07/03/07 Small Field Irrigation

Small Field Irrigation. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. There has been a movement starting where people who have been city dwellers are now starting up small farms and ranches. These "hobby farmers" often only have a few acres that need working and irrigation. The folks at Valmont Irrigation have been working to help fulfill the irrigation needs of farmers for years and according to Jim Mikula, the new Valley Single Span Engine Drive fits the small farmer perfectly. MIKULA: The single engine drive is for the small fields where you've got 10 acres or less and you don't have any real availability of electrical power there. We just put a little gas engine on there and it motivates itself right around. A lot of places they have water available but no power so if they have some water availability, why this is a good way to do it. Mikula says the unit is ideal for relatively flat fields with little slope. MIKULA: We say up to 10% slopes. Again that goes back to how much power and will it slow down and not give you good uniform water application, if it starts to slow down going up the hill. You r goal is to keep the same amount of water whether you're on the flat or going up a slope. The key to the small size of the system is an on-board engine. MIKULA: It's just a standard 5.5 horsepower gasoline engine. It has built in gearbox on it that reduces the output speed down and then we use a belt drive to a second gearbox which drives the wheels. To reverse the direction, there's just an over-center lever, you take the belt off, turn it the other way around, tighten it back up and the machine will run I the opposite direction. The engine itself has a small fuel tank but an optional larger tank is available. There is also a high-speed option but Mikula says the unit can cover a field in good time. MIKULA: Depending on how much water you want to put on, you can make a round in just under 3 hours. Typically when you are putting the water on it's going to be any where up to 10 hours to make one revolution to put your water down. If you just want to go around real quick to move it or something, you can do it in about 3. So we have an auxiliary 18-gallon tank that you can purchase with it that also mounts directly onto the base beam, you can operate that for several days without having to worry about refilling it. And the unit is portable. MIKULA: The whole machine is tow able so you could move it from pivot point to pivot point if you will, to different sections of the field. For more information visit Valmont.com or talk to your local dealer. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.