SUPPLY CHAIN
Farmers plan ahead and build stock to work around supply chain pressures.
W
hen it comes to managing water, farmers already have plenty of stresses to worry about. This
season, in addition to allocation or availability, they’re also dealing with a continuing contraction of the market around irrigation equipment parts and maintenance. The supply chains around those products tightened during the pandemic. Rather than loosening over the past year, additional pressures have added on to make it even tougher for some farmers to get what they need to keep crops and revenues healthy. Going into this season, growers are making adjustments and planning ahead as they see that strain continuing.
Joe Wahlgren, farm manager at R&J Wahlgren Farms, Brady, Nebraska, who handles about 5,000 acres using both center pivots and gravity-fed irrigation, was warned by some suppliers in the summer of 2021 that the turnaround times on pump repairs and rebuilds would be extending. In some cases, those projected times wouldn’t allow for equipment to be available to finish the irrigation season. What used to generally be a six-day process was increasing at points by almost 10 times.
“We went through and did a bunch of pressure testing and tried to assess if we had any trouble anywhere preemptively,” says Wahlgren. “If a well went down, I was being told it was going to be a 60-day turnaround because of parts and availability. That’s a lost crop, in my business.”
While that summer has come and gone, the stress on the supply chain hasn’t let up, says Wahlgren. He’s gotten some of the same warnings from suppliers and repair professionals that quick service in case of a breakdown might not be possible because of the availability of parts.
The contraction isn’t just affecting parts, but also the labor involved in maintaining and repairing irrigation systems, says Roric Paulman, owner of Paulman Farms, Sutherland, Nebraska.
“On the service side of the business, it’s tough finding qualified people to do the work,” he says. There have been times in the past year when a dealer he worked with wanted to help with an issue but didn’t have the staff to spare. He’s also seen shop rates increasing faster than typical.
While assigning blame isn’t helping the problem, there isn’t even a single target to point at, says Kevin Harsch, owner of Prairie Fire Farms, Wood River, Nebraska.
“It’s a raw material shortage and a labor shortage,” says Harsch. “It’s just a perfect storm.”
For Wahlgren, there’s a sense of dis- appointment as he and other farmers are left waiting on supply despite being efficient and effective in their planning and projects. “It’s disturbing to all of us to hear that,” he says. “If my primary job as a manager of a large farm is to assess and lay off risk, what can I do to lessen my risk in this light?”
Summer 2022 | Irrigation TODAY 11
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