Pacific Institute Releases California Study

The Pacific Institute recently released a study entitled “Sustaining California Agriculture in an Uncertain Future”. 

The full report is available at: http://www.pacinst.org/reports/california_agriculture

In the conclusions and recommendations section of the report, the authors (Cooley, Christian-Smith, and Gleick) state:

 

“One of the many challenges to studying water issues in California is the lack of a consistent, comprehensive, and accurate estimate of actual water use. The failure to accurately account for water use contributes directly to the failure to manage it sustainably. Efforts should be implemented immediately to improve our understanding of actual water use in the agricultural sector.”

 

Those close to Net Irrigate know how often we echo this sentiment.  Flow meters in the agricultural sector are useless unless stakeholders have timely access to the data.  Likewise, it isn’t only important to understand how much water is being used, but also HOW it is being used.  For example, if a single irrigation system is watering multiple crops, the net irrigation requirements for each crop is usually different.  Appropriate policy and irrigation practices cannot be implemented unless this intelligence can be accurately delivered to all stakeholders.  Delivering such information as accurately as possible is Net Irrigate’s mission.

Rainfall Now at Your Finger Tips!

Net Irrigate announced early this year that version 3.0 of our hardware would support dual pulse inputs.  We envisioned a common installation would involve both a flow meter and a rain gauge, such that a true “net irrigation” could be captured and analyzed via our web based software. 

With the support of our finest Texas customers, we are pleased to see that this vision of capturing a true “net irrigation” amount is becoming a reality.  Rainfall in the Texas High Plains was collected at over a dozen sites in the past week and immediately transmitted to netirrigate.com through a Rain Gauge Tipping Bucket.

Producers now have the added benefit of configuring real-time alerts such that they can be notified when it starts or stops raining at a particular irrigation site.  Likewise, the amount of rainfall can be easily viewed at netirrigate.com allowing them to strategically determine if the desired “net irrigation” amount has been met, thereby allowing them to perhaps stop their irrigation system.  We hope this added functionality to our service can ultimately result in less ground water pumped and energy consumed.

NetIrrigate 3.0 Released!

Net Irrigate is happy to have completed the roll-out of our version 3.0 telemetry box firmware and web based software.  Thanks to spectacular customer feedback over the past two years, we are happy to announce the following enhancements:

• Dual pulse inputs which can be graphically viewed on netirrigate.com.  The second input is ideal for tracking rain gauge or fertigation data in conjunction with gallons of water pumped.
• Custom date range parameters when running water usage reports.  No longer will water usage reports default to a particular month.
• Annual water usage reports for the device wired to second meter input.
• A plethora of new alert types!  See our blog entry: Sneak Peek: Alert Features in NetIrrigate 3.0.
• New and improved event logging which is filterable on netirrigate.com.
• Automatic water usage reporting to field regions on sites equipped with the NetIrrigate® GPS Module.
• Automatic water usage reporting to zones on sites equipped with the NetIrrigate® Drip Tracker module.
• Battery backup standard on all hardware.
• Remote start/stop relays standard on all hardware.

More details on the 2009 NetIrrigate® Telemetry Box can be found at: http://www.netirrigate.com/2009/pdfs/NetIrrigateTelemetryBox2009.pdf

 For demos of the Version 3.0 Web Based software, please contact us.

Diesels in the Mississippi River Valley

We are Net Irrigate are enthused about the upcoming release of the USDA Farm And Ranch Irrigation Survey next month. The data we analyzed in 2003 revealed some noteworthy characteristics that may have changed due to the shock in fuel prices over the last four years.  According to the results of the last USDA Farm and Ranch irrigation survey, from 1998 to 2003, the irrigated states along the Mississippi River Valley enjoyed some of the lowest energy costs associated with agricultural irrigation.

While low fuel prices and relatively fewer pumping hours helped drive inexpensive pumping, irrigation well characteristics also contributed.

Since fuel expenses are estimated to have more than doubled since the 2003 sampling period; the shock may have helped drive a switch to electric motors. We are curious to see if a decrease in diesel powered pumps occurred within the irrigated regions of the Mississippi River Valley.

We look forward to seeing if the fuel cost factor changed irrigation system characteristics. Stay tuned for our analysis next month upon release of the survey data…

Sneak Peek: Alert Features in NetIrrigate 3.0

As most of our customers know, the NetIrrigate® 3.0 web software will be launched on February 28th, 2009.  Over the next several weeks, we’ll be posting screen shots and discussing new features on our company blog. 

 

One improvement we’re particularly excited about is our “Alert Management”.  Presently, only four types of alert events can be configured.  With the release of NetIrrigate® 3.0, thirteen different events can be trapped and configured with alerts.  (Hopefully we aren’t cursing ourselves with bad luck).  Alerts can now be configured for the following events:

 

1. When my NetIrrigate® Telemetry Box BOOTS UP
2. When the Primary AC POWER SOURCE FAILS
3. When my system encounters a SAFETY STOP
4. When my AUXILARY INPUT turns on
5. When my NetIrrigate® Telemetry Box receives a REMOTE SHUTDOWN call
6. When the Primary DC POWER SOURCE FAILS
7. When FLOW STARTS on INPUT 1
8. When FLOW IS PERIODICALLY REPORTED on INPUT 1
9. When FLOW STOPS on INPUT 1
10. When FLOW STARTS on INPUT 2
11. When FLOW IS PERIODICALLY REPORTED on INPUT 2
12. When FLOW STOPS on INPUT 2:
13. When my NetIrrigate® Telemetry Box unexpectedly STOPS TRANSMITTING DATA

 

Note that the new version of our hardware contains dual pulse inputs so multiple flow meters can be monitored with a single telemetry box.  The second pulse input is ideal for digital rain gauges or fertigation meters.

 

Below is a screen shot of the new user interface:

Alert Management

 The slide menus will provide for easy alert navigation.  In addition, we’ve added a “test” button so users can test and sample an alert target before it’s saved.

Can Conservation Incentives Actually Increase Water Use?

Frank A. Ward (Department of Agricultural Economics and Agricultural Business, New Mexico State University) and Manuel Pulido-Velazquez (Department of Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering–Institute of Water and Environmental Engineering, Universidad Polite´ cnica de Valencia) recently published a scholarly article which suggests that water conservation subsidies will not provide farmers with economic incentives to reduce water depletion.  A focus of the study was drip irrigation.  While its benefits were discussed, the research suggests drip irrigation does not necessarily save water when considered from a basin scale.  The entire scholarly article can be read at:

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2008/11/17/0805554105.full.pdf+html?sid=3888373b-c7b9-4b44-9aa5-dd95468acd29

Net Irrigate commends Ward and Pulido-Velazquez for their research efforts.  In addition to the insightful content, one particular paragraph of their report struck a cord with us:

“What measures can be taken to promote real water savings?
A first step could be accurate accounting of basinwide water use.
Water accounting analyzes use, depletion, and productivity of
water at the basin scale*. Accurate accounting and measurement
of water use can help identify opportunities for water
savings, increase water productivity, and improve the rationale
for water allocation among uses*.”

*Molden D (2007) Water For Food, Water For Life: A Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture (Earthscan, London). 

At Net Irrigate, we take water accounting seriously.  Our telemetry solutions coupled with our web based reporting and data analysis tools store up to five years of historical data and provide high degrees of granularity.  Our graphical components make analyzing data easy.  What good are flow meter and conservation programs if stakeholders cannot have timely access to data?  Proactive measures can better be taken when data is in workable formats and free from lags.

Water Problems Not Only for the West

Cynthia Barnett’s book Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S. coupled with her recent presentation at the University of Central Florida hopefully will make Florida growers aware of irrigation technologies which can add both convenience and conservation to their operations. 

In her presentation at UCF, Ms. Barnett noted that flood irrigation techniques dominate Florida because of cost.  She also stated that “Helping farmers achieve efficiency could give us millions of gallons of water per day.”  Likewise, Ms. Barnett stated that micro-irrigation may serve as a possible conservation solution.

We at Net Irrigate agree with Ms. Barnett’s sentiment.  We would also like to add that in addition to not applying water directly to the root zone; flood irrigation is wasteful because it presently requires the human eye to discern when water has covered an entire field.   In many areas, such as the mid-south, it is not uncommon for a farmer to have to manage at least twenty flood flow irrigation pumps.   Due to the spread out geographic nature of agriculture, water runoffs typically occur because farmers must travel to flood irrigated fields to determine if irrigation has completed.  Additionally, farmers then must physically shut down the associated pump.  Because agriculture is a time consuming business, it may be several hours before a farmer can travel to a field to discern optimal irrigation and shut down a pump.  The detrimental result is in unnecessary pumping hours and wasted water.
 
While not nearly as efficient as an entire micro-irrigation system, the NetIrrigate® Telemetry Box is a much more inexpensive solution which can conserve water, energy, and add convenience to a farming operation.  The NetIrrigate® Telemetry Box has been installed on several flood irrigation systems in Southeast Missouri and Arkansas.  When water arrives to certain points in the field, a text message or phone call is sent to the grower.  The grower may then flip out his/her cell phone and shut down their pump from anywhere!

Net Irrigate thanks Ms. Barnett for making more people aware of the potential crisis situation facing our nation and commend her on her research efforts thus far.