Efficient Irrigation, Lower Costs
Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
In these challenging times for the farm economy, there’s not a lot of funding left for capital improvements like modernizing an irrigation pivot. But Joe Whitworth, CEO of the Freshwater Trust says there is still a lot of funding available for certain farmers interested in these types of projects. And they now have the technology to make the process worth everyone’s time.
Whitworth…. “ We take the next step by automating those pieces with technology and speeding the whole thing up. There's so much information that can be easily slotted into, you know, checking all the boxes that the agencies need at a much faster rate. And that opens up all kinds of opportunity for us to work at the right scale. Rather than doing a handful of farms in the Snake (River). You know, we are on track now to put 2000 to 2200 farms under new pivots over the next 10 years, and that'll pull out 60% of the phosphorus from that system while making the operators actually increase their grade and enable them to basically grow the same amount with less water, while also saving on labor costs. And that's just a winner right there.”
That's Joe Whitworth of the freshwater trust.
