Farming has changed so much over the years, from having to drive out to your centre pivot just to start it, to troubleshooting and scheduling your irrigation system from your phone, while you are on holiday.

Agrico has been at the forefront of irrigation technology development since 1988, and their Web Control and Advanced Rain system not only gives you flexibility with your irrigation system but is designed to save time and money as well.

What is Agrico Web Control?

Agrico’s Web Control system gives you complete control over your entire irrigation system. The system allows you to manage and optimise your irrigation system via an app on any internet-enabled device.

This means you can manage, schedule and troubleshoot all your centre pivots, dam levels, valves, irrigation blocks and pumps from just one convenient app with the swipe of your finger or the click of a button.

An in-house solution

Justin Schiettekat, the Head Design Engineer for the Agrico Control Systems is part the in-house team of experts who designed and develop the Web Control system.

“While developing the app we focused on the needs of customers and realised that typically the customer needed to see the status of his device at a glance. We realised our customers do not have time to waste, so we have made the app as user friendly as possible,” explains Justin.

They also noted that many customers live in rural areas and the system could not rely on existing infrastructure. For this reason they developed the system to deploy on the cloud, minimising the reliance on local infrastructure.

“We understand the challenges that come with remote locations; therefore, our systems cater to a wide range of connectivity options,” says Justin.

To ensure that you are in full control of your irrigation system, Agrico also has a 24 hour support desk. The support desk staff has the insight and expertise to assist you with any issues, and can even log into your controls for assistance.

The in-house team is also constantly at work to provide customers with over the air updates for all Agrico devices. This means you will receive the latest updates no matter how long you have had your system.

Johan Myburgh, Lead Technical Support Manager for Agrico, wants their customers to farm optimally and efficiently with Web Control.

More about Web Control and its features

The Web Control system includes the Agrico Advanced Rain centre pivot controller, a pump controller and a GPS. These three systems combined provide customers with control at their fingertips.

“Our system provides a comprehensive overview that logs all the user changes and events that the system might generate. This helps for reporting and future planning,” explains Justin.

It also sends out automated notifications to keep you in the loop if anything is out of place or if a system issue might compromise the week’s irrigation schedule.

Web Control provides customers with:

  • Real-time monitoring and control: You can just open your app to see the status of your centre pivot, dam levels, pump pressure and more. This also allows you to make changes to the system from the app.
  • Programming and scheduling: You can set up a schedule for your centre pivots and irrigation blocks.
  • Data collection: The system keeps track of all inputs, state and sensor changes, and stores them for you to make informed decisions.
  • Notifications: An automated SMS warning or missed call alerts you to any irregularity, allowing you to take quick action and help you save energy and prevent damage.
  • Dynamic control: The inter-device communication allows the customer to use his centre pivot and pumps at an optimal energy level, saving on energy and costs.
  • Restart: You can restart your pump from the app and do not have to drive out every time you need to restart the system.

Justin Schiettekat, the Head Design Engineer for the Agrico Control systems is one of the experts who designed and develop the Web Control system.

Web Control’s GPS helps you save time and money

With the Agrico Web Control you can oversee status, flow rates, pressure levels, pivot positioning and environmental conditions. The combination of Agrico GPS with the centre panel control and pump station allows you to optimise your energy usage.

The Web Control system measures the pressure at the start and end of each centre pivot operation. This information is then used to adjust your pump speed and pressure accordingly, and supply the minimum pressure required for your irrigation system. With this feature no energy is wasted, saving you money.

This feature is especially handy when the system is used on farms with different elevations.

Large irrigation systems can be tricky to manage, but Web Control allows you to scale your irrigation and manage, monitor and control the entire system from one site.

“At the end of the day it is all about resource optimisation, and we can help with water and energy usage and management,” says Justin.

Johan Myburgh, Lead Technical Support Manager for Agrico says: “We help customers to work as efficiently as possible with their electricity by measuring the pressure and ensuring every pivot and every irrigation block gets only the electricity needed.”

Agrico wants customers to farm optimally, and to achieve this you need to have efficiency in every single part of your business. With Agrico’s Web Control system, they can help you farm efficiently.

“Thirty years ago, when you wanted to start you centre pivot you needed a new bakkie, you had to drive to your centre pivot and start it, then drive to your pump, and start it and then hope everything works. You can now do all of this at home, in you combine or in your bakkie,” Johan says.

The Agrico team can assist you with a return on investment report to prove how the Web Control system can help you save.