The Walther family has been farming for three generations and irrigating since the 1970s, working land in areas from Michigan to Florida. Walther Farms primarily grows potatoes and employs more than 150 people in 14 communities.
Jeremy Walther – along with three brothers and five cousins – is one of the owners of Walther Farms. He is the field manager and operations manager for Indiana, Georgia, Florida, and the Wiley Fork farm outside of Aiken, SC.
Irrigation management is crucial to growing a good potato crop, and Walther says his family has found that Orbitors work well under just about any condition.
Walther says they use Orbitor nozzles on pivots all over the country.
“Even on land we lease, we change out the nozzles to Orbitors, so installing them on the Wiley Fork farm in South Carolina was a given,” he says.
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| R55 End of Pivot Sprinklers | © Nelson Irrigation |
Nelson Irrigation Eastern Regional Manager Scott Harn says, “The Walthers installed low pressure O3000 Orbitors with Uni-flow regulators that provide high uniformity and a clean water pattern as a result of its revolutionary bracketless design. It was an outstanding choice for them.”
Shay Hane of Guess Irrigation agrees, “They’re some of the most knowledgeable customers I’ve ever encountered, and we had a couple of ‘firsts’ with this project because of that. Orbitors are not common in South Carolina. These were the first ones we’ve installed, and they’re a very good sprinkler.
“We also installed R55 End of Pivot Sprinklers for the first time. They’ve worked well for adding irrigated acres.”
According to Harn, Nelson Irrigation tested the R55 End of Pivot Sprinklers, which use proven Rotator technology, for several years before putting them on the market at the end of 2013.
“It’s a low pressure, secondary sprinkler to the SR100,” Harn explains. “It’s used to help fill in under the end gun and/or pick up additional acreage after the end gun is shut off. The 800 series valve is used to precisely turn the SR100 and R55 on or off in order to maximize irrigated acres. It depends on the application.”
Walther says it’s working well in his situation, and he’s impressed with the advances in irrigation technology in the 16 years he’s been farming.
“We need to do everything possible to conserve water and focus on sustainability, while we provide our potato crops with the proper irrigation,” he says. “These sprinklers help us do all of that effectively.”
Reprinted from Valley PivotPoint magazine, Winter 2014
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