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Lindsay announces ‘the smart pivot’

Lindsay Irrigation has announced what it calls “the first smart pivot”.

Lindsay’s Wade Sikkink says they’re taking the center pivot “beyond irrigation”.

“This is really the next evolution of center pivot irrigation,” Sikkink says, “Bringing the full suite of technology capabilities that people have become accustomed to in other parts of their life, to the center pivot industry.”

Sikkink says the smart pivot will be able to collect advanced agronomic data as it moves through the field and relay that information back to the producer.  

“Things that are part of this package on the smart pivot are imagery from satellite and other sources, coupled with on-machine high resolution imagery, then applying advanced artificial intelligence to those images to provide actionable insights to the grower.”

Sikkink says the smart pivot will also have “never-before-seen” machine diagnostics that will help reduce the potential for operational downtime. He says the pivot basically becomes a “robot” in the field.

“When you add these features to it, and the ability to collect both data about itself and about the crop, it really does become a robot. It’s a robot that’s there in the field all the time and can do a variety of tasks other than simply applying water in the pattern as it moves around the circle.”