Wouldn’t it be nice if every field was a perfectly square quarter section with no obstacles to worry about? Well it would also be nice if money grew on trees, but unfortunately neither of these scenarios is reality.

However, what if there was a way for you to both overcome obstacles in your field, as well as save some money with your mechanized irrigation machine? For any operation, that’s almost as good as money growing on trees. This was the driving force behind the development of the Valley line of Bender machine options, allowing the grower to maximize irrigated acres without breaking the bank.

For generations, conscientious farmers have been practicing the manual method of soil moisture monitoring based on how the soil "feels". If it feels too dry, irrigate; if it feels too wet, wait a couple days. This classic method can be effective with proper training and experience; however, it's very cumbersome and time-consuming.

With new advances in technology, farmers no longer need to guess when and how much to water, nor visit the field to find out. Valley_® Irrigation has an irrigation scheduling and soil-moisture monitoring tool called Valley Scheduling^TM that reduces guesswork and provides easy-to-understand irrigation recommendations based on field-proven science.

July is Smart Irrigation Month! This initiative from the Irrigation Association is used to promote the social, economic, and environmental benefits of efficient irrigation technologies in landscape, turf, and agricultural irrigation. Optimizing water resources is an extremely important part of irrigation.

We can learn a lot from our fields. Working with an agronomist is the best way to learn about your soil and crop conditions, and how you can produce the best yields. Here are a few quick tips that you can use to avoid common soil problems, and make your mechanized irrigation more effective.

Now more than ever, there is a wide range of products available to assist you with your farm operations. Having so many options, and knowing where to start, can be a difficult process. To help you get started, the irrigation.education team created this list of companies that you need to check out! 

Our friends at Valley_® Irrigation have a revolutionary new way to control your center pivot. Through the Valley ICON10™ and ICON1™ smart panels equipped with Valley ICON WiFi Access, and their Valley ICON Mobile App, you can access and control your panel remotely through your connected mobile device. 

Because Valley is committed to continuous improvement, the Valley ICON mobile app release 2.0 (available for Apple and Android devices) provides growers with the functionality to configure multiple Valley ICON panel devices to a single wifi network. Growers will also gain more flexibility with farm networking and will be able to opt one-to-one or one-to-many device configuration when setting up and connecting to devices.

In 2014, there were 270 million metric tons of sugar beets produced worldwide according to FAOSTAT. From sugar beet pulp used for livestock feed to table sugar used for human consumption, sugar beets are an extremely important crop.  

Over 65% of potato production is for human consumption according to the International Potato Center. Potatoes are also the world’s fourth-largest food crop, following maize, wheat, and rice.