Irrigator Pro, a computer program developed by the National Peanut Research Laboratory, uses decades of historical crop data, field, and soil conditions to provide growers with an irrigation recommendation. This innovative tool has been trusted for irrigation scheduling decisions in corn, cotton, and peanut production across the country for years. University of Georgia research shows that using irrigation scheduling tools such as Irrigator Pro can improve water use efficiency—the rate that water applied is absorbed and used by the crop—by 15% on average. Increased water use efficiency results in less run off, soil erosion, and may lead to more water savings overall.
The original desktop version of Irrigator Pro requires manual data entry of soil temperature, soil moisture, and other field level data. In 2019, after two seasons of beta testing, the Flint River Soil and Water Conservation District partnered with Irrigator Pro creators at the National Peanut Research Lab to release a smart phone app version of Irrigator Pro.
Through a cloud-based platform, after initial field set up in the app, Irrigator Pro automatically gathers data from soil moisture sensors installed in the field and transmits the data to the app. This real time soil moisture and soil temperature aids in generating scientific irrigation scheduling recommendations.
The app uses this real-time data transmitted from the field to calculate the Available Water Content. The Available Water Content considers rainfall, irrigation applied (in inches), Available Water Content from the previous day, and estimated crop water use based on the stage of growth. Currently, the Irrigator Pro app is compatible with sensors using metric water potential.
Conservation-minded farmers in the lower Flint River basin spearheaded this new technology in the 2019 growing season. In partnership with the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension, local agents were trained to use the Irrigator Pro app and work with local farmers to implement the technology in over 40 peanut fields in southwest Georgia, east Alabama, and north Florida. This effort, in addition to the in-field irrigation scheduling pilot in cotton fields, is known as the AgWet project. While the Irrigator Pro app is free to download and use, the Flint River Soil and Water Conservation District covered the cost of soil moisture sensor technology compatible with the Irrigator Pro app for each grower participating in the AgWet project.
In addition to project participants in the lower Flint River Basin, the Irrigator Pro app has been downloaded and used worldwide. In 2019, there were over 600 app downloads, 445 registered fields in the Irrigator Pro app, totaling 30,901 acres (up 64%-- from 11,321 acres in 2018).
Farmer, agent, and crop consultant feedback following the pilot project was critical for improvements made following the 2019 season. Ahead of the 2020 season, new updates were developed and released in the Irrigator Pro app, version 2.0. These updates include:
NRCS soil series selection for a comprehensive suite of options in field set up;
Automatic retrieval of sensors data from previous 7 days to cover off-line periods;
Model calculations since planting date even if fields are setup later in the season;
Ability to enter multiple data entries at once;
Exporting of all season data from the graphs (image and xlsx files);
Classification of water readings as Rain or Irrigation events
New front page and system user interface.
The project team will continue incorporating feedback from growers, agents, and consultants through the 2021 season of the AgWet project, such as testing and incorporating compatibility with capacitance soil moisture probes.
Growers, agents, and crop consultants interested in learning more about Irrigator Pro and other irrigation scheduling tools should reach out to smartirrigation@flintriverswcd.org.
The Irrigator Pro smartphone app is free for download, and tutorials on app download, set up and use can all be found at irrigatorpro.org.
Smartphone app and cloud platform developed by Austn.