Mark Burgess, CID

Abstract. Today with growers facing increasing costs for virtually every aspect of farming, their decisions are critical to both the success of farming operations and longevity of the family farm. Overall acreages of farmland in the US continues to decline as cities and municipalities expand to handle population growth, leaving farmers to maximize production, improve efficiencies, and consider alternative techniques. This paper will focus on drip irrigation components available to growers today and the importance of design to help growers maximize the usefulness of the system, reduce long term costs, and efficiently use the water resources available.

Drip irrigation systems have been used for over 40 years in the United States on a variety of crops. Drip systems consist simply of a water source, pump, a filter, main and sub-main lines, and a lateral distribution system providing water to crop rows. Today the systems are not much different than they were 20 years ago accept for technological improvements in some of the components. One thing that has changed significantly is the number of suppliers of components into the US market. Today growers have a variety of brands to choose from and to assume that they are all the same can be a costly mistake. For this reason, the first and most important component of any drip system is the person who is providing assistance to the grower, whether they are an irrigation distributor, designer, fellow grower, manufacture’s rep., or anyone else who the grower is seeking help from.

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