There are 10 new products selected as the best innovations for the year as well as five new dairy products that will be showcased at the World Ag Expo.
Two of them involve irrigation.
“Getting water to your crops when and where it’s needed is key for increased yields,” says Rich Panowicz, aftermarket and product sales manager for Valmont Irrigation. “In the past, this meant looking forward to additional costs and worries during peak irrigation times — early morning pivot checks, increased fuel costs from those additional trips to the field, even adding additional labor during the summer months.
“With remote technology like this, you control your irrigation equipment at your convenience. No more driving through rough fields at 2 a.m. to check or stop your irrigation during a rain storm.
Unlike competitive products for cell phones that show only text-based information and text messages, this new product provides colorful graphics to depict the current status of each machine. Using the smartphone’s touch screen, you can view different status reports, check for any malfunctions and send commands to operate the irrigation machine at the press of a finger.
“Tracker Mobile is designed specifically for use with a smartphone or smart PDA,” Panowicz says. “There’s nothing else like it. You don’t need to call every individual pivot to check its status. With this new technology you can make one call with your Smartphone to check the status of all your machines and to select detailed information about each one. It saves time, money and hassles.”
Here’s how it works. After using your smartphone to log in, you can check the last reported status of your machines in terms of on or off; the direction the pivot is moving, the amount of water being applied; the position of the machine in the field; voltage and water pressure. The number of items that can be monitored for status will vary depending on the type of control panel that the Tracker product is installed on.
The Valley Tracker Product line in conjunction with Tracker Mobile, also provides the ability to alert the user if the machine shuts down or any other unexpected changes occur. You can easily view the alarms through Tracker Mobile or be alerted via a cell phone call or text message, providing a very flexible menu of options for alerting the user to a problem in the field.
To control the machine you simply select your changes on the screen such as pivot on or off, direction change or the amount of water to apply and then send the commands in one touch of the screen. This saves time because the changes are sent in one transmission, not individually.
• MORE INFO: Go to www.valleyirrigation.com
Made by Aqua-PhyD, the unit measures 48 inches long and depending on size of pipeline, about 12 inches in diameter. It is mounted between the sand filters and before the line goes into the ground.
“Aqua-PhyD optimizes soil structure and increases mineral and nutrient uptake without chemicals,” says Jerry Rai, the company’s director of agriculture.
He describes results in one field trial of a compacted soil where he used a compaction meter to measure 700 to 800 pounds per square inch (psi). The meter could penetrate no more than 1 inch deep into the soil.
“Within a short period of time after adding the Aqua-Phyd system, compaction was reduced to the 200 to 300-psi range and the probe penetration increased to 2 feet,” Rai reports.
“This technology improves hydraulic conductivity, increasing water use efficiency. In addition to using less water, the system can help reduce use of irrigation pumps to lower energy costs.
“The Aqua-PhyD unit also improves leaching of salts which enables the use of water with high levels of total dissolved solids (TDS),” he notes.
Last summer the Aqua-PhyD system was tested on several farms in California’s Central Valley, where severe shortages of irrigation water had forced some growers to start using ground water with high TDS levels.
“In some of these trials, growers were applying as much as 1,700 pounds of sulfate and 1,100 pounds of sodium per acre-foot of water,” he says. “Our system allowed these salts to leach out.”
At Sano Farms near Firebaugh, in a cooperative test with Western Farm Service, an Aqua-PhyD system was installed to irrigate tomatoes where high TDS ground water was used.
Upon completing the test, Jesse Sanchez, field manager of Sano Farms said, “I had a significant reduction in water use, increased my moisture in the soil, leeched the salts, and got a better yield.”
Aqua-PhyD costs about $45,000. That price includes a three-year warranty, and semi-annual water and soil tests to review soil health, nutrient uptake, water usage, and perform plant analysis.
MORE INFO: www.aqua-phyd.com
Two of them involve irrigation.
Valley Tracker Mobile
Monitoring and controlling pivot irrigation equipment without traveling to the field has never been easier or more convenient. The new Valley Tracker Mobile enables you to check the status of a sprinkler irrigation machine and control its operations anywhere you have cell phone coverage just by pressing the phone’s touch screen. All you need are a Web-enabled smartphone or smart PDA, a Windows mobile browser and access to the Internet. “Getting water to your crops when and where it’s needed is key for increased yields,” says Rich Panowicz, aftermarket and product sales manager for Valmont Irrigation. “In the past, this meant looking forward to additional costs and worries during peak irrigation times — early morning pivot checks, increased fuel costs from those additional trips to the field, even adding additional labor during the summer months.
“With remote technology like this, you control your irrigation equipment at your convenience. No more driving through rough fields at 2 a.m. to check or stop your irrigation during a rain storm.
Unlike competitive products for cell phones that show only text-based information and text messages, this new product provides colorful graphics to depict the current status of each machine. Using the smartphone’s touch screen, you can view different status reports, check for any malfunctions and send commands to operate the irrigation machine at the press of a finger.
“Tracker Mobile is designed specifically for use with a smartphone or smart PDA,” Panowicz says. “There’s nothing else like it. You don’t need to call every individual pivot to check its status. With this new technology you can make one call with your Smartphone to check the status of all your machines and to select detailed information about each one. It saves time, money and hassles.”
Here’s how it works. After using your smartphone to log in, you can check the last reported status of your machines in terms of on or off; the direction the pivot is moving, the amount of water being applied; the position of the machine in the field; voltage and water pressure. The number of items that can be monitored for status will vary depending on the type of control panel that the Tracker product is installed on.
The Valley Tracker Product line in conjunction with Tracker Mobile, also provides the ability to alert the user if the machine shuts down or any other unexpected changes occur. You can easily view the alarms through Tracker Mobile or be alerted via a cell phone call or text message, providing a very flexible menu of options for alerting the user to a problem in the field.
To control the machine you simply select your changes on the screen such as pivot on or off, direction change or the amount of water to apply and then send the commands in one touch of the screen. This saves time because the changes are sent in one transmission, not individually.
• MORE INFO: Go to www.valleyirrigation.com
Aqua-PhyD
A patented environmentally friendly device that fits into the main line of drip, sprinkler or flood irrigation systems allows growers to stretch limited water supplies without chemicals and without extra electrical power. Made by Aqua-PhyD, the unit measures 48 inches long and depending on size of pipeline, about 12 inches in diameter. It is mounted between the sand filters and before the line goes into the ground.
“Aqua-PhyD optimizes soil structure and increases mineral and nutrient uptake without chemicals,” says Jerry Rai, the company’s director of agriculture.
He describes results in one field trial of a compacted soil where he used a compaction meter to measure 700 to 800 pounds per square inch (psi). The meter could penetrate no more than 1 inch deep into the soil.
“Within a short period of time after adding the Aqua-Phyd system, compaction was reduced to the 200 to 300-psi range and the probe penetration increased to 2 feet,” Rai reports.
“This technology improves hydraulic conductivity, increasing water use efficiency. In addition to using less water, the system can help reduce use of irrigation pumps to lower energy costs.
“The Aqua-PhyD unit also improves leaching of salts which enables the use of water with high levels of total dissolved solids (TDS),” he notes.
Last summer the Aqua-PhyD system was tested on several farms in California’s Central Valley, where severe shortages of irrigation water had forced some growers to start using ground water with high TDS levels.
“In some of these trials, growers were applying as much as 1,700 pounds of sulfate and 1,100 pounds of sodium per acre-foot of water,” he says. “Our system allowed these salts to leach out.”
At Sano Farms near Firebaugh, in a cooperative test with Western Farm Service, an Aqua-PhyD system was installed to irrigate tomatoes where high TDS ground water was used.
Upon completing the test, Jesse Sanchez, field manager of Sano Farms said, “I had a significant reduction in water use, increased my moisture in the soil, leeched the salts, and got a better yield.”
Aqua-PhyD costs about $45,000. That price includes a three-year warranty, and semi-annual water and soil tests to review soil health, nutrient uptake, water usage, and perform plant analysis.
MORE INFO: www.aqua-phyd.com
