The device is the UGA EASY (Evaporation-based Accumulator for Sprinkler-enhanced Yield) Pan Irrigation Scheduler. It's designed to provide a simple, cost-efficient, low-maintenance way for farmers to know when or if their crops need water, says Kerry Harrison, a UGA CAES engineer.
"This irrigation scheduler is another alternative farmers can use to schedule irrigation that doesn't require a lot of investment or effort," says Harrison, who helped design the scheduler.
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The UGA EASY Pan Irrigation Scheduler is a low-cost, simplified way for farmers to monitor irrigation use. |
For many years, farmers have asked for a low-cost tool that could
tell them precisely when to irrigate crops. So, Harrison, along
with Dan Thomas, a CAES engineering professor, set out to develop
such a tool.
Several higher-tech monitoring systems are available on the
market. These systems can be expensive, require a computer to
calculate readings and can be time consuming.
For about a $50 investment in common, but specific, components
and another $50 of labor, almost anybody can make and use the
EASY scheduler, Harrison said.
Meets the needs
The EASY scheduler addresses four basic needs for a irrigation
monitoring device:
*It eliminates complicated math equations.
*It's easy to calibrate.
*It takes into consideration plant rooting depth.
*And it's easy to operate.
The EASY scheduler operates on a basic principle important to
irrigation management known as potential evapotranspiration
(PET). This
is how much water can be removed from the plants (transpiration)
and soil (evaporation) without compromising the water needs of
the plants.
By placing screen materials over the washtub, this device
automatically reflects the PET of several crop situations.
Chicken wire is used for peanuts. Screen door wire is used for
cotton.
The device responds to water removal and water addition, like
rainfall or irrigation.
The specific (#3 17-gallon Galvanized) size of the washtub
eliminates the need for calibration.
The length of the rod attached to the toilet bowl float can be
adjusted to consider the rooting depth of plants.
"With the indicator attached, you can read it just like a gas
gauge to determine when or how close you want to get to empty
before watering," Harrison said.
It's easy to use "as long as you put it in the field," Harrison
said. "You don't even have to get out of the truck to check
it."
Harrison recommends putting the device at the same height as the
plant canopy for a true reading.
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Worth County farmer Johnny Cochran checks the EASY scheduler in his peanut field. |
Worth County farmer Johnny Cochran is using the EASY scheduler in
his fields this year. He's comparing it to a more expensive,
computer-based system he also uses.
"You can tell somebody put a lot of thought into making it, but
usually something this simple-looking doesn't work.," Cochran
said.
Though the computer-based system can give more specific
information, Cochran said, the EASY scheduler works just as well
at telling when crops need or don't need water.
And that's important to him.
This time of year, most crops need about two inches of available
water each week. It costs a farmer about $4 per inch of water per
acre. One 100-acre field would cost the farmer $800 to irrigate
per week.
"Farmers don't want to irrigate," Cochran said. "It costs money
and time. But sometimes you've got to have it. With water use
looking like it's going to be regulated more and more in the
future, if you can get by without applying water, it's cheaper
for the farmer and saves the water."
For information about the UGA EASY Pan Irrigation Scheduler,
contact your county UGA Extension Service office.
