VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY
40 years of transformation
By Charles Hillyer, PhD, and David Zoldoske, EdD T
Growers can rest assured that those developing technology and products in the irrigation industry are looking after their best interests in managing their water and energy resources.
he Center for Irrigation Technology at Fresno State University began with a humble start in 1980. Since then it has grown, providing important
research and education to help improve water-use efficiency for growers. Looking back over the past four decades provides a unique perspective for the future.
Early on, we were testing low-pressure nozzles to reduce pressure requirements for impact sprinklers. Not only did we find that lower pressures saved energy but testing also showed that the larger droplet sizes fought the wind better, significantly reducing wind drift. It was a win-win on both counts.
Drip irrigation entered agriculture in a big way starting in the 1980s and contributed to the growth and work of the CIT. Dozens of engineered designs were created to deliver water one drop at a time. The winning design was a tortuous path labyrinth followed by a flexible diaphragm to control water pressure at the emission point.
The search for the “right” plastic was also critical to the effort. Spoiler alert — recycling plastic milk jugs for drip tubing was not the answer. Today’s drip hose is thinner-walled and provides a long field life.
Measuring soil moisture has long been a means for determining when and how much water to apply. While the technology is widely accepted and deployed today, its history was not a straight line to successful field deployment. Long ago, the CIT was contracted to evaluate several sensors on the market. The testing revealed that only one sensor met the standard for consistency
28 Irrigation TODAY | Winter 2020
and reliability, suggesting that early on many sensors were NOT providing the information required for good field decisions. Again, times have changed.
Valve closing speed was another question to be answered. The CIT pioneered the measurement of the time between full open and no flow. Understanding this relationship can be critical to managing water hammer. Many valve designs may have taken an extended time to close, but a closer look revealed the “big” flow change that occurred in the last few tenths of a second. Stopping the train too fast is bad for the plumbing.
Innovative industry
The irrigation industry has done a great job developing new products to improve water and energy use efficiency. Or, to say in another way — we have the technology.
An irrigation system appropriately designed, installed and maintained must now collect data to provide full functionality. The data is critical to on-farm production, regulatory reporting and supply chain certification. Many companies produce specialty products; however, the integration of all the parts into living, breathing smart systems is still not common in agriculture. In addition to knowing what is happening in the field, growers are now demanding near autonomous irrigation control and operations. Machine learning provides the path for transforming data into information and correctly applying the water at the right time and in the proper amount.
So, what does reflecting back tell us? The irrigation industry has undergone several
irrigationtoday.org
Charles Hillyer, PhD
David Zoldoske, EdD
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40
