Precision Pivot Systems
Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
Two of the big challenges plaguing western farmers year in and year our are water and labor. Some companies are offering modern precision irrigation solutions to help. Reinke’s Rick Hanshew says the decision of when and how much to irrigate is not as straightforward as it may seem.
Hanshew… “ You know, it takes so much water to produce a cutting of hay. And if you're going to look at, you wanna get nine inches of water down per cutting of hay over a 26, a 28 or a 30 day period, you're trying to figure out when you can apply that water, what soil conditions will allow you to put on a certain amount of water before you start getting it to run off. And so the technology is telling us that when you provide the water, how much you could put down or how much you may need for the future.”
Hanshew says their precision pivot systems and cloud computing software can help save on labor and better manage irrigation overall.
Hanshew… “ One guy in can operate multiple pivots and multiple systems, which is covering larger ranches. You have less employees there. And then when you're using a pivot, you may be able to save water by the amount of water you're putting on, and when you put it on. You're putting on when the plant needs it, and this extra equipment and data that we can collect by a soil moisture monitoring and a real ET sensor allows you to make that decision on the timing of the water.”
That’s Rick Hanshew of Reinke.
