With another irrigation season upon us, it is essential that irrigators get the most from the investments they have made in their irrigation systems.
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For those with overhead systems, checks prior to turning the pump on may make this year’s irrigation a bit more profitable and a little less stressful.
Simple checks include:
- Inspect your irrigator’s structural integrity.
- Ensure your oil and grease points are serviced.
- Check and service your drivelines, couplings and gearboxes.
- Make sure your control systems, automatic shutdown and wiring are in sound working order.
- Check machine alignment, and any guidance arms or cables
- Check your filters and trash screens.
- Check the pressure of each tyre.
- Check the flow rate of your pump - to ensure it is delivering what it is supposed to.
- Replace worn or broken sprinklers and regulators, and check the operating pressure at the pump, and middle and end of the machine.
Apart from mechanical servicing, the key areas that affect your irrigator’s performance are the operation of your sprinklers and the operating pressure of your machine.
There is a rule of thumb that says your sprinkler package typically accounts for less than 10 per cent of the cost of an entire system but has the biggest influence on irrigation performance.
Operating your machine at too high a pressure is costing you money, whereas too low a pressure often means not enough water is being applied. Buy a good pressure gauge and regularly check operating pressures.
There are three key measures that determine the irrigation performance of your machine, and ultimately, the crop being irrigated: application rate, application uniformity and application efficiency.
These can be checked with a ‘catch can’ test, in which cans are placed across the length of the operating machine, and the volume in each subsequently measured.
The results can be used to work out the application rates, and how uniformly water is being applied across the length of the machine.
If you have done all the checks and everything is working as it should, you should also do some form of soil moisture monitoring.
Finally, don’t forget to actually get out in the field.
If you don’t monitor and check what your system is doing and how it is performing, you can’t expect to improve and maximise the benefits these systems can provide.
