Irrigation made a big difference for many farmers going through last year’s dry growing season. Irrigators Association of Minnesota President Jake Wildman says the technology available to irrigators has been beneficial. “The instruments that we can use for soil moisture testing to determine when and how much to apply per pass and the soil moisture is connected to our apps that allow us start and stop the irrigator from our phone.” The technology allows farmers to be more efficient with water, so more is applied to crops and not lost to evaporation or runoff. “When a pivot is designed with the sprinkler technologies and the correct sprinkler package, the manufacturers have figured out what the best design is. When they design a pivot, we’re 90 to 95 percent more efficient compared to when we had high impact nozzles on top of the pipe”.
