Growers using center pivot irrigation delivery systems generally schedule irrigation based on the driest ten percent of a field. While this approach meets crop water requirements for most areas, it can overwater others. The challenge of uniformly meeting crop water requirements is compounded when the amount of water applied by the center pivot’s sprinklers varies significantly.1 Improving the distribution uniformity (DU) of irrigation water plays a large role in both water and energy conservation. The amount of energy wasted due to non-uniformity is inversely proportional to DU.
