Ultimately your biggest yield robber is probably cash.  Without cash it is hard to do much of anything from paying property taxes to paying for equipment, inputs, and labor.  So, let’s consider the next most significant input or factor and making yield.  If you guessed water, you agree with many others.  It’s a little more complicated than just water, but that seems to be the critical factor.  In a few cases it may be too much water, but often it is lack of moisture.  Dry weather is another description used…

If your farm is looking to make a major investment in irrigation equipment, do you follow the major brand with the established reputation, or do you select the local dealer that you know provides excellent service?  It would be easy if the big brand and the good local dealer worked together…

Winning at the game of farming is no easy task. There is no score card, referee, judge, timeclock or TV announcer. The game is becoming much less popular, as the number or teams and players continues to shrink. So how does it get measured? When can you tell if you are a winner?

Center Pivot Irrigation Systems require a good water supply both in flow rate and total gallons for a season. If you are considering irrigating 100 acres with an average of seven inches applied during the season, you will need 19,007,800 gallons of water at about 550 gallons per minute. For a one-inch application on those 100 acres, you will use 2,715,400 gallons…

Probably the most significant change since I entered the workforce back in 1982 has been the amount of information and means to access it. Just the ability to locate, reproduce, move data and share it with the folks that “need-to-know things” is incredible. Not to mention studies and trials done around the globe are available for others to share and try variations to improve producing food in their local climate. Sometimes paring down available statistics that are most applicable is as daunting as any part of the deciding process…

Irrigation scheduling is the decision of when and how much water to apply to the field. Its purpose is to maximize irrigation efficiencies by applying the amount of water needed to replenish the soil moisture to the desired level.

In any equipment buying decision, price is a factor. It is a known and can be used to measure the other factors that impact the eventual cost. Let’s look at a center pivot irrigation project. This is a complicated process and often a large investment that can impact your operation for decades, making it worthy of serious consideration. While a complex evaluation, the total return on your investment is probably a good approach when deciding which vendor to select.

A few years ago the Houghton Lake Wastewater Authority was struggling to apply enough wastewater and keep the phosphorous and other nutrient levels in check at two of their land application sites. Today, Valley center pivot irrigation systems designed, sold and installed by Michigan Valley Irrigation are on both sites. Here is a quick walk-through of one project.