LYIP employees maintain the project's main canal, laterals, and drain systems as needed to keep water flowing to farm fields.
LYIP water users take advantage of both flood and sprinkler irrigation to get the job done. Above, a farmer employs flood irrigation to water a beet field.
Water on demand has made all the difference in the world to farmers in the Yellowstone Valley. This water on demand, provided by the 54,000 acre Lower Yellowstone Irrigation Project (LYIP), that includes the 830 acre Intake unit and the 2300 acre Savage unit, has allowed farmers to grow high value crops, such as sugarbeets, for the past one hundred plus years. The ability to grow high value crops has greatly increased the economic viability of farmers throughout the valley for over a century, so for this reason, the Roundup has chosen the LYIP as part of its Top Ten selection for the year 2012.
LYIP had its origins in 1902 when the Reclamation Service received a mandate to promote settlement of the semi-arid and arid western states. Settlers who originally arrived in these dry areas soon realized that without water, agriculture would prove difficult. In 1902 Congress passed the Reclamation Act, which saw more than 9 million acres, including the Yellowstone Valley, become available for the storage and delivery of irrigation water. These completed projects, including the LYIP, contributed enormously to the economic wealth of America.
Construction on the LYIP project began in 1905. The canal became operational in 1909, when the headgates at Intake Dam were opened for the first irrigation season.
The original investment on the LYIP Project cost Reclamation Services approximately $4 million.
Not all farmers in the Valley initially signed up for irrigation water, but once the benefits of water on demand became obvious, more and more farmers signed up for water delivery. By 1977, the Project provided full irrigation service to 52,133 acres and serviced 411 farms. Two thirds of the LYIP services farmers in Montana, and the remaining one third of the Project provides water to farmers in North Dakota.
The construction of the Intake portion occurred in 1946, and the Savage unit saw construction in 1950. These two units of the LYIP, located above the LYIP main canal, receive water by pumping and lifting the water to irrigable lands.
Although owned by the Bureau of Reclamation, LYIP local water users repaid the loan years ago and today maintain and operate the system.
LYIP employs twenty people year round.
Valley farmers produce a wide variety of crops, including sugarbeets, small grains, corn, hay, and legumes. The availability of water also allows both the state and the federal research experiment stations in Sidney to conduct research on a wide variety of crops, including onions and potatoes, and to experiment with crop rotations and other farm management practices. These experiment stations could not conduct the extensive research that they do without the presence of the LYIP in this area.
The LYIP has truly provided an economic boon to this area, and we would all be the poorer without this Project. We salute the LYIP and wish them another century of success in their endeavors to supply water for agriculture. The LYIP provides a vital service to this area, and this service will only become more necessary with each passing year as agriculture struggles to feed an ever growing population while the available agricultural land continues to vanish.
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