Both company's products win ASABE AE50 awards

Valley Irrigation, a technology leader in precision irrigation, announced a formal agreement with CropMetrics, a precision ag data services company that specializes in variable rate irrigation technology. This agreement creates an alignment of Valley Irrigation dealers with the latest in agronomic technology to provide growers true precision irrigation with center pivots.

 “Precision irrigation starts with building a precise water management plan,” says Craig Malsam, Valmont Irrigation’s vice president of engineering.  “Applying the optimum level of water and nutrients through a center pivot is more important than ever. We’re excited to be the first in our industry to supply a whole new dimension of precision irrigation through our agreement with CropMetrics and their optimization service available through our Valley dealers.”

 “As our single most valuable natural resource, applying excess water is an unnecessary cost. Apply too little water, and yield potential is now lost as well. Our solution is to optimally apply water specific to soil type,” says Nick Emanuel, CropMetrics president. “We’re excited to work with Valley dealers and offer Valley customers the ability to take precision agriculture to the next level with our unique precision agronomic solutions and data services.”

 CropMetrics specializes in full-service data collection, processing, and advanced yield analysis. The company supplies all proprietary web-based software and large-scale data processing so agronomists, crop consultants, ag retailers and precision ag specialists can focus on providing fast, reliable and profitable precision ag programs for variable rate irrigation, nitrogen and seeding.

 Valley Irrigation VRI Zone Control provides individual sprinkler or span control and is fully compatible with all new and existing center pivots equipped with the Valley Irrigation Pro2 control panel. The Pro2 panel uses power line communication to remotely manage as many as 30 VRI Zone Control units. This allows each individual control unit to be easily positioned at any point along the pivot span. Because the new VRI Zone Control utilizes the on-board computing power of the Valley Irrigation Pro2 panel in combination with power line communication, the added VRI equipment cost is reasonable.

 “We believe that combining Valley Irrigation control technology with CropMetrics precision services is the future of mechanized irrigation,” says Malsam. “Producers with pivot irrigation have always been able to control how much water is applied to a field. But this technology allows producers to control how much water, fertilizer and other crop management products are variably applied based on precise agronomic data.”

 In addition, Valley Irrigation with VRI Zone Control, and CropMetrics with automated agronomic VRI prescription services, have been given American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) AE50 awards as a top 50 innovative new product produced in 2010.

 The AE50 awards will be announced during a presentation at the Agricultural Equipment Technology Conference (AETC) in Atlanta, Ga. on January 6 as part of Ag Connect Expo.  Representatives from CropMetrics and Valley Irrigation will be available to demonstrate the new VRI technology in the Valley Irrigation booth at Ag Connect, January 7-10.