New options for the Valley VFlex Corner | by John Kastl

This spring, we introduced a number of new options for the Valley_® VFlex™ Corner – including electronic sequencing, a 305-foot corner arm, and an inverted corner – for even more flexibility in designing a machine that meets the specific needs of your field. Let’s take a look at each of these new options to see how they make the VFlex even better. 

VFlex electronic sequencing is a computer-controlled module with an advanced, yet easy-to-use display that makes it simple to monitor, control, and even customize the sprinkler sequencing of your corner. This option uses the same area-based sequencing logic as the industry-leading Valley Precision Corner^®, which provides excellent water uniformity. And, if you apply crop production chemicals through your machine, the built-in, user-selectable Chemigate mode automatically varies your machine’s speed for uniform chemical application with a simple, fixed-rate injection pump.

Electronic sequencing also comes with two powerful features for customizing water application under the corner. The first is an angle-based override. This feature allows you to specify which banks of sprinklers are on or off based on the angle of the corner relative to the pivot. This is handy if you have an area in all four corners of the field where you’d like to keep a few extra sprinklers running. The second feature is a built-in positon override table. This feature allows you to specify which banks of sprinklers are on or off by the position of the machine in the field. This can be helpful if there is a small area in the field that needs a little extra water or if you have an unusual field boundary and need more water there. Bear in mind that GPS Guidance is required in order to use position-based overrides.

The computing power behind electronic sequencing also allows us to control more sprinkler banks and in turn allows us to offer an even longer corner: the 205/100 VFlex, with the industry-leading water uniformity you’ve come to expect from Valley. This new 305-foot option is a great choice for rectangular fields where the corner arm is fully extended for a significant period of time.

Combining electronic sequencing with the swiveling inlet makes it possible to run an inverted corner, which means your corner moves through the field ahead of the base pivot when the machine is running forward (clockwise). Inverted orientation can be helpful in maximizing irrigated acres on part-circle pivots.

Here at Valley, we’re always working to help you increase your irrigated acres with options that meet your specific needs. Stay tuned for the next improvements to our corners!

---

John Kastl Product Manager - Equipment John joined the Valley Irrigation Engineering Department in 2000 after having spent 11 years at General Electric Aircraft Engines. Today, he manages the equipment products for Valley (center pivots, corners, and gearbox, to name a few), helping develop the next generation of Valley Irrigation machines. John enjoys photography, home renovation, and travel. On his third birthday, John watched the first moon landing!

Thinking Outside the Circle, Part 2 | by John Kastl

Many growers want to know how to make their operations more efficient. Last week, we talked about using Valley® Benders and DropSpan™ to increase productivity. Today, we’re going to examine what Valley corner options can do for you.

Many growers are increasing their productivity by irrigating the corners of their fields. On a square, quarter-section field you can irrigate as many as 23 additional acres with a corner machine, and on rectangular fields you can pick up significantly more.

Corners operate automatically and can be guided with either a buried wire or GPS. Also, if you chemigate or fertigate, you can cover the entire field. No extra equipment needed to apply these chemicals to the corners of the field.

Valley Precision Corner

Valley offers two corners. The Valley VFlex Corner™ is designed to be flexible. It offers a variety of options, such as a fixed or swiveling water transfer hose, single or dual steering gearboxes for difficult terrain, two corner arm lengths for different size fields, and – coming soon – a longer corner arm, an “inverted” option, and electronic sequencing. All these choices allow you to customize the machine to fit your field, crop, and farming practices.

The Valley Precision Corner® comes standard with a fixed joint, constant-movement VFD drives, electronic sequencing, and a built-in chemigate mode – the high tech features growers demand for industry-leading water uniformity.

So, as you can see, Valley offers a number of products that can improve your farming operation. The best part is you can mix and match these products on a single pivot to develop a truly customized machine that covers that odd-shaped field you didn’t think could be irrigated. So start “thinking outside the circle” and talk to your Valley Dealer today about how you can increase your irrigated acres.

Hear more about gaining extra acres in this radio interview from the National Farm Machinery Show: Download the .mp3 

---

John Kastl Product Manager - Equipment John joined the Valley Irrigation Engineering Department in 2000 after having spent 11 years at General Electric Aircraft Engines. Today, he manages the equipment products for Valley (center pivots, corners, and gearbox, to name a few), helping develop the next generation of Valley Irrigation machines. John enjoys photography, home renovation, and travel. On his third birthday, John watched the first moon landing!

Farming is in the Trail Blood

Originally published in Spring 2013 edition of PivotPoint.

Today, the two men and their wives work together very closely. Eventually, Rocky and Terrie plan to step back, taking more time off and traveling. For now, though, it is truly a family affair, as Rocky teaches Rusty all the nuances of farming the land, even as Rusty uses technology to get more out of that land with precision planning. meanwhile, Terrie and Jennifer work together on the books.

“We’ll be sitting around the dinner table at night with the kids, talking business,” says Rocky. “We make all of our decisions jointly. With us, it’s all family – all business.”

Working together to save money

Farming 2,200 acres in the hills and valleys of Idaho presents some challenges, one of which is how to irrigate their sugar beets, alfalfa, and winter wheat. They have always irrigated their land, mostly with hand lines, which requires a lot of labor.

Rocky explains, “The whole goal is to save on labor, and while pivots aren’t totally labor-free, they’re much better than hand line irrigation. It takes 10 guys to work with hand lines, but only three to work with pivots.”

The Trails decided to start the switch to pivot irrigation about 13 years ago. Valley dealer JTS Farm Store is about five miles away from Trail Farms and the Trails knew the owners, Jim and Lea Ann Schraeder, so it made sense to work with them.

Lea Ann Schraeder says, “Rock and Rusty are just great guys to work with. They’re very business-oriented, so they require a quality product and good service. Just because we’re close by doesn’t mean we’d keep their business if we didn’t come through for them.” Including two soon-to-be-delivered new pivots, the Trails have nine Valley pivots, covering nearly half of their land.

“Fifteen years ago, some of our land wasn’t considered suitable for pivots at all,” explains Rocky, “but by adapting to different water sources, we installed pivots on that land, and it’s working well. Using sprinklers on beets while they’re germinating is so much better,” Rocky says. “Pivots are very flexible for that, and hand lines really aren’t.”

”We were one of the first operations to use a reverse swing arm, which moves counter clockwise,” says Rusty.

The Trails keep up with technology when it makes sense. For example, they use auto-steer on their implements and they have Trackers on their irrigation systems, with all alerts going to Rusty’s smart phone. They’re also looking into purchasing a Valley BaseStation2-SM.

Will there be a fourth generation Trail farmer?

Rusty’s son Parker goes out on the tractors with them every year and loves it. “He says he wants to be a farmer, too,” says Rusty with a smile. “Of course, he’s eight, so we’ll have to wait and see.”

Positioned to Succeed: How GPS Changed Farming as We Knew It

Originally published in Spring 2013 edition of PivotPoint.

GPS Position on Center Pivot

From tractors and combines to irrigation systems, growers are using GPS to make the most of their land and make their jobs easier and less stressful. Today, precision farming is becoming the norm.

"With precision farming, growers are optimizing row spacing, accurately applying fertilizers, crop protection products and water, and being more productive with the land available to them," says Valley Product Manager Scott Mauseth. "Farming is really evolving."

Global positioning history began on the farm in the form of auto-steer tractors, which became available in the late 1990s with the growth of the GPS network. Auto-steer provides greater accuracy for strip-till and other precise techniques. Its use helps to alleviate exhaustion of the operator, allowing better monitoring of all the equipment involved for the task at hand.

GPS helps growers make the most of their biggest asset - land

GPS makes Variable Rate Irrigation (VRI) possible. VRI technology gives farmers a more precise way to apply water and other crop inputs. With tools like soil maps and yield maps, growers can prescribe where the water should be applied to maximize production and make the most efficient use of the water resources being applied.

GPS Guidance Panel

"GPS has also opened the potential to use corners and linear machines without burying wire," says Mauseth.

Global Positioning Systems allow us to get driving directions, keep track of our kids and pets, and even figure out the best fishing spots. But one of the most important and profitable ways GPS has changed the world is through farming.

By choosing the GPS Guidance option, growers can make changes in their corner path with less expense and in significantly less time. Wire placed under structures or in planted fields is no longer an issue, and growers won’t waste precious time when the wires need repair or the path of the corner needs to be changed.

Mauseth explains that since GPS was already being used in nearly every new implement on the farm, it just made sense to incorporate it into irrigation. “Valley introduced GPS Ready control panels in September of 2008 and GPS Guidance for corners and linears in 2009.”

Pat Tolman, General Manager of Valmont Northwest, a dealership located in Pasco, Washington, says, “We have growers implementing GPS Positioning tools daily. It’s a relatively small cost to install on a new or current center pivot. It’s an easy upgrade that can result in a huge payback.”

Using the same GPS base that farmers are already using for their implements makes things pretty simple. Tolman explains, “Many growers already have a base, or they’re renting space from their local dealership. It’s very easy to find a base to use."

GPS Guidance on Valley Precision Corner®

GPS Offerings from Valley

Valley utilizes two GPS choices available to growers. GPS Position with GPS Ready-Control panels utilize the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) to pinpoint the position of your machine accurately. WAAS uses a network of ground-based reference stations throughout North America to measure and correct for small variations in the GPS satellites’ signals. Add-on GPS positioning packages are available for pivots and linears and require a GPS Ready control panel, like Pro2, Select2, or AutoPilot. The GPS position calculations are performed right in the control panel, a unique design feature in Valley control panels, so there is no need for an external processor.

GPS Guidance for Valley linears and corners is another Valley innovation. Growers can steer their corner or linear machines through the field utilizing GPS as the choice versus buried wire guidance. GPS Guidance allows growers to make the most of their GPS technology investment with compatibility to existing John Deere® Starfire™ or Trimble®. Navigation with these systems relies on Real Time Kinematic (RTK network) satellite navigation. RTK uses a single receiver as a base and rebroadcasts information to mobile units on the linear or corner machines. The base receiver uses measurements of the signal phases derived from the GPS satellites to gain greater accuracy.

GPS technology for center pivots, corners, and linear machines can bring a number of benefits to an operation. Growers will experience enhanced management capabilities and can take advantage of precision application techniques for water, fertilizer and crop inputs. This can lower input costs and ultimately can lead to higher yield potential – and greater profits.

Exactly how does GPS work, anyway?

The basic idea behind global positioning is triangulation, using a group of satellites to act as reference points in space. Calculations based on the known distance of the satellites above the earth and the time it takes for the signal to reach a receiver on or near the surface of the earth allow the system to accurately record the receiver’s location.

For more information on Valley GPS, contact your local Valley dealer, or post your comment below!

Circles for Rice Update | by Kelly Downing

In the Northern Hemisphere, spring is here and rice is in (and out of) the ground! We have been waiting and preparing all winter for the new crop; now, finally, we get to start growing again. I have to admit, I prefer autumn, with the harvest and sense of completion and accomplishment it brings. However, it is really nice, after a long winter, to get into the field and get the new crop going.

This year, Valley Irrigation has a total of five cooperators in three states: Texas, Missouri, and Arkansas.

In the Missouri and Arkansas areas, much of the new rice crop has been planted, and is now emerging, while planting moves north. This week, we will begin installing soil monitoring instrumentation into the rice fields of our cooperators. Dennis Robison and Chad Price farm right along the Missouri/Arkansas state line; they got into the fields early and their rice is up and growing. Both are “old hands” at this process—Dennis grew rice under his Valley center pivot in 2010, and Chad did it last year. Both produced excellent results, and are primed for another good crop this year. This week, we will install soil water sensors in their fields, which will be used to schedule irrigation. Other growers will be added to the system as they get their crop up and growing.

Soil Moisture Monitors | installed on a rice field

This is one way we increase our knowledge of the process—we monitor soil water status of rice under pivots in several fields each summer. This helps us fine-tune our irrigation recommendations. It is a great management practice for any irrigator to use, but is especially critical with rice, due to the shallow root zone and resulting small margin for error.

We all have biases, and one of mine is toward data-based irrigation management. Estimating evapotranspiration (ET), or crop water use, and using sensors to verify this information is critical for effective, efficient irrigation. Effective irrigation means making sure the crop gets all the water it needs to maximize production. Efficient irrigation means using the least possible resources (water, energy, labor) to accomplish this. Using ET data helps calculate when, and how much, to water the crop. Since these are estimates, we also recommend using sensors to periodically verify that, over time, the estimates are correct.

So, the (generally) warm spring has given most producers the chance to finish field operations in a timely manner, so planting and other activities seem to be proceeding at a pretty optimum pace. I hope you have a safe, enjoyable spring, and I look forward to sharing our progress with you as we work through the summer. Check back and let us know what is going on in your part of the world.