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SEPTEMBER 2018 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


23 Rancher goes wireless to manage irrigation


Solar-powered technology saves water, improves forage by TOM WALKER


CLINTON – Gravity and solar energy power a wireless irrigation system in a remote pasture near Clinton. John Grawher’s bottom


pasture is about 15 minutes in four-wheel drive south of his ranch house. Over the last 20 years, he has been irrigating with a hand line, using gravity feed from a small lake. “It used to take me about


one-and-a-half hours every day to drive down and back and move the lines,” says Grawher. Now he just has to hop on his motorbike and in less than five minutes he can check to see that the irrigation guns are still running. Solar power and a TWIG wireless irrigation system from Nelson Irrigation Corp. in Walla Walla, Washington does the rest. Grawher made the switch


after completing an environmental farm plan four years ago. One of the


outcomes was to look at water use and time spent on that remote pasture. “John came to us wanting


to get away from the hand lines,” says Vern Winger, agriculture sales manager at Watertec Irrigation in Williams Lake. “He also realized that there was a huge inconsistency in his irrigation. He might be getting down there at a different time each day and if he got busy with other things at the ranch, he might not get down there at all sometimes for a couple of days.” Grawher needed a system


that would operate on its own and without power. “I didn’t want to put in all


David Winger, service technician for WaterTec, perches on a crib protecting an irrigation gun. TOM WALKER PHOTO


the poles at more than $1,000 each,” says Grawher. “And I didn’t want to put in a diesel generator – you have to pack in fuel and you have another machine to maintain.” Nelson Irrigation’s solar-


powered wireless irrigation system was ideal.


“I got some help with the


Environmental Farm Plan dollars and cattle prices have been good,” says Grawher. “I’d been looking to do something down there for a while.” The system consists of a TD200 controller, capable of controlling up to 100 TWIGs in a programmed sequence. TWIGs are located in the field and they control solenoid- operated valves. The system operates like a conventional hard-wired automated irrigation system except the underground wires have been


eliminated and replaced by two-way wireless radio signals between the TD200 and the TWIGs. The solar-powered controller signals the TWIGs to turn on and off, depending on the program. Grawher has 23 TWIG units


arrayed across his 20-acre field, each one controlling a big irrigation gun. “When the controller tells


the TWIG to turn the irrigation gun on, a solenoid opens, allowing the water pressure in, which turns the gun on, irrigating the field,” explains Winger. “There is more than 250 feet of drop from the lake down to the pasture. That is where we build our pressure, and we are simply redirecting the pressure through the solenoid.” The system has allowed


Grawher to fine-tune his water usage.


“He is using about 25% less water and the application is uniform and regular,” says Winger. The result is a better crop of


grass for Grawher’s 125 cow- calf pairs, which are free to range in and out of the pasture. “It is the cat’s ass for that


pasture situation,” jokes Grawher. “There isn’t one little thing on it that I wasn’t counting on that has happened.” Best of all, the system is completely programmable, meaning it can be changed as circumstances require.


Right now, the guns are


programmed to run for four hours, two at a time. It’s what Grawher finds is best for his field. When the system is about to change over to the next two guns in the program, the current guns slow down and the new ones start up, working to keep the gravity- fed siphon in constant prime. “That’s maybe the only glitch in the system – every once in a while I lose the prime.” says Grawher. “I probably have 100 feet of siphoning to do. The priming takes me 15 minutes of fast hard time. But a guy can deal with that.”


Extreme drought conditions have made forages and feeding a challenge.


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