Technology meets the farmer at annual fall field day

Published: September 8, 2009

More than 300 visitors to the annual Edisto field day enjoyed tours of the center’s 2,300 acres that included peanuts, beef cattle, row and vegetable crops, and the Edisto Forage Bull Test Center. image by: Peter Hull

BLACKVILLE – The prospect of saving time and money in the field was all it took for a group of farmers at the Clemson University Edisto Research and Education Center to fall silent.

Clemson scientists showed visitors to the Edisto Fall Field Day Sept. 3 the benefits of a LEPA irrigation system deployed at the research center. The LEPA, or Low Energy Precision Application, system matches field variations with variable-rate irrigation.

Conventional irrigation systems are complicated by overlapping pivots, topography and off-target spraying, among other issues. Also, different soil types influence irrigation management.

Variable-rate irrigation, incorporated into the LEPA system by Clemson scientists, allows the user to apply irrigation water to match the needs of individual management zones within a field, which could lead to substantial water conservation and increased yield.

The LEPA system consists of nozzles that hang just above the ground and spray at low pressure in patterns that can be adjusted for different stages of growth. 

The technology increases efficiency and water use, said Chris Bellamy, an agriculture engineering graduate student who presented the technology with agricultural and biological engineering professor Ahmad Khalilian.

“The whole purpose is to get the water straight to the soil,” Bellamy said.

Each setting increases efficiency of the irrigation by decreasing the effects of wind and evaporation, he said.

About 300 visitors to the annual field day took tours of the center’s 2,300 acres that included peanuts, beef cattle, row and vegetable crops and the Edisto Forage Bull Test Center.

During the day’s indoor program, S.C. Department of Natural Resources meteorologist Mark Malsick warned that drought conditions are returning to the state. 

Parts of the Upstate are in the early stages of drought and the region around the Edisto center in Barnwell County isn’t far behind, Malsick said. 

Any rainfall during the fall growing season likely will be concentrated along the coast, he said. And the Atlantic hurricane season, which ends Nov. 30, is shaping up for a quiet year. Fifteen percent to 20 percent of the state’s rainfall budget comes from tropical systems, Malsick said.

“But that’s in the ‘be-careful-what-you-wish-for’ category,” he said. “It only takes one hurricane to ruin the day.”

Guest speakers also included S.C. Department of Agriculture Commissioner Hugh Weathers and John Kelly, Clemson University vice president for Public Service and Agriculture.

Kelly thanked the faculty and staff of the Edisto research center, and those at all of Clemson’s facilities around the state, for their contributions and dedication to Palmetto State agriculture.

“When I come here I’m reminded of the importance of innovation,” Kelly said. “That comes through research and from putting people together who drive new ideas.”

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