Ronnie Leimgruber

"God designed plants to grow with rain and sprinkler irrigation imitates that perfectly"

The galvanized towers and spans beginning to dot desert fields are a sign of shifting times for southwest Arizona and southern California crop production—a 1,500-year tradition of flood irrigation that began with ditches hand dug by early civilizations is likely nearing its end.

“The stars have unfortunately aligned. Chronic and intensifying drought has restricted water supply throughout the region, flood irrigation infrastructure is crumbling, there are labor shortages, and municipal water needs continue to increase to name a few problems,” says Jaron Everett, T-L Irrigation district sales manager. Pressure is on for growers to install water-efficient mechanized irrigation systems. Pivot and linear systems provide more timely and effective water delivery while using 20-30% less water compared to traditional flood irrigation, Everett says.

In Arizona, the Water Irrigation Efficiency Program is helping producers finance the shift. Eligible producers can apply for grants to cost share installation of more efficient systems. Need and support programs have Everett and his team of T-L Irrigation technicians and experts helping facilitate multiple large-scale irrigation conversion projects in the region.

“We’re constructing systems covering thousands of acres, but it’s just a drop in the bucket,” Everett says. He knows of only ten mechanized systems working in Imperial Valley, California, where more than 500,000 acres of cropland are watered from the struggling Colorado River.

Holtville, California, producer Ronnie Leimgruber is one of a minority of Imperial Valley producers using mechanized irrigation as part of his total irrigation strategy.

“We’re very efficient in our water use, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement. My personal goal is to be as efficient as I can,” he says. He uses strategies like tailwater return, drip irrigation and solid-set irrigation to grow onions, carrots, alfalfa, and more. More recently he’s added linear irrigation systems.

Leimgruber prefers the simplicity of flood irrigation, but also sees the writing on the wall. “There are 20 million people in the Los Angeles basin and 160 farmers in the Imperial Valley. We’re under a lot of pressure to reduce water use and we’re going to lose that political battle. You’ve got to be ahead of the curve,” he says.

Farmers are already making concessions. In spring 2023, California, Nevada and Arizona irrigation water users agreed to reduce water used from the Colorado River by around 13% for the next three years.

Farming Every Acre

Dustin Ross is optimistic about what he stands to gain by shifting 100% of the acres on his Painted Rock and Palomas, Arizona, area farms to mechanized irrigation. His flood irrigation system is on its last legs. His Painted Rock farm alone had 27 miles of crumbling ditches that would require a substantial investment to refurbish. Additionally, the flood system and fields were designed to grow drought-tolerant cotton and small grains. Ross needs to grow corn, alfalfa, and forage crops such as sorghum and triticale.

“With the flood irrigation situation we’re in now, we can’t farm all our acres. The delivery system that worked fine for cotton is too slow for the higher water need crops we’re growing. We’ve had to cut back the acres we’re farming on the Painted Rock farm,” he says.

The mechanized irrigation systems he’s installing on both farms will allow him to crop all his acres. He’s even picking up a few more production acres on his Palomas farm. The Palomas farm features 150-acre fields with level ditches running parallel to the fields. Raised borders needed for flood irrigation in the past will be flattened and farmed, creating 320-plus acre continuous fields.

“There are 52 borders in each field that are five to six-feet wide and a quarter of a mile long. That adds up. We have 150 acres of borders we don’t currently farm,” Ross says. Before the borders grew weeds, causing more issues. Now they’ll grow crops.

Ten total half-mile-long hydrostatic-drive linear irrigation systems are planned for the Palomas farm. Two are installed and running with the two more going up quickly. All 10 linears will be installed by the end of the season. Each will push 3,000 gallons of water per minute and make one-mile runs. Ross opted to go with T-L Irrigation for this daunting changeover.

“T-L was the only company up to the challenge of designing a linear system to fit the large acreage I wanted to cover. They were also offered GPS guidance. The logistics of using a mile-long cable guide suggested by another company just didn’t make sense to me,” Ross says.

The team is also working on a plan to convert the more challenging Painted Rock farm. Smaller fields, electric lines, wells as a water source, and somewhat uneven terrain mean the Painted Rock farm will use pivots instead of linears.

“It’s intimidating to make a change this big, but I’ll actually be able to farm all the acres I want without having to worry about if I’m going to be able to deliver irrigation to the fields that need it when I want. I’m going to sleep a lot better at night knowing every drop of water I pay for is staying in the fields and that I’m being as efficient as possible with such an important resource,” Ross says.

Better Crops. Producers making the switch to mechanized irrigation stand to reap multiple benefits beyond water use efficiency. Mechanized irrigation allows producers to apply water quickly and uniformly.

“If water is delivered to the farm in 12-hour cycles, a farmer may not be able to get water to the whole field in that timeframe with flood irrigation. Often fields end up heavily irrigated at the top end with crops at the bottom of the field getting just enough water to stay alive,” Everett says.

With mechanized systems, farmers can set the machine to apply water at a rate and speed matched to water availability, he says. By eliminating variables like border breaks, the entire field is watered uniformly with a set start and stop time.

Ross says the speed of the systems will keep his entire hay crop going strong from one cutting to the next. When he harvests a cutting there’s a nine to 10-day window between waterings. With flood irrigation it would take another four days to get water to all parts of the field.

“The crop in the last borders would drought out before the water reached it before. Now, I can run the linear across the entire field in 20 hours applying enough water to keep the crop from going dormant,” he says. A second slower pass can then provide thorough irrigation.

Farmers mentoring him on the transition to mechanized irrigation told Ross to also expect an increase in the quality of their crops with sprinkler irrigation, he says,especially alfalfa. The sprinklers create a microclimate as they travel the field, cooling off the crops and washing dust from leaves.

“God designed plants to grow with rain and sprinkler irrigation imitates that perfectly,” Ross says.

Southwest Tested

Past forays into mechanized irrigation haven’t always gone to plan in tough southwest conditions. Instead of providing a bit of supplemental water as they do in the Midwest, irrigation systems need to provide 100% of the water to crops growing 365 days a year. Not all irrigation systems are up to that challenge, especially where salty water eats away at already strained equipment.

T-L Irrigation systems, however, have a great track record in the desert. In the late 1970s, T-L Irrigation installed multiple systems in Yuma, Arizona.

“They’re the highest irrigation-hour T-L pivots in the world—over 160,000 hours of service. These systems are designed for extreme-duty situations,” Everett says.

The hydrostatically powered systems move continuously unlike the jarring stop-start of electric-powered systems. Smooth continuous motion reduces wear to the already rugged planetary gear boxes and provides uniform water distribution. Coated or aluminum pipe options help protect against corrosive water to extend the life of the system.

“T-L pipes are coated instead of lined. The system allows for flexibility in head spacing and more precise water application. This can be critical for specialty crops,” Everett says.

Producers may be under pressure to modernize, but Everett says T-L Irrigation is ready to ease the transition. They have products proven to work in one of the most challenging irrigation environments on the planet and knowledgeable staff available to help plan and implement the changeover. While most farmers find they can work on the hydrostatic systems themselves, a growing network of T-L dealers are ready to supply ongoing support to the region.