Solutions Podcast Series
Solutions Podcast Series
Center Pivot Application Efficiency
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In this episode, host Mike Murphy is joined by Matt Moose, product marketing manager for irrigation, to discuss center pivot application efficiency. Tune in to hear Matt talk about ABB’s irrigation products and their applications.
Learn more about Variable Speed Drives
Learn more about the benefits of Energy Efficiency
Welcome to the ABB solutions podcast where we address challenges faced in our industry. I'm your host, Mike Murphy, speaking to you from Greenville, South Carolina. I have with me today Matt Moose, Product Marketing Manager for Irrigation. Matt is here to speak with us on Center Pivot Application Efficiency. Welcome, Matt.
Matt Moose:Hey, thanks, Mike, appreciate you taking the opportunity to let us talk a little about farming. I know it's a, you know, when you look at irrigation, overall, it's a large consumer of water, and it takes a lot of energy to move that water. So just similar to like ABB does in general, we have a cause here to reduce energy. And so this is a key part of the overall consumption globally and locally, domestically. So we, I'm excited to be here and talk a little more about our products and the applications.
Mike Murphy:Yeah, fantastic. Yeah. Looking forward to our discussion. Alright, so first, can you go over some of the ways farmers irrigate their fields?
Matt Moose:Yeah, I think the it's kind of broken into three main areas and you kind of look at their so it's called surface and flood. And it's intuitively like it sounds right. There's, there's they're pulling water from a canal. And they're flooding their farms. And what's called furrows are kind of these paths between the the plants, that's kind of surface and food. There's what's called micro. And again, like it sounds, it's you're basically taking a localized pipe or smaller hose and you're localizing that water to the plant. That's very popular when you think of like fruiting and vegetables, you know, think of strawberries or almond trees, that's a very popular application. Probably the largest, the last of the three is what they call the sprinkler. And that's throughout the country, the sprinkler is broken into different categories, collateral, or center pivot. But by far, you know, sprinkler is a large part of the product that's used for applying water. And the main reason is sprinklers work well with corn and corn and soybean are the two largest crops that are growing the country. So that's why that product is used, or that application of water is used, right, that type application.
Mike Murphy:Let's dive deeper into center pivots. Why farmers find them so attractive?
Unknown:Yeah, I think the big thing is why farmers find them attractive is that, you know, it's like anything farming is a business, right. And so farmers see it as a way to control variables, and you talk to farmers and you always hear these adages that it used to be one out of three years was a good year for yield a crop. You know, Mother Nature provides what you need, right? Whether it's heat, or sun or water. And, you know, one of those three years you get too little water next; year to have too much water; you finally have a good year, right? And so when you look at a business, you know, proposal or business plan, one out of three years is not a good number, right? That works well in baseball, betting 300, but not in farming or business in general. So farmers have, you know, they've utilized technologies to to remove variables, right. So, center pivots is a key part of that. You know, when you look at corn, let's just take corn as example. There's a, there's a window, that's very important to get the right amount of nutrients, the right amount of, you know, water to that plant. And so when you look at, we call it, you know, he's heard that phrase "Knee high by Fourth of July". I'm sure most people that haven't ever farmed have heard that phrase. That's really when the water kicks in; the need for water. And it's really because there's a term called GDU, so it's growing degree units. And that's a measurement of the amount of heat that's needed to grow the corn. And so just like humans, when the corn is growing during the day, it wants to kind of rest at night. And so people apply, farmer's apply a lot of water to get the corn to grow. But also at night, they'll they'll provide the water to the crop to cool down the areas they want the crop to kind of cool down. Getting smart about when to apply water and how much has really been the changes in farming in general. And center pivot played a major role in that. You look at you know, 70 years ago, just it's a good context for for everybody knows about farming, you know, 50 bushels per acre used to be a good number. And that's the amount of weight of corn per acre that your crop produces. And that's really, that's what it used to be in the 1970s and 60s. We're up to like 160 to 170 bushels per acre now on average, and you have some crops that go up to 200 to 300. And it's really about farmers dialing in and investing in their business and investing in their crop to utilize the right amount of water, the right amount of nutrients, and when to apply it. And it's gotten really smart. I mean, farmers have always been intelligent about their crop. You just said you couldn't control it. There's a lot of variables you couldn't play with mother nature really dictated, you know, back to the advantage dictated how profitable you are gonna be for that year. And so farmers have invested heavily into new technologies and new ways to apply water, nutrients and center pivots are a key part of that revolution has happened to increase yields for crops.
Mike Murphy:Okay, great. Alright, so it sounds like we're talking about a lot of movement of fluid, so a lot of pumping. So I'm guessing there's there's probably drives involved in these applications,. What types of drives, you know, would we find?
Matt Moose:Yeah, like you said, it's, um, you look at statistics. It's staggering. The amount of water that's used for farming is a pretty substantial large part of the overall consumption of water in general. And so just like the same story that we have, in other industries, you know, we play a key part of that conservative energy to move that water. Right, the efficiency laws that we talk about in other industries, it's no different than here. Now, the types of drives that are used in this space are really similar to the municipal drives and other watering moving applications that you see that are out there today. So, you know, the ramps, you know, all the things you see in other spaces are very similar here. The differences in farming, it's really kind of you have the submersible turbine pump. And then you also have a booster pump. And so there's really kind of two different applications and two different types of ramps, and pressure selections. And so we use a lot of the same technology that we use in other industries, to really provide a good product and great product that's dedicated this space for the end user within farming.
Mike Murphy:So talk to me about how is ABB unique in this industry?
Matt Moose:Yeah, I think that's the biggest part of this whole talk about farming is when you look at how we how we differentiate; how our product is different. When we looked at this space, and we did research about, you know, farming in general. We try to think of it a little bit differently. So when you think of farming, it's in rural areas, right. You're exposed to the elements, you've got a lot of drastic changes in temperature and weather patterns. And so we looked/took from a hardware perspective, we looked at, how can we make this product live in this space, right? So remote, dusty, harsh environmental areas. We came up with this concept called a clean side and a dirty side. It was kind of going a little far here, but it's kind of revolutionary to the space. We say clean side, we took all the electronics, whether it's the drive, or the controls, and we kept it in a very enclosed space. So there's no environmental factors that can get into it, right, you can't ruin the electronics, per se. It's protected. Now the dirty side, with all those electronics that are being enclosed, we've got to remove the heat from that, right. So this, we've called a driver cabinet is sitting out in that sun, it's being exposed to all the elements. There's a lot of heat that's being developed beyond what the drive produces. And so we have a dirty side, which allows airflow and potentially some dirt, some dust can get into it, cobwebs, you name it, what's out there in the farm, right? That dirty side can can then cool down the drive. And that's what really makes us unique in this space is that, you know, we're the only ones who really have that two sided design. And I think that's what allows us to stand out in a space. Because farmers see these drives are just another part of the investment, right? They look at farming as a, you know, asset rich, asset rich, rich and capital poor, right. So you have all these different cash flow pours, all right. And so you have all these investments that are going on, they see their product, but the drive is just an investment in their overall farm. And we want to make sure we're providing the best product we can in that space that's really designed to not fail in those environmental spaces as well. When used to just take a product that's designed for wastewater and put it in that space, they don't quite work out. And so we dedicated engineering hours and people to design a product for this space. So we're excited about our offering.
Mike Murphy:Well, I'll tell you what, Matt, one last question. Where would someone go to find out more information?
Matt Moose:Yeah, for sure. Visit our website, reach out to the local RSEs. We've got great content out there to talk about our product. And we're excited. I'd say it's a key space that we can provide efficiencies for and don't be afraid to reach out to us.
Mike Murphy:That's great. Hey, we're gonna pause right here. But Matt, hey, thank you so much for talking to us about Center Pivot Application Efficiency. Remember, again, contact your local sales representative, or visit us at www.ABB.com Or if you have any questions about our podcast series, check us out at us-solutions@abb.com. Thanks and have a great rest of your day.
