Your best practice It pays to use qualified professionals
Growers are masters at doing multiple difficult and highly skilled jobs in their operations; however, sometimes it is necessary to hire a qualified professional.
By Jonathan Aguilar, PhD
find in a hardware store — or rather a DIY store. My first impression was that almost anyone can be a plumber, carpenter, mechanic or contractor — all that is needed are the tools to do the job. It didn’t take long for me to learn how wrong I was.
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A qualified irrigation professional can help a grower make the best decision when choosing an appropriate irrigation system to fit the operation’s needs.
When my family moved into our very first home, I immediately learned how expensive labor and service can be. For example, on our second day in the house, the pilot light of our water heater got extinguished due to a storm. Having been a renter for many years, I did not know how to deal with it. I immediately searched the Yellow Pages to find help. The company I contacted said it would send a service technician that would cost a minimum of $75. Fortunately, our friendly realtor came by and reignited the pilot light before the technician came.
Of course, you cannot always rely on your realtor to do repairs in your home. At some point, everyone needs a qualified professional to do a job, particularly if structural, mechanical or electrical components are involved.
That also holds true for irrigation systems on your farm.
Water stewardship
Nowadays, the need to efficiently use water in agricultural production goes beyond the economics of applying it. It now includes the call for good stewardship of this invaluable resource. In Kansas where the Ogallala Aquifer is being tapped
28 Irrigation TODAY | January 2019
hen I moved from the Philippines to the United States more than a decade ago, I was impressed at all the things you can
for irrigating agricultural fields, water is not only a commodity but also a real property. When you look at it from that perspective, it makes sense to take utmost care to properly use and conserve water. That means using the most efficient and appropriate irrigation system possible.
A qualified irrigation professional can help a grower make the best decision when choosing an appropriate irrigation system to fit the operation’s needs. Irrigation professionals are engineers and designers trained in identifying the best irrigation system for a particular condition and situation. They will work to match the water delivered with the crop’s needs, while considering details from the water source (source and quality) to the conveyance systems (pipe size, zones, water flow and working pressure) down to the application type (drip or nozzle type).
Even though an individual can see water coming out at the very end of a system, it may not be applying the right amount of water. As identified in one of Kansas State University’s numerous uniformity tests, an error on several nozzles at the very end of the center pivot system can result in substantial yield penalty for the unknowing producer (see figure on pg. 29).
Safety
Concern for safety is another reason for having a qualified professional involved in your irrigation system. A vast majority of the center pivot systems in use today are powered by electricity, which in most cases operate on 3-phase, 400-volt (or higher) power. The high voltage alone would be an inherent safety concern, and it increases by being in the vicinity of a water source, not to mention the bare metal structure of the center pivot.
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