Bauer VRI - Variable Rate Irrigation Pivot Irrigation Controllers

TOP benefits from BAUER VRI:

• Water application is set for the correct amount of water exactly in each sector of the field, reducing overall water usage, in some cases, significantly.
• Water application can be varied to soil type: Saturated areas need less irrigation, while drier areas will need more water.
• Separated effluent or liquid manure can be irrigated in the most uniform application possible without issue: due to special VRI valves, blockages and corrosion are minimised.
• Irrigation of specific areas, such as buildings, ditches, wet areas, water troughs, laneways, or other non-irrigable areas in the field can be switched to zero irrigation.
• Runoff is significantly reduced, added fertilizer nutrients are retained uniformly and are readily available for plant uptake.
• Official irrigation & wastewater regulations can easily be met (e.g. protecting waterways & cattle water with appropriate setback distances to avoid contamination).
• Operations are in real time, GPS location is updated every 30sec – 3 minutes. This is necessary for VRI wot work correctly. No calculated position is used.

Hardware and Software

BAUER VRI is available for BAUER Pivots, Linear and Centerliner systems. A Retro-fit kit for existing systems is also available.

The main components of the BAUER VRI solution are:

• Electro-hydraulic valves with customised filter specifically designed for optimized water application in different sectors. The valves are also suitable for the irrigation with screened industry wastewater or separated liquid manure.
• Special Bauer VRI control boxes control the valves via a BUS system, using opening and closing impulses, which are fully adjustable.
• For installing VRI, Pivots, Linears, or Centerliner systems need to be equipped with a SmartTouch or UniversalTouch control panel and be connected to SmartRain remote management.
• The SmartRain app is required for remote control and monitoring of the irrigation systems via PC, smartphone or tablet.

VRI Prescription Features

With VRI it is certain that no water is wasted. The BAUER VRI solution guarantees efficient use of the available water resources, while delivery maximises crop yields: you’ll get more out of every hectare. To fully benefit from VRI, a prescription program is set up with SmartRain, where field data, soil types, and holding capacity can all be factored in to  create an irrigation plan tailored to the field and crop requirements.

How you customize and optimize your irrigation management:

• The different irrigation sectors (polygons) are drawn on a map via the SmartRain portal or imported via Shape, KML or KMZ files.
• Based on your irrigation plan, the required application depth (as a percentage of the maximum application) is programmed for each individual sector.
• No irrigation zones, can easily be edited out of the irrigation plan. This ensures water is not wasted in areas where it is not required (e.g. on laneways, or waterways).
• The result: Your VRI system will automatically and precisely adjust the precipitation amounts to the set individual zones. Switching from one zone to the next is fully automatic. Change of prescription can also be carried out remotely.

Remote control and monitoring

With SmartRain and VRI, your irrigation machine can easily be controlled from any PC, smartphone or tablet:

• You can monitor your irrigation machine at all times, and see the real time pivot location at any given time.
• You can check data such as current speed, precipitation depth, or connection pressure at any time.
• You can control the system remotely, and for example, change precipitation rate, application depth, end gun segments and direction if necessary.
• In the event of unforeseen interruptions, you will be alerted immediately by txt or email, or both.
• Reports on water consumption, precipitation rates, or other data, can be created at any time.

Svante Runfeldt on the Swedish island of Gotland collects the rainwater falling in abundance from November to January. With these water reserves 120 hectares of corn and different vegetables have to be irrigated throughout the whole season.  Not a drop must be wasted. This only works with a Pivot and VRI from BAUER.

Usually the VRI system (Variable Rate Irrigation) is used in arable farming to provide different crops within one field, with the exact precipitation rate adapted to the special need of the plants. In New Zealand however, 99 percent of VRI systems are used on pasture, just like on Waituna Dairies. The arguments for this are convincing.