Irrigation land is expensive, water is scarce and time is precious. The farmer who wants to survive and keep on farming must make every drop and every minute count. At Lindsay, distributor of the American Zimmatic irrigation systems, all new technological developments are about helping the farmer to farm more efficiently and increase production without wasting water and soil.

A pivot point remains king of irrigation systems, but it is also true that fertile agricultural land does not come in circular form. Two of the presentations at Lindsay’s stand at NAMPO demonstrated how that problem can be solved.

Lateral or linear systems can work well for long, rectangular farms, and Lindsay offers several solutions to this. Since there is no stationary anchor tower like at a pivot point, the water and power supply must move with the system.

Another solution to fully utilise your land is to irrigate with Zimmatic’s corner arm solution. The corner system can be added as an additional span on an existing pivot point. The span runs at an angle with the pivot point to the corner of the field. Then it swings out and the sprayers are activated through the automatic control system to irrigate the corner that the normal pivot cannot reach. Depending on the size of your fields, you can easily gain between 18 and 28% production potential.

“We have just assisted a farmer at Christiana to increase his high potential soil. His choice was either to buy another farm or to efficiently utilise his existing land. In some regions, irrigation land can cost up to R300 000 per hectare. It makes sense to utilise every inch of it,” says Richard.

Rudi Koekemoer, Richard Joseph and Adam Olivier say electronic control and precision farming go hand in hand. With Zimmatic’s electronic technology, the farmer can have a whole information management system at his fingertips.

At NAMPO, Lindsay displayed the technology with a row of sprayers that automatically turned on and off. Richard says their precision control is not just about segments, but can literally control every sprinkler in specified areas.

Suppose the pivot crosses with a bridge over a ditch. All that the farmer has to do is mark the GPS coordinates of the strip, and then the sprayers can be programmed to switch off one by one as the pivot moves over the ditch.

Everything is programmed on the Zimmatic control panel, or if you have Fieldnet, you can simply do it on your smartphone. Through the electronic system you also have access to information like the actual flow of the water, and you can even use weather station information to schedule your irrigation. Fieldnet can also be used to control other types of pivots.

At NAMPO, Lindsay also exhibited their four-wheeled trolley fitted with diesel tanks and a power generator that propels the system along the field and provides power to the gearboxes. Water can be supplied in a variety of ways, for by means of a pipe that is dragged along or from a canal dug next to the wagon.

The generator provides power to the pump, the car and the system and everything moves together. Richard Joseph, Marketing Manager of Lindsay SA, says there is such a system on its way to Zambia right now. It will be able to travel back and forth over a distance of 1,2 km.

All the new technology developed by Zimmatic is not in the field of electronics. Zimmatic has new gearbox oil that never needs to be drained and replaced. Gearlife becomes smooth and runny when the parts move, but remains in a protective gel form around all the parts while it is stationary. Richard says they used Gearlife in the demonstration model last year at NAMPO. The gearbox with the regular oil had to be drained and refilled, but they could simply turn on the gearbox filled with Gearlife!

For more information on Zimmatic’s technology solutions, contact Richard Joseph from Lindsay at 084-788-9412 or 021-986-8900 or send an e-mail to richard.joseph@lindsayafrica.co.za