Valmont Industries took home two AE50 awards during the AG CONNECT Expo last week including one for its Base Station 2 with soil moisture monitor. Michele Stolte, with Valmont Industries, explained that with this system you can use the irrometer and then that information can be reported through their base stations and accessed at home. This aids the grower in determining whether or not he needs to irrigate and if so, how much.
The second award the company won was for its GPS Guidance for corners and linears. The system uses the RTK Star Fire GPS system that eliminates the need to install underground guidance cables and helps with precision application of water.
Another project Valmont has been working on, said Stolte, is a rice irrigation project using center pivots. “The main reason we got into this was to conserve water. Over the past couple of years, we have seen a water savings of approximately 50 percent as compared to flood irrigation which is mainly the only way rice is grown.”
Center pivots in general can apply water more precisely than most other forms of irrigation. This not only conserves water, but also saves the grower money.
Listen to my interview with Michelle here.