“The irrigation technology being refined today is nothing short of amazing.”

About a year ago, Nebraska Farmer carried an article about a northeast Nebraska farmer who had adopted and was testing variable-rate irrigation technology on a center-pivot system.  He said favorable corn and soybean prices in recent years made it possible for him to invest in this emerging technology.  Its use saved him both water and energy.

We’ve heard that reasoning from more than one Nebraska producer during our farm visits.  It’s an indication that making a profit will, in most cases, lead to more adoption of resource stewardship practices.

Variable-rate irrigation technology was one of the management practices getting considerable attention at a two-day workshop I recently attended in Kearney.  The Central States Irrigation Association covering Nebraska, Colorado and Kansas holds the gathering.  It rotates the conference among the three states, and this year was Nebraska’s turn.

The world of applying water to crops has changed dramatically over the years, in Nebraska and the High Plains.  Challenges of drought, limited water supplies and government regulations are pushing university researchers, irrigation companies and farmers themselves to come up with the technologies and practices to apply water at the right time and in the right amounts.

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Producers can benefit from the plot’s results though when the NRD shares them and other tips at t

heir annual Field Day.

“It gives us the opportunity to go out and do some real world research on a test plot,” says UBBNRD’s Public Relations Coordinator Scott Snell. “We do a lot of farm demonstrations, things that correspond with limited irrigation and limited fertilizing.”

Limited irrigation was a problem in much of central Nebraska this year, and as prices fluctuate and the drought continues, it’s an issue for next year too.

But businesses like CropMetrics are working on ways to help producers maximize water use through mapping and measuring technology.

“It’s a technology for better distributing irrigation to more effectively optimize yield and manage against any type of run off or waste,” says CropMetrics President Kevin Abts.

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he right amount to specific areas of the fields-no more, no less.

“This year, we’re short of rain, so we’re watering almost continuously,” Tim Schmeeckle told us in early August. “Our normal annual rainfall is 24 to 25 inches, so we normally supplement with 12 to 13 inches of irrigation water. This year, we’ll be applying 24 to 25 inches.”

But there is a limit to irrigation, a diminishing return to putting water onto the soil. “Why put on more than the soil can hold?” asks Schmeeckle, who grows corn and soybeans under center-pivots near Gothenburg, Neb. “Our irrigation isn’t controlled here, and we’re not limited on how many acre-inches we can pump, but it’s coming. I want to be ready for that and be able to grow the same amount or more corn with less water.”

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Of the nearly 7,000

acres Paulman farms south of the Platte River near Sutherland, nearly 6,000 acres are devoted to white and yellow field corn, popcorn, sugar beets, and dry beans. Consequently, Paulman was among the first producers in the nation to test variable-rate center pivot irrigation via eight of the 40 pivots that cover Paulman Farms.

As most every farmer knows, crop yields are often directly proportional to the most limiting growth factor. Even when water isn’t a limiting factor, its use is far from uniform due to variables in soil type, topography, water-holding capacity, water infiltration, and drainage rates. Paulman says that is particularly true in much of Nebraska, where the rolling terrain literally ruled out irrigation until center pivot systems came along.

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Precision Link from T-L Irrigation and AgSense LLC delivers full remote pivot control and monitoring capabilities.

T-L Irrigation Co., manufacturer of hydrostatically powered pivot and linear irrigation systems, announces the Precisi

on Link, the latest advancement in web based irrigation management from T-L’s family of pivot management systems.

Developed by AgSense, LLC and T-L, the Precision Link, coupled with the Precision Point III (PPC III) Control Panel from T-L, allows full remote pivot control and monitoring capabilities. Users can manage a pivot from any computer or mobile device and a simple internet connection.

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rm are helping growers match water application rates to soil type, conserving water and reducing yield variability. “He’s a small-town Nebraska boy who is making a global impact on water management,” says Dave Varner, a University of Nebraska Extension scientist in southeast Nebraska.

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h for differences in soil water-holding capacity, topography and yield potential. The goal is to boost crop production while conserving an expensive and increasingly scarce resource. “Even in a drought year,” Schmeeckle says, “I’m conserving water.”

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culture field day at 4 p.m. on Sept. 13. The center is at 17353 W. Oakland Ave. in Five Points.

Farmers and other members of the public are invited to the free event to see the system in operation and learn how overhead irrigation can be combined with no-till or minimum-till farming methods to create a more sustainable, profitable and environmentally sound agriculture industry. The field day includes a free barbecue dinner. To register, go to http://ucanr.edu/TwilightRegistration.

Overhead irrigation systems, such as center pivot systems, are the most prevalent form of irrigation nationwide; however, they have not been widely adopted in California to date. Recent technological advances in overhead irrigation – which allows integration of irrigation with global positioning systems (GPS) and management of vast acreage from a computer or smart phone – have boosted farmers’ interest in converting from gravity-fed surface irrigation systems, which are still used on 5 million acres of California farmland.

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