flow or pressur- ized irrigation systems. Ramsdale is the agronomy professor who teaches an irrigation management course, coaches the Aggie crop judging team, and is also faculty sponsor for Collegiate Farm Bureau at the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture in Curtis. In mid-November, 11 NCTA students saw first-hand the hydro- power, storage and delivery system oper- ated by Central Public Power and Irrigation District. “We started at Kingsley Dam between Lake McConaughy and Lake Ogallala and went down into the Kingsley Hydroplant. That was pretty neat to see that operation immediate- ly below the dam,” said Cooper Mazza, Farm Bureau club president, and a diversified ag- riculture major from Potter. “Then we traveled to Paxton and looked at the big siphon under- neath (Interstate 80). It’s over a mile long. And, then east of North Platte to where they pull water at the diver- sion and saw a control center at Gothenburg which is part of Central’s water convey- ance system. It makes
Photo courtesy of Brad Ramsdale / NCTA Aggie students from the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture gather at Lake McConaughy, atop Kingsley Dam and Hydroplant for their irrigation tour.
Central’s Government and Public Relations Manager Jeff Buettner. “We are grateful for the opportunity to help educate the students about the importance of water resources and pub- lic power to agriculture in the Platte Valley, as well as to describe the di- verse benefits provided throughout the region.” Although he lives and ranches with his family near Sutherland, agrono- mymajor James Lee said he is familiar with the concept of the canal sys- tembut has no personal experience with canal ir- rigation. “One of the take-aways that I found very inter-
esting from this trip was howwhen Kingsley Dam and the canal sys- temwas built. Engineers back then had the fore- sight to see the potential for all the hydropow- er opportunities along the system,” said Lee, who is vice president of the FarmBureau Club, as well as a leader of the Business Club and NCTA Student Senate. The group learned that the canal sys- tem’s uses prioritize irrigation, hydropower, wildlife habitat and rec- reation which includes BigMac, Lake Ogallala, many small interstate lakes and Johnson Lake south of Lexington.
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