Smart Irrigation Month Getting smart about irrigation!


July is Smart Irrigation Month, but what does smart irrigation really mean and how does it impact the ag industry? To get our answer, leaders from four different sectors of the ag industry were asked to weigh in on one question:


What does smart irrigation mean to you?


exact amount of water it needs when it needs it. It’s making sure that


Smart irrigation is simply giving the plant the irrigation is supplemental


to


rainfall, distributed uniformly and applied efficiently without excess. It’s incorporating fertilizer and chemical applications into the scheduling process so that the economic value is maximized. It’s having an understanding of the various stresses occurring during the crop season and knowing when irrigation will help. Many people believe that smart irrigation requires expensive technologies, but it doesn’t. The technologies are meant to aid the irrigator by using science and engineering to bridge any gaps in efficiency due to lack of knowledge or lack of available time. They don’t replace the human component to irrigation. So, smart irrigation can only be achieved if irrigators make the choices necessary to irrigate smart.


Stacia L. Davis Conger, PhD, state irrigation specialist, Louisiana State University Ag Center


Our ranch is located at the headwaters of the Colorado


River, so we have a lot of opportunities to do different things with our water. Our irrigation system is both sprinkler and flood, and we are working to find the right balance to maximize production for our ranch and for our family. We also have a wildlife component to consider on our ranch and in the valley. This is an important bird area, so we are trying to make sure we take care of many different things and not sacrifice production. We irrigate everything that we can irrigate. We are just trying to find the right balance of using this gift of irrigation that we have in a way that maximizes all the benefits.


Pat O’Toole, owner, Ladder Ranch, Wyoming


I’ve spent the last 20 years finding collab-


orative solutions to water scarcity in the West. What smart irrigation means to me is when diverse coalitions of interests come together around innovative changes to water management or infrastructure


improvements. These smart To me, smart irrigation means a steadfast commitment


to improvement by all involved in the cycle of water use. A manufacturer committed to smart irrigation strives to develop cutting-edge technologies to enhance efficient irrigation practices on a continuum. Dealers, distributors, consultants and contractors committed to smart irrigation dedicate themselves to offering the most effective and efficient products and services on the market. Irrigators committed to smart irrigation are dedicated to utilizing the products and services that will enable them to be most productive per drop of water used. The commitment to smart irrigation is a commitment to continued education and advocacy by all.


Julie Bushell, director of sales and marketing, Paige Electric Co. Ag Division


solutions figure out how to deliver more reliable supplies of irrigation water while also improving watershed health. They make fisheries and irrigation supplies more resilient to drought. Smart irrigation can be investments in canal lining to deliver irrigation water more efficiently; it can be a new headgate or diversion structure that provides fish passage through a stream; it can be a fish screen that prevents fish from swimming down an irrigation ditch; or it can be a voluntary drought response plan operating at the basin scale. Each is important, regardless of the scale or focus, because each smart solution brings creativity and trust to solve an irrigation problem that leaves a stream or river better off than it was before. Now, I’d say that’s smart!


Laura Ziemer, JD, senior counsel and water policy advisor, Trout Unlimited


For more information about Smart Irrigation Month, go to


www.smartirrigationmonth.org. 38 Irrigation TODAY | July 2018


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