Irrigation Roundup

Between the crazy climate and the economic turnaround in the last year, irrigation specialists have seen some business shifts. While drought-inspired irrigation installers in the West are investigating new equipment, rain-drenched residential irrigation installers in the Northeast have seen their business hurt.

What’s upcoming for the irrigation industry? LCN talked to several experts in the field, including association and business presidents and directors, to get their views on what’s ahead for the irrigation industry.

 

Jim Barrett, ASIC President PHOTO COURTESY OF ASIC

Jim Barrett, ASIC President

Jim Barrett holds a positive view of the business aspect of the irrigation industry based on the economic turnaround the United States experienced in 2003.

“I think what I see is more work coming up than we’ve had in the past years,” he said. “Projects have been on hold because of the economy…I see a lot of projects that were stuck in the pipe line for financial reasons. Now it seems like we’re starting to see that stuff loosening up.”

Among the new products on the market, Mr. Barrett predicts the ET (evapotranspiration) controller will make a splash. These controllers use sensory input based on the amount of water lost to evapotranspiration (the return of moisture to the air through evaporation from the soil and transpiration by plants) to automatically regulate sprinkler runtimes. Mr. Barrett also believes that controllers using temperature data are highly effective.

“If you have a temperature sensor, you can get pretty close to evapotranspiration data,” he noted.

Mr. Barrett deigns manually setting runtimes as a waste of water “because people just plain don?EUR??,,????'?????<

Just how popular does he think theses devices will become?

“Regulating authorities, at some point, are going to require the use of this controller,” he said, adding that California is one state that is leading the way in ET controller use. The essential and important aspect of ET controllers, Mr. Barrett notes, is “much less waste of water.”

Rod Shapard, President, Owner of Fountain Head Irrigation

Rod Shapard was recommended for this round table. Although unexpected weather hurt residential contractors, Mr. Shapard predicted 2004 “would be good.”

“We (commercial irrigation contractors) had a pretty good year despite a not so good economic year,” he observed. “We also had a pretty poor weather year this year as well. We had a very wet weather pattern year this year in the D.C. area, at least.”

“Irrigation has pretty much become a necessity in the landscape and most jobs in this area now have irrigation installed with them,” he explained. “I know that’s probably a pretty common thing in California. It used to be more of a luxury, but more and more it’s the insurance to protect the plants.”

Mr. Shapard observed that professionals are taking note of the perks of irrigation. “People are seeing the benefits of adding an irrigation system, particularly in new landscapes in reducing the amount of plant loss. Irrigation has had a steady growth over the last several years in D.C. The demand is there and I know that all the contractors have been fairly busy.” Mr. Shapard added that government projects proved successful in 2003.

However, the wet year has hampered services and repairs for his company. “There were a lot of systems that weren’t turned on.”

Mr. Shapard’s observations of the rain’s effects on residential contracting provided insight to how people decided to install systems. “The residential market is more in touch with the weather. It’s more of a spur of the moment decision for people,” he said. “The residential market was slow this year. If the weather turns, it could be a big thing, and if not, then those people in the residential market waiting for the phone calls from the Yellow Pages are going to hurt again.”

The prolific rain last year followed several years of drought that spurred the reforming of the Virginia Irrigation Association. Mr. Shapard said one of the first things on the association’s agenda is to push for legislation requiring rain sensors on irrigation systems. “I think it’s something that every system should have,” he commented. “There’s plenty of systems out there that don’t have them.”

He sees growth in the highly-integrated weather data-sharing systems that allow efficient sprinkler runtimes for commercial irrigators. Central control systems that gather and download data from weather stations have existed for several years, but Mr. Shapard notes competition in this arena is growing and driving prices down, which will benefit more people.

Such systems, he believes, could reduce home water bills in half. Generally, irrigation specialists could download data weather from a remote weather station, such as the weather bureau, or from their own weather stations (some golf courses and large institutions have these). Contractors can then write schedules based on the data and adjusting for evapotranspiration. Historical data that indicates normal water use can be compared with current use in a flow zone. Thus, if a leak exists, the system senses the increase in water and shuts down the irrigation flow.