choices regarding irrigation system maintenance and performance. Even the owner/ operator may have gaps with a basic operational understanding of these components.
I spent 22 years in farm management and continue to manage our family raisin vineyard, but only after I started working at the Center for Irrigation Technology at Fresno State 15 years ago did I gain the necessary understanding and closed my knowledge gap on proper system maintenance.
Various types of irrigation delivery systems — center pivot, sprinkler, micro and flood irrigation — are trying to achieve the goal of high crop production with good quality. But, how we achieve this varies greatly. Every irrigation system needs to have the right amount of water supplied — at the right time, with good uniformity and at an economic cost to succeed. Every pressurized system has a designed flow and pressure to deliver good distribution uniformity to the crop. Flood irrigation may not require pressure, but timely irrigation events require adequate flow volume to the crop.
Let’s concentrate on the low hanging fruit. These basics are a good starting point for all pressurized irrigation systems.
Protect your pump The pump is the heart of the irrigation system.
Imagine our own human heart delivering blood flow throughout the matrix and network of veins and arteries. Our heart has to accomplish this with the right flow and pressure. Similarly, a pump must deliver the correct flow under a specified pressure to the irrigation system matrix. To monitor and maintain the pump, growers should do the following:
g Step 1
Install a flow meter. You have to measure water to
the volume of water being pumped in real time and also gives a total amount applied. This is like the speedometer and odometer on your vehicle. The speedometer shows you the speed you’re traveling in real time. The flow meter shows the gallons per minute in real time. An odometer in your car shows the total miles you’ve traveled. The totalizer on the flow meter gives you the amount of water pumped, usually in acre feet. I write down the acre feet my totalizer shows at the beginning of each growing season. At the end of the year, I know exactly how much total water I’ve applied to my crop. It doesn’t tell me if I applied it uniformly, but at least I know how much water I’ve pumped.
manage water. The flow meter shows e
Step 2 Install pressure gauges.
Discharge pounds per square inch will show you if you have adequate pressure the irrigation system design requirement specified.
A professional pump efficiency tester
sounding a well to get water levels
18 Irrigation TODAY | October 2018 er 2018
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