Northwest U.S. Dealer Helps Growers Move from Flood to Center Pivot Irrigation

It’s something Fred Butler sees a lot these days - growers in the Northwest region of the United States moving from flood to center pivot irrigation.

“We are seeing a large increase of flood to pivot irrigation, because landowners want to make their property more desirable to rent, and operators want better control of their irrigation systems,” Butler said. “We’re also replacing high labor hand lines with one and two tower pivots to water corners, because a lot of growers don’t have the manpower to maintain and move them.”

Butler works for Agri-Lines Irrigation - a Zimmatic dealership with five locations in Idaho (Parma, Grand View, Mountain Home, Tampa and Weiser) and two in Northern Nevada (Winnemucca and Smith Valley). Opened in 1983, the dealership currently employs 56 full and part-time team members.

“Growers in our area are dealing with a lot of challenges - new regulations, labor shortages and a loss of farm ground to development,” Butler said. “We’re committed to helping them overcome those challenges with innovative solutions to help monitor water usage and improve water application efficiency.”

Butler said an ongoing labor shortage has prompted many growers to add FieldNET^® remote management technology to their center pivot systems. From monitor only to full remote control, he said FieldNET offers options to meet his customer’s unique needs.

“Growers in this area want FieldNET - on new, old and competitor machines. With our solutions, we can bring all of their pivots - regardless of age or brand - onto the FieldNET platform. Many are also taking remote management to the next level with FieldNET Advisor™ - our cloud-based irrigation scheduling tool. These growers know the value of receiving continuously updated, field-specific irrigation recommendations, so they know precisely when, where and how much to irrigate,” he said. “Even our competitors admit they don’t have anything that’s comparable.”

Despite the current challenges, Butler believes the future of farming is bright.

“We have a new generation of customers that are tech savvy. They want the family time that comes with less time on the road and less time checking pivots,” he said. “Our technology is helping them reduce downtime, make better use of their time and produce higher yields.”

For more information about Agri-Lines Irrigation, visit agri-lines.com.

For more information about Zimmatic center pivots and FieldNET technology, talk to your local dealer or visit zimmatic.com.