One of our highly regarded and progressive IMS users recently suffered damage to a centre pivot when the corner arm blew over in strong winds. The resulting repair of the corner arm is difficult, expensive and renders the pivot out of action until the repair is completed.
This led to a review of how to best irrigate the corners, whilst retaining the centre pivot spans. The farm already uses the Water-Insight IMS cloud system and several hundred IPCs to control a large, fixed grid system.
We were delighted that the decision was to replace the corner arm with Water-Insight’s IPC sprinkler controllers – and shows how effective our IPCs can be for corner infill irrigation. IPCs are solar powered sprinkler controllers that use mesh radio communications and can be easily integrated into an existing IMS system. They are easily scheduled to operate when you need them and are are independent of the position of the pivot and corner arm – giving you more flexibility for your irrigation scheduling.
It is widely known that centre pivots are the most cost-effective spray irrigation system per hectare and fixed grid systems are more expensive per hectare.
However, the initial capital cost is not the only consideration. We encourage you to discuss the asset insurance, repair costs, wind protection (tie down) costs and the impact of failures with your irrigation provider before deciding that corner arm systems are suitable for you.
FMG publish great advice guides, including one for irrigators.
Water-Insight has many industry partners who can assist you in the decision making and provide budgetary pricing for the fixed grid or solid set options. For a list please check the “find an installer” section of our website or click the link below:
https://www.waterinsight.co.nz/installers
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