Irrigation Automation

Tim Hammerich

News Reporter

Five years ago, James Nichols was trying to figure out a way to automate a water budget for his family’s pistachio and almond orchards. What he eventually came up with was a tool to track, control and schedule the optimal amount of irrigation in an easy way.

Years of experience taught him that knowing how many inches of water is needed still falls short of actually irrigating the right amount.

Nichols… “Most of the irrigators think in time. So I'm going to put down, say 10, 12 hours of water. So each irrigation system on each one of the fields is different. So putting down say 10 hours on one field can be greater than putting 14 hours on the other. So it takes one of the problems away of doing all that unit conversion to figure out how long to run.”

The tool worked so well on Nichols Farms, that James decided to launch it as a standalone company, called HotSpot Ag. The app goes far beyond just determining how much water to apply.

Nichols… “We've also set it up so that all the pumps will shut off right before time of use starts. You know, if there's an issue detected on any one of the pumps, too, whether it's dead head over pressure, the pumps will automatically shut off and send a message that there's an issue with that pump.”

To learn more about all of the available features visit the website www.HotSpotAg.com.