You can your rotate crops and alter your farming practices but unless you pack up and move your farm you can’t change your soil texture. Although there are sprinklers that claim they are crop specific, the reality is that proper sprinkler selection is much more complex than simply determining how much water a certain crop generally needs.
If you’ve recently taken a look at our pivot products literature you may have noticed our inclusion of the soil triangle. Our triangle (shown left) includes black dots representative of basic droplet sizes and based on prevalent field soil texture – going from large, medium to small – to help give you an idea of what deflector or pad you should select for your sprinkler.
Why do we include this?
Soil texture is an important soil characteristic that drives crop production and field management. While there are various considerations to take when selecting a sprinkler, there are two big reasons to put priority on droplet size and soil texture.
Application Intensity
As water droplets are distributed over soil, the structure and infiltration rate of the soil become altered. To keep soil close to its pre-irrigation state, you can distribute water with low application intensity to reduce the kinetic impact of droplets. Select an adequate droplet size according to your soil texture to help it maintain its structure. Droplets that are too large and have a higher kinetic energy can cause surface sealing and lead to erosion or inefficient irrigation. Higher application intensity also runs the risk of permanently damaging soil’s structure by rearranging its composition. In general, tighter soils benefit from smaller droplets while looser soils require larger droplets.
Application Rate
Water infiltrates soil’s pores at varying rates depending on texture. If you have dense clay soils, then water will slowly seep down to the root zones while sandy soils will quickly absorb water. If application rates exceed soil infiltration rates, overwatering and runoff are likely to occur. Since infiltration and percolation rates vary by soil type, the application rate of water you need for a crop planted in sandy soil will differ from the rate needed if you plant the same crop in silt loam, for example. You typically need a higher rate when irrigating in sandy soils even when a crops’ water requirements are the same. A professionally designed sprinkler package will provide the right application rate to help preserve proper soil structure and meet the needs of your crop.
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