St. Joe County Conservation District

"Community Development through Conservation"

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Irrigation System Evaluations
 
During this past fall, a consortium of Michigan and Indiana counties that includes St. Joe county, were awarded a new 5 year, $27.5 million dollar grant from the USDA called the Agriculture Water Enhancement Program or AWEP. This program is intended to remedy some of the basic groundwater contamination issues facing the counties within the project area.
 
With St. Joe county farmers being a whopping majority user of water (20.7 billion gallons of water per year) within the county and with a whopping number of center pivot irrigation systems operating each year in the county, the St. Joe County Conservation District wants farmers to most efficiently use their irrigation systems. This is why the St. Joe County Conservation District and the Natural Resources Conservation Service have teamed up to offer farmers cost-share incentives to evaluate, upgrade, and reward farmers for maximizing the efficiency of their center pivot irrigation systems.  
 
Hire the St. Joe County Conservation District to measure your system's water usage along the entire line. We analyze the results and provide you with a report (see a sample here) of how well each sprinkler uses water. Efficiency graphs (click here for sample) with notes and recommendations are provided. Please note for truly maximum efficiency, your center pivot irrigation systems should be evaluated every five years.
 
2010 Center Pivot System Evaluation Fee*: 50 cents per foot
 
Download an order form here or call John Graham, Irrigation Technician at 269-467-6336, ext. 5 for further information. 
 

*For systems with cornering arms, 15 cents per foot will be charged for running a second complete test with arm retracted. Call the St. Joe County Conservation District office at 269-467-6336 to order this service or for an exact quotes.
 

*Generally we can do evaluations when winds are at or below 10 MPH*