Agricultural Irrigation Tools

When you hear aboutagricultural irrigation tools, many immediately imagine hoses and sprinklers. But in fact, there is a whole ecosystem there - from a simple valve to systems that themselves decide when to water your wheat. I remember how last year, at one of the projects of Shandong Lingyao Intelligent Agriculture Technology LLC, we installed automatic frequency systems - at first people looked skeptically, saying, “Why these difficulties?”, and after a season they themselves asked to adjust the settings. This is what I want to think about: how tools made of iron and plastic turn into something that really changes the harvest.

What do we generally consider irrigation tools?

Broadly speaking, everything from ditch shovels to moisture sensors. But now very few people dig by hand, except in small areas. More often we work with systems where pipes, valves, filters are like construction parts. For example, the sameremote valve controls, which Shandong Linyao LLC supplies, looks like a simple box, but inside there is logic that takes into account both the weather forecast and the type of soil. Previously, I myself doubted whether I should trust automation, but at a project in the Krasnodar Territory I saw: where people watered “according to schedule,” part of the field became waterlogged, and where smart valves were installed, the humidity remained normal.

By the way, about filtration. Many people still save on filters, they say, the water is already clean. And then they wonder why the drip lines get clogged. We had a case in Tatarstan - a farmer installed an expensive drip irrigation system, but installed the cheapest filter. After two months, half of the emitters failed. I had to redo it, install multi-stage filtration - sand + mesh. Now he himself says: “A filter is like seat belts, it seems that you don’t need it until you encounter a problem?”

And here's another thing: tools are not just hardware. The software that manages all this is also part of the toolkit. I often argue with my colleagues: can software be called an irrigation tool? I think so - because without it the same valves are just a piece of metal. The website https://www.lyzhihuinongye.ru has examples of how their systems integrate data from fields and forecasts - this is no longer just “irrigation”, but water resource management.

Automation: where it is really needed, and where it is an extra waste

Here's the story with automation: it is often installed where it would be easier to leave manual control. For example, in small fields up to 5 hectares, it is sometimes cheaper to hire a person than to install a system with sensors. But there are nuances: if the soils are heterogeneous, with patches of salt marshes, then automatic spot irrigation pays off faster. Shandong Lingyao LLC and I just did such a project in the Rostov region - there automation is not so much for saving labor, but for accuracy.

Frequency converters are a separate topic. Many people are afraid of them, they say they are unreliable. But if you choose the right one for the pump power, they work for years. I remember that at one of the vegetable farms they installed frequency converters to regulate the pressure depending on the number of lines turned on. At first the machine operators swore, which was unusual. And then they themselves noticed that less electricity was wasted, and pipes were less likely to break due to water hammer.

By the way, about water hammer. This is a common problem when tools are selected without taking into account the dynamics of the system. A regular valve, if closed abruptly, can create a pressure wave that breaks connections. Therefore, in the projects of Shandong Lingyao LLC, soft-closing valves are often used - it seems like a trifle, but in practice it reduces the number of accidents by 20-30%. Trifle? And for a farmer, every accident means a stop in watering and the risk of losing the crop.

Integration of water and fertilizer: it's not just mixing in a tank

Nowadays they talk a lot aboutintegration of water and fertilizers, but in reality it’s not just “add fertilizer to the tank and water it?”. Here you need precise dosing pumps, fertilizers compatible with irrigation water (not all dissolve without sediment), and a system that takes into account the growth phase of the crop. Last year we tested the fertigation system on tomatoes - at first it turned out that at the beginning of the growing season they gave too much nitrogen, the plants went into the tops. I had to adjust the program and reduce the concentration during morning watering.

Another important point is the compatibility of tools. It often happens that a farmer buys a fertilizer pump from one company and a control system from another. And they are “not friends?”. It is necessary to install additional signal converters, which increases the cost of the system. Shandong Lingyao LLC offers comprehensive solutions - where all components are designed to work together. This reduces the risk of incompatibility, but also requires more careful design at the start.

And here's what I noticed: the integration of water and fertilizers is especially sensitive to water quality. If the water is hard, some fertilizers will precipitate and clog the drippers. Therefore, before designing such a system, we must do a water analysis. There was a case where in the Stavropol Territory it was necessary to install an additional softening system - otherwise all the advantages of fertigation would be nullified.

System design: why ready-made solutions don't always work

Off-the-shelf solutions are good, but they often don't take local conditions into account. For example, field slope. If you simply take a typical drip irrigation scheme for a flat area and apply it on a slope, the lower part of the field will be over-watered, and the upper part will be under-watered. Therefore, Shandong Lingyao Co.,Ltd always emphasizes the importance of customized design. I myself participated in a project where I had to redo the finished scheme because the prevailing wind direction (which affects the uniformity of sprinkling) was not taken into account.

Another example: when designinghydraulic structuresSeasonal fluctuations in groundwater levels are often forgotten. We once built a reservoir for irrigation - according to all calculations it should have worked, but in the spring the level rose higher than expected, and we had to strengthen the dam. Now we always allow for a headroom - even if the customer says that this is an extra cost.

And of course, design is not only about hydraulics. It's also about the economy. Sometimes I see projects where the most expensive materials are used, although simpler ones could be used for specific conditions. For example, for short irrigation seasons there is no point in installing pipes with a 50-year service life - they will pay off only after 30 years, and the farmer needs to quickly return the investment. Therefore, I always advise you to look at the payback period of the tools.

The future of irrigation tools: what we are already testing and what is still fantasy

We are currently experimenting a lot with systems that use data from satellites and drones to adjust irrigation. But it is still expensive for mass use. Although pilot projects, for example, in smart agricultural parks, are already showing good results - saving water up to 25% without loss of yield. Shandong Linyao LLC is participating in such projects - their equipment allows you to integrate external data into irrigation control.

Another direction is tools for monitoring system status in real time. Not just “on/off?”, but pressure in each branch, water flow by zone. This helps to quickly find leaks. I remember that in one of the fields, using such a system, they found an underground leak that had not been seen for two months - but the water was leaving. The repair cost 50 thousand rubles, but hundreds of thousands were saved.

But we are still fantasizing about complete autonomy. Theoretically, you can make a system that decides when and how much to water, but in practice you always need a person to control it. If only because the equipment breaks down, the sensors lie. Therefore, even in the most advanced systems we leave the possibility of manual intervention. As they say, trust, but verify - this also applies to irrigation tools.