New Beginnings With Spring | by Patrick Scates

Did anyone else think this past winter would never end? The winter season always seems to overstay its welcome and it definitely did this year.

Each year around the dealership, we all talk about how we are ready for spring to arrive. It might be as simple as being tired of working in the cold, wet conditions or maybe it’s the mundane shop and office work that has everyone looking forward to the spring months.

When spring arrives, gone are the days of scraping the frost off your window each morning. Gone are the days of drilling a water well and getting sprayed with a leaking hose when its 20 degrees out. BRRRRRR!!! Gone are the days of layering up so much you feel like the little brother in the movie “A Christmas Story.” Gone are the early sunsets that have you leaving the office in the dark.

Even though the New Year starts in January, I feel the New Year actually begins with spring. Spring is a time of new beginning for everything. A time when things spring to life. The growers are out checking their fields to see when and where they might be able to turn that first soil of year and put that first seed in the ground. As a farm kid, the smell of freshly turned soil was one of my favorites and it still is to this day.

It is much easier to get things moving on spring mornings than it was just a couple of months ago. Everyone is eager to get out of the yard and out to the job site because – let’s be honest – working outside beats any job in the office or shop. Those first really warm, sunny days are the beginning of that unavoidable “farmer’s tan,” which makes you appear to be wearing a white T-shirt at the pool.

It doesn’t matter if you are drilling a well, building a pivot, trenching wire or installing a pump, it only matters that you are beginning to make progress in getting the pivots up and running for the growers.

For me, spring is always a reminder of why we do what we do in the agriculture community! The joy of beginning a new business relationship with a grower who needs your help is one of my favorite things. Teaching a grower how to operate his new pivot or working with him on how to properly irrigate a crop. After some time passes, that new business relationship usually turns into the beginning of a new friendship, which is what being a part of the agriculture community is all about. You know that business relationship has turned to a friendship when the grower is texting you pictures of his pivot up and running and updates on the crop under the pivot.

As spring gets into full swing, it is fun to drive around and see all the old and new Valley_® pivots up and running, watering the freshly sprouted corn and soybeans. It’s so great to know we have been part of changing the agriculture landscape and that we helped so many area growers make their farms more profitable.

The only drawback to spring is that once you get into the latter part of spring you realize it is coming to an end and summer is beginning. The summer heat and humidity is only a few weeks away and that shirt will no longer be wet from a spring shower, but more likely from sweating while working on a pivot in standing corn while its 95 degrees (I know you know what that feels like). And that will have you wishing for fall and winter to roll around, which starts the cycle all over again.

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Patrick Scates General Manager Scates Valley Inc. in Carmi, IL Patrick enjoys anything to do with agriculture and politics. When he isn't at work he loves spending time with his four children, Zoey, Maggie, and twin boys, Thomas and Henry. Any free time is enjoyed playing golf or spending time with the family at a cabin on a small lake in southern Illinois.

Top 10 Ways to Get Your Pivots Ready for Spring

You may not need your center pivots during planting season, but they need a little attention before you fire them up. Here are some tips to get your equipment ready for irrigation season.

Drive Train
To maximize the life of your drive train and keep it operating trouble-free, periodically drain any water that accumulates in the gearbox and center drive, and make sure the gear lubricant is at the proper level.

Wheel Ruts
Be sure to fill deep wheel tracks during the off-season to reduce stress on irrigation, tillage, and harvest equipment. To help prevent future tracking, consider changing to a higher floatation tire, adding a floatation drive unit option, or modifying the sprinkler package to reduce water application to the wheel tracks.

Motor Contactors
Damaged motor contactors can reduce the life of the drive unit motor, so be sure to inspect and replace worn contactors.

Moving Parts
Steel moving on steel without proper lubrication can lead to unnecessary wear and tear on irrigation equipment. Be sure to grease all moving parts, including the pivot point bearing, towable hubs, and corner rollers.

Sprinkler Package
Water application is at the heart of what you do, in order to do this as best possible; sprinkler packages need to be properly designed and maintained to a high degree of accuracy. Generally, sprinkler packages should be replaced at least every 10,000 hours of operation. Regularly check for broken or worn sprinkler components and replace them as necessary. Also, consider running a new sprinkler design that could maximize uniformity and application efficiency, and help alleviate application issues such as runoff, ponding and soil sealing.

Energy Efficiency
When done properly, you can minimize water pumping costs by reducing the machine’s operating pressure to a point that still produces enough pressure to operate the sprinkler package satisfactorily. Monitor pivot pressure regularly and ensure it remains adequate (as designed) throughout the season.

Tire Pressure
Maintaining the correct tire pressure is vital to the operation of irrigation equipment; the correct tire pressure ensures that floatation for a particular tire is maximized and the rolling circumference is consistent to what Valley uses on timer chart calculations. Be sure to periodically check tire pressure and adjust it to specification. Also, don’t forget to tighten wheel lug nuts and evaluate the overall tire condition. All tires lose pressure over time and lose or gain about 1 PSI per 10 degrees F of temperature change.

Pivot Alignment & Pipe Flushing
Ensure the tower box micro-switches are set properly. Improper settings can cause pivot misalignment, which results in nuisance shutdowns. Flushing your pipe line and cleaning your sand trap is essential if you have water quality problems or your irrigation water contains sand.

U-joints
Evaluate your equipment for worn u-joint inserts and ensure driveshaft shields are in place for safety.

Electrical Connections
Be sure to power down the equipment before checking any electrical connections. Once the power is off, check for loose connections or loose cord grips in tower boxes.

Do you have other tips? Share them in the comment section below.

Reprinted from valleyirrigation.com.

Crop Insurance Approved for Pivot-Irrigated Rice | by Kelly Downing

It has taken a lot of time and work (mostly by other people), but last week we finally got some good news in the pivot rice world. The USDA’s Risk Management Agency board of directors approved the application to provide crop insurance coverage for producers who want to grow rice with pivots. This means that by as early as next spring producers will be able to insure their pivot-irrigated rice crop. This decision comes at an opportune time, as weakening corn and soybean prices and decent rice price trends are increasing the interest in rice among farmers.

The real winners, in my opinion, are growers who want the flexibility to incorporate rice into their other crop rotations. This will make it more feasible to grow rice in non-traditional locations like upland, sloping, and sandy soils. It is particularly significant now that the new Farm Bill places increased emphasis on crop insurance as the backbone of its programs. More and more lenders are insisting on crop insurance as a prerequisite for funding operating loans, and this helps make that happen.

John Taylor’s rice field in Arkansas.

The best news is that this gives farmers another tool to increase their efficiency, sustainability, and profitability. The reduction in water use, pumping requirements, and greenhouse gas emissions will not only make their operations more profitable, but also more ecologically sound and sustainable — “green,” in today’s parlance.

The initial rollout of this program will be in Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas, places where there has been interest and research, as well as areas where water is, or will become, a limiting factor in production. I am hopeful that, as the program grows and matures, other areas will be added.

Our participation in this effort has been very interesting. It was never about selling pivots; rather, the effort has always been to define and offer to farmers the tools to increase efficiency and profit, while maintaining their ability to keep farming in a sustainable manner. Adding rice to a corn/soybean/cotton rotation (or some variation) can also help manage the problem of herbicide-resistant weeds that is rapidly growing throughout the country.

I just looked at the blog post I wrote back in April. Wow, have things changed since then! At that time, our local soil conditions were exceptionally dry, after a long, cold, dry winter. I was worried that there would be real problems getting a crop out of the ground. Of course now, at the beginning of July, many people are begging for the rain (and associated violent storms) to stop. It has turned into a relatively cool, very wet spring; so much so that some growers in my area have had to replant twice—once due to frost and a second time due to flood.

For those who have escaped the disasters, however, growing conditions have been quite good, and many of the crops I see in my travels around the Midwest and upper Delta look excellent.

Weather is one of the vagaries of farming that we try to manage, but cannot control. I hope that things go well for you this summer, and I look forward to checking in again with further updates.

Be safe, enjoy the summer, and stay in touch. Let us know how things are going where you are.

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Kelly Downing International Ag Project Specialist Kelly, a Nebraska-based Irrigation Specialist, spent 10 years working on soil and water research projects for a major agricultural university, involving a variety of crops. His work focused on irrigation management, but also included other topics. Since joining Valley Irrigation, he has worked in the service, product management, product reliability, and sales. Kelly now focuses on developing projects in irrigation field management and providing recommendations for the Circles for Rice project. Kelly has traveled to several countries providing technical support, such as soil moisture monitoring and irrigation management training.

It’s Time for Spring! | by Kelly Downing

I must be getting old. I find myself whining about what a long, cold winter this was. Normally, I love, really love, winter. I like snow, I appreciate what the winter freeze-thaw cycles do for our soil structure, I enjoy visualizing weeds and insects dying in the cold, and—let’s face it—I am built for cold weather. But even I thought this winter really hung on a long time. It didn’t help that it has been so dry where I live. To be honest, I am fairly concerned about dry soil conditions and how this growing season will play out, especially since we seem to be in a pretty dry weather pattern going into the spring. Of course, in many areas it has been exceedingly wet, which is causing some planting delay concern.

As Charles Dudley Warner said, “Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it;” I guess I am no different. The fact is, though, that spring is finally breaking upon us, and we are getting itchy to plant. This is the time of year when anticipation runs high, and we simultaneously worry about how the season will go and thrill at the chance to start a new crop cycle. 

This year, as in most, there are a lot of uncertainties facing us as we head to the field—commodity prices, weather patterns, regulatory uncertainty. However, this is an optimistic time of year for farmers. There is something neat about putting seeds into the ground and watching them germinate, grow, and produce a crop. Fall is definitely my favorite season, as we gather the harvest and see the result of the year’s work. But there is a special eagerness that comes with spring, too.

We will have a couple of new cooperators in our Circles for Rice program this summer, and I will report on their crops and progress throughout the season. There is increasing interest in growing rice this year due to the market conditions for it and for competing crops. As this interest continues, the opportunity to expand acreage through the use of pivot irrigation will become more popular as well. Research interest is increasing, which will lead to better information and more resources for producers who adopt this practice. I look forward to sharing more with you during the summer.

As you get into the field, remember to be careful. Rest when you are tired, eat when you are hungry, pet the dog, and be sure to take some time each day for your family. Have a safe planting season, and we wish you a great year. Stay in touch, and let us know how things are going with you.

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Kelly Downing International Ag Project Specialist Kelly, a Nebraska-based Irrigation Specialist, spent 10 years working on soil and water research projects for a major agricultural university, involving a variety of crops. His work focused on irrigation management, but also included other topics. Since joining Valley Irrigation, he has worked in the service, product management, product reliability, and sales. Kelly now focuses on developing projects in irrigation field management and providing recommendations for the Circles for Rice project. Kelly has traveled to several countries providing technical support, such as soil moisture monitoring and irrigation management training.

Four Tips for Getting Your Sprinklers Ready to Roll

Winter means downtime for sprinklers. As the new growing season approaches (in North America), it is important to get your machine ready, and the sprinkler package is a key item to focus on.

Here are some tips to get your sprinkler package into tip-top shape:

1. Use the sprinkler reports supplied with the sprinkler package and check that all sprinkler components are correct and installed in the proper location on the machine.

2. Operate the sprinkler package (running the machine with water) and visually inspect all sprinklers to verify they are operating correctly. Inspect sprinklers for variations in the water pattern. Problems to look for are plugged nozzles or worn wear plates.

3. Watch for leaks from the sprinkler, pressure regulator, and drop components when running the machine with water. Replace broken or damaged components.

4. Check that the operating pivot pressure matches the design pressure. For sprinkler packages with pressure regulators, Valley_® recommends placing a pressure gauge in the drop tube at the end of the machine at the highest elevation in the field to verify that the end pressure is sufficient to operate the pressure regulators. All pressure regulators require 5 PSI over the nominal pressure rating that is stamped on the regulator. For example, a 10 PSI pressure regulator requires 15 PSI entering the regulator for proper operation.

Finally, don’t forget that at about 10,000 operating hours, growers should consider replacing sprinklers and pressure regulators. This varies based on water quality issues, such as using clean water or dirty water, and whether the water includes sand or other debris. At 10,000 hours, wear in the sprinkler nozzle, sprinkler wear plate, and pressure regulator will alter the sprinkler flow rate and water pattern distribution, which reduces the sprinkler package uniformity.

New sprinkler components - combined with a properly designed complete sprinkler package - ensure uniformity and efficiency are at the highest possible values. High uniformity and efficiency ensure that you are maximizing yields from the valuable water you apply during the season.

To summarize, your sprinkler package is one of the most critical components on a center pivot or linear machine – don’t be afraid to invest in new and updated technology.

Adapted from PivotPoint Spring 2012