November/December 2019 - 12
Irving Farms Marketing, a division of the operation led by Jeff Irving, makes Caribou russet and Maine branding a big focus. Maine Potato
Board Executive Director Don Flannery has said the reception to the branding has been strong among consumers looking for a regional
product. Photo: Jessica McNamara
be controlled remotely. Irving Farms
owns nine center pivots, seven of which
were in use in 2019.
Irving Farms opted for Irrigation
Automation Systems, a Massachusettsbased
company, for their system. They
began using IAS's XR-3000 in 2018.
It monitors field temperature, water
pressure and oil pressure to maximize
efficiency. For an operation like Irving
Farms, which has plots of land spread
out across the region, that helps
eliminate a lot of headaches. Robbie
and Scott control the pumps manually
through a smartphone or computer,
and can set a temperature threshold to
turn on automatically.
" In the pre-automation era, you'd
probably have a small army of guys in
pickup trucks at 2 a.m. (monitoring the
temperature and pumps), " said Paul
Oparowski of IAS, who worked with
Robbie to set up the system. " There is
a temp radio that monitors conditions.
The grower will have a threshold set
and when it reached that, it connects
to the engine and sends an alert to
your phone.
" For growers that have fields many
miles or even hours apart, that's a big
labor saver and a safety feature. If say a
wheel falls off your pivot, you're able to
shut it off even when you don't have the
ability to get up there quickly. "
Robbie said the farm's irrigation
infrastructure gets attention from
neighboring growers.
" When we get all those pivots going,
I tend to get a lot of text messages, "
Irving said, with a chuckle. " It's funny,
I'm working the same land my dad
(Steve, now retired) worked and his
dad worked, but only I'm doing it
using GPS. "
In addition to the irrigation system,
10
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November/December 2019
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of November/December 2019
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https://www.nxtbook.com/greatamericanmediaservices/SPUD/november-december-2020
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