Keep your finger on the pulse with Valley Irrigations’ technology

When farming, technology puts you in a position to fully monitor your pivots and make proactive decisions. The crops at Skilpadsgat in Caledon rely on technology to maximise their growth with the limited water they have available. This is why the South African Breweries Barley farm relies on Valley Irrigation’s technology solutions to maximise their pivots efficiency

Tobie van Rensburg, Commercial Manager of SAB Barley farm, says SAB bought Skilpadsgat in 2002. The farm consists of 1 600 hectares, and they have two Valley pivots covering about 50 hectares together.

On Skilpadsgat they plant small grain crops like wheat, barley, canola and oats. They also use these pivots during the summertime for extra barley seed production, to get as much as they can out of one season.

Hennie Le Roux, Production Manager for the South African Breweries barley farm, has been on Skilpadsgat for ten years. The pivots were already there when he started but in 2018, they decided to upgrade them.

The challenge with this farm is that it is a rain fed farm that has two irrigation dams. The water from these dams comes from the mountains, meaning the dams are fed by the region’s winter rainfall. If they do not get enough rain, Skilpadsgat does not have enough water for the growing season.

Tobie van Rensburg, Commercial Manager of SAB Barley farm, at of one of the two Valley pivots on Skilpadsgat.

Another challenge is that the soil on the farm is only 30 cm deep. Hennie explains that the shallow soil means if you put down too much water you can get root diseases.

Finding a solution to remedy these challenges is what lead them to explore Valley’s technology offerings

JH Potgieter, Irrigation Designer for the larger Overberg region at Overberg Agri, stepped in to assist.

“We want to be as efficient with the quantity of water we have, so we had to investigate automation. We started by automating the pivot systems to have full control and added a VSD system to the pump house to manage the water pressure. This system also alternates between the two pivots,” explains JH.

Hennie says he no longer has to drive to the pivot to switch it off and on. Being able to do this from his laptop and mobile using Valley Scheduling allows him more time to look after the other 1500 hectars of dry land that he cultivates.

Hennie Le Roux, Production Manager of the South African Breweries barley farm.

The next step was to install a Valley weather station and probe in the field.

“The data collected from the weather station and the probe integrates with the Valley scheduling platform, which helps the grower to make decisions in advance. It measures the soil moisture and creates a seven-day weather forecast, which the grower can then use to decide when and how much to irrigate,” explained JH.

Hennie adds that they have also scanned the soil under these two pivots to see what the soil structure looks like. All the soil under the pivots does not always have the same structure and moisture content. With Valleys Variable Rate Irrigation (VRI) they can then determine how much water to put down on which part if the field.

“Our biggest improvement came with our water usage. Before using the Valley technology, we never had enough water to get through a season, but since installing Valley’s technology we do not only have enough water, but even have spare water at the end of the season.”

JH Potgieter, Irrigation Designer at Overberg Agri, and Hennie Le Roux, Production Manager for the South African Breweries barley farm, with one of the farm’s two catchment dams in the background.

JH says that with Valley and Overberg Agri you know that you are getting a return on your investment, because they do not only deliver great technology, but excellent after sales service as well. Help is just a call or one WhatsApp message away.

In the near future, Skilpadsgat plans to install Valleys’ Irrigation Insights, which uses satellite imagery to identify watering anomalies, to prevent crop losses and lower yields.

“My advice to farmers is not to be scared of technology; use it to your advantage and to your benefit,” says Hennie.

“If you do not measure, you will not know,” adds JH.