From a Technical Perspective

By Larry Peach

High Tech Irrigation

World wide, irrigation is the largest single consumer of fresh water. Presently in the United States 60% of the market value of all agricultural production occurs on irrigated land which represents only about 18% of the total crop land in cultivation. With the ever increasing demands being put on our fresh water supplies and increasing power rates we are forced to become more efficient with our irrigation water.

Researchers at the ARS’s Northern Plains Agricultural Research Center in Sidney, Mt. are working with the latest wireless technology to boost irrigation efficiency, by applying only the needed amounts of water to the field.

Most fields consist of a variety of different soil types and conditions even though a field may look uniform on the surface; actually it is a patchwork of smaller plots, each with its own set of problems. At the present, growers are only able to manage a field based on the dominate soil type. A farmer may be irrigating for sandy soil, which requires more water, when in fact he also has clay soils in part of the field. Because the clay soil retains moisture, an amount of water that is perfect for the large grained sandy soil would likely be wasted in runoff from a clay soil and lead to poor fertilizer efficiency, drainage and plant disease problems.

The first step in installing the new technology is making a detailed soils map of the field. This reveals the variability of soils across the field and enables the researchers to determine where to place the wireless sensors in the field. The sensors measure soil moisture, soil temperature, and air temperature. The data is transmitted to a base computer every 15 minutes which then transmits the information to the wireless hardware on the sprinkler system that tells the individual sprinkler heads how much water, or water and fertilizer to emit and where.

The new system will not only conserve water, but will reduce power, improve fertilizer and pest management, and increase overall crop production on the field.

The information for this article came from the July /Aug 07 issue of the Sugar Beet Grower.