Greater accuracy, more profit per drop when water is limited.

When water is limited…
Every field has an economic sweet spot. This changes when water is expensive or limited. To calculate the most profitable timing of limited water takes years of experience or powerful analytical tools. Best if you have both.

Farming is a business. Water is yield. Timing and accuracy are everything.When water is limited or expensive, some form of deficit irrigation is always more profitable, but harder to do. Growers need ways to quickly transform complex data sets into simple decisions and answer critical questions about irrigation strategy and management goals:

• If you increase irrigation, will you make more money?
• If you reduce irrigation, how will it impact yields?
• What is the best strategy for your operation:
• Maximize yields per acre?
• Maximize profit per acre?
• Maximize profit per acre foot?
• When is it most profitable to withhold irrigation?
• What is the most profitable irrigation timing strategy for each field?

We at IFF provide irrigation management software, tools, training and support for farms, water districts and service providers who are working with limited or expensive water. 

These tools can integrate with water markets of drought conditions — to maximize profitability when water is a limited resource.

Software

IMO (Irrigation Management Optimization) is the only irrigation management software developed specifically for planning and targeting deficit irrigation. Deficit irrigation is always more profitable. But knowing whether a 5% deficit or a 20% deficit is the most profitable for a given field requires calculating the soil, plant, atmosphere and water continuum for a particular site. This is what IMO is designed to do.

When calibrated to a field it provides full season planning and predictive analytics. This allows the user to identify their ET strategies for different water allocations, and plan for controlled stress events in advance of the season. When an allocation or strategy is decided on, IMO allows the user to estimate how different irrigation timing strategies and water volumes will play out for the soils, crop, irrigation system and micro-climate – to meet the manager’s goals for the unique constraints of the field and farm. IMO reduces uncertainty and improves targeting accuracy when water is limited or expensive. The output is a simple graph showing the soil moisture profile produced by the ET strategy. And table showing when and how much to irrigate by day or by week.