Supplywise Podcast Episode 54 - Valley Pivots Can Save You Thousands
Looking for a more efficient way to water your farm and increase your yield? This week we chat about center pivot irrigation to help increase your farms' efficiency. Check out the video at youtube.com/mountainlandsupply! Every 2 weeks we will be posting a podcast to educate on various SupplyWise topics to help you with your next project. Be sure to check out the product demonstration at youtube.com/mountainlandsupply
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SPEAKERS
Andrew Stevens
Brandon Rowley
FULL TRANSCRIPT (with timecode)
00:00:18:07 - 00:00:31:10
Hello and welcome to Supplywise, the what and why for residential commercial and industrial building supply. I'm your host Andrew Stevens Mountainland SUpply. And today we are joined by Brandon Rowley director of Agricultural Irrigation Sales at Mountainland. How's it going?
00:00:31:17 - 00:00:32:24
Awesome. Thank you for having me.
00:00:33:03 - 00:01:07:20
We're glad to have you on so we're here today to talk about center pivot irrigation, which is pretty cool. I remember years ago, when I first moved to Utah driving up you know. I'm from Arizona, so I was driving up most of the time and passing fields that had those big center pivot like massive rigs out there in the fields. About the coolest thing I'd ever seen. So, we are here today to talk a little bit about that and the benefits of that. What is center pivot irrigation?
00:01:08:21 - 00:01:23:13
Center Pivot Irrigation is applying water to your crops in an efficient way. It something that can save you money, save you time, and create more yield - more product you're producing.
00:01:23:27 - 00:01:39:01
So, it's got the water being forced through the center part that has some arms that kind of connect to it to spin out. So, these components of the pivot. What kind of components are there for a center pivot irrigation?
00:01:39:12 - 00:02:13:24
There's the water side and there's the electrical side. The water side you have a pipeline, filters, valves, and sprinklers that get the water out. Then you have the electrical side and the controls to the electrical side, that allow the pivot to move allow you to program it to move different speeds, put down different rates of water, and turn off and on different places. The sprinklers really are the nuts and bolts to the to the pivot.
00:02:14:23 - 00:02:21:17
So with these center pivots, about how much water doesn't use generally?
00:02:24:07 - 00:02:28:19
But what Kimberly can you plan on if you're looking at a switching to center pivot.
00:02:29:06 - 00:02:47:21
It varies a lot depending on your soil types and crop. But as a rule-of-thumb in Utah, about 8 gallons per minute per acre is what we design for here at Mountainland. With the pivot, because you can't speed it up and slow down you can you can change how much water puts down that way. So, you don't have to be exact.
00:02:48:17 - 00:02:53:07
Okay. Yeah. That's kind of just a general outline in the ballpark. Sure.
00:02:56:03 - 00:03:01:04
You said that it's a much more efficient way. So, 8 gallons per minute, per acre. Seems like it's not that much.
00:03:02:13 - 00:03:14:16
It's not that much, but when you're flood irrigating, which a lot of these guys are going from flood irrigating to center pivots, you're cutting your water use in half, at least if not more.
00:03:14:18 - 00:03:20:28
Right. If you're thinking of switching over from flood irrigation to pivot irrigation, how much would this cost? I know
00:03:21:21 - 00:03:34:25
talked earlier you said it's different for what you're looking for but kind of just - again it's like buying a car you can buy the watered-down version you buy the really expensive version.
00:03:34:27 - 00:04:04:06
So, there's a lot of things that you can change that way. But in general, for a center pivot per tower. Towers are anywhere from 130 up to 225 feet long for a tower, we tell people rule-of-thumb maybe $10,000 t0 $15,000 per tower. Shorter pivots are more per tower. Adding more per footage, per foot costs $50 to $50 to $75 per foot of machine that you put out there.
00:04:11:05 - 00:04:14:12
What would be the benefits to using Center Pivot Irrigation over flood irrigation?
00:04:24:28 - 00:04:44:13
Switching from flood to pivots quadruples ranch yields. Hay that a farmer produces with flood irrigation ranges around 1,500 pounds of hay per acre. While center pivot can produce up to 6,000 pounds of hay per acre.
00:04:44:29 - 00:05:02:25
A farmer can estimate that one pivot alone can save you around $12,000 to $15,000 per year on labor alone. You're producing more, you're costing less. It's kind of a no brainer.
00:05:02:28 - 00:05:04:23
That's a, Yeah. It's nothing to sneeze at there.
00:05:07:05 - 00:05:12:09
You said that it was labor that is being saved as well. Not only are you saving the dollar amounts, but you're also saving time and labor.
00:05:16:18 - 00:05:38:19
And if you're pumping your water you know whether it's from down a well or from a reservoir or ditch a pivot is going to use less water. So you're pumping costs go down, how much water you're buying goes down. So it really can be a big savings for these guys making their businesses better. Making them more profitable for less effort.
00:05:38:25 - 00:05:54:23
Yeah that's what it's all about is making sure that their businesses as good as it can be. Saving you by saving money so that way you can save against you know maybe low yield years. Or you just take that reinvest get maybe four pivots.
00:05:55:02 - 00:06:00:16
That's what this gentleman has done. He's getting three more pivots. So just go on his operation.
00:06:00:25 - 00:06:09:10
That's right. And that's. Yep. Growing your own business. You can use it for anything you want to reinvest in yourself. Sure.
00:06:10:20 - 00:06:35:15
Well thanks for coming in to chat with us about this. I appreciate you taking some time. You can find these products with your Mountainland Representative or on mountainlandsupply.com. You can find this podcast mountainlandsupply.com/supplywise or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Make sure you check out YouTube.com/mountainlandsupply for the video portion of this podcast. Be sure to tune in each week to find out more about the products and services that make you Supplywise.