Pivotal Necessity

Back in "the old days" (and still in some parts of the world and country), farmers used to rely on the weather to sustain their crops. If there was a serious drought, then say good-bye to your crop and your income.

Now, in this area there is a LOT of water running in an aquifer under the ground. It's there all the time, SO on the farms throughout this area Center Pivot Irrigation is the watering method of choice (unless it's a pecan grove, which uses Localized Sprinkler Irrigation).

For a history lesson on irrigation and definitions of Irrigation practices throughout the world, click HERE.

When you're up in the sky in an airplane, and you see all the circles on the ground below, then you can be sure that those crops are watered with Center Pivot Irrigation. For a complete descritpion of how it works, click on the link above....or just think of a compass (the kind that draws circles).

Here are some interesting things about pivots that you may not already know, unless you've lived on a farm...

*You can program the pivots to complete one rotation as fast or as slow as needed (anywhere between 8hrs and a few weeks).

*The water flow is amazing: 900 gallons per minute.

*If you take a sprinkler head off, it makes a great High-Pressure Car Washing hose.

*The pivots come in a variety of sizes but the ones on this farm and the farms in this valley are almost 1200 feet long (that's about 4 football fields) and covers a 125-acre crop.

*The best part: Pivots make it possible for ONE person to farm what used to take DOZENS of people to maintain.

There's more technology used, out here in the middle of nowhere, than you might think.