Sites Reservoir is significant for California and the nation, and a substantial loan through the WIFIA program will help us realize the many environmental and water supply benefits of this project. Sites Reservoir is a beneficiary pays project, which means that the loan will be repaid by project participants.

“The significance of this opportunity cannot be overstated. We thank our federal partners and the Biden Administration for supporting Sites Reservoir in such a meaningful way.”

Said Fritz Durst, chairman of the Sites Project Authority

Established by the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act of 2014, the WIFIA program is a federal loan and guarantee program administered by the US EPA. WIFIA’s aim is to accelerate investment in the nation’s water infrastructure by providing long-term, low-cost federal loans for regionally and nationally significant projects. The Sites Project Authority submitted a letter of intent to apply is July 2021. WIFIA funding helps finance drought resiliency projects as well as clean water and safe drinking water infrastructure projects across the United States. After a robust statutorily required review process, the WIFIA Selection Committee selected Sites Reservoir to apply for a loan.

“For Sites Reservoir to be built – bringing substantial and critical environmental benefits to California – it has to be affordable for our participants. This loan can get us there,”

Added Durst

The post US EPA Advocates for WIFIA Program Loan to Reduce Environmental and Water Supply Problems appeared first on North America FarmQuip Magazine.

Jain announced that its Water Management Services, where Jain consultants deliver weekly irrigation schedules to growers based on satellite imagery, hyperlocal weather, and machine learning analysis of soil moisture content and water infiltration properties, has won the Irrigation Association 2021 New Product Contest Award in the Specialty Agriculture Irrigation category.

This year’s contest was a hybrid event combining virtual and live elements. Products were evaluated based on innovation, design quality, increased water/resource-use efficiency, ease of use, and product life expectancy. Contest judges are experienced professionals with technical knowledge and industry expertise. Official judging was conducted via Zoom Nov. 17-18, with winners announced live on the Irrigation Show floor on December 9.

Winning in the Specialty Agriculture Irrigation category, JAIN Water Management Services was honored for its highly integrated offering of agtech software, hardware, and consulting services that generate intelligent irrigation schedules; featuring the first-of-its-kind utilization of high-resolution satellite imaging for ETc (crop water consumption), real-time local weather and soil moisture sensing in the field, bundled together with Machine Learning toward providing unprecedented precision in the management of when and how long each crop irrigation event needs to last.

Accepting the award, Jeff Tuel, Executive Vice President of Jain Irrigation and head of Water Management Services, said,

“Growers today are facing environmental challenges the likes we’ve never seen before, in addition to incredible labor shortages. We developed JAIN Water Management Services to remove the hesitancy in deploying new technologies that can meet these problems head-on. While the tools may be complex, the process is quite simple and relies on tried-and-true soil, plant, and water relationships. The growers get this, and it’s remarkable to see how quickly over the course of the program they’re able to pick up the technology and start producing their own irrigation schedules.”

“The New Product Contest award is a great validation by the Irrigation Association and the members of our industry of the importance JAIN Water Management Services is having. Modern technology makes it easier to manage water than any time before in history, but agtech companies need to meet an even higher bar before farmers are willing to change how they operate and we have to be able to adapt along with them, too. Our ability to train and support customers to become power users of JAIN Logic software, to understand their problems, provides a low cost, the low-risk trial of the leading technology available today,”

said Aric Olson, President of Jain Irrigation.

The post Jain Wins New Product Contest Award at the 2021 Irrigation Show appeared first on North America FarmQuip Magazine.

Rainfall is free irrigation, but not all rainfall is usable. If you are not measuring and using the rain properly for irrigation, you could be wasting a valuable free asset for your garden. It does not matter if you manage 1000 acres, a small home garden, or an HOA’s landscape. Understanding these four concepts will help you be a better water manager.

How Much Rain is a Heavy Rain?

Rainfall is typically described as light, moderate or heavy, but how many waterfalls with these descriptions. Light rainfall is considered less than .10 inches of rain per hour. Moderate rainfall is defined as .10 to .30 inches per hour. Heavy rainfall is more than .30 inches per hour.  These descriptions provide two factors, how much rain over a period of time (one hour). This is essential information to know, but this alone is not enough to decide how much to water.

Understand the Concept of Effective Precipitation

EP is the amount of rain added and stored in the soil. If your soil is dry and you experience light rain, most of the water will evaporate from the soil’s surface and not be used by your plants. Conversely, if you have clay soil and experience a heavy downpour of an inch in a couple of hours, your soil will not be able to soak up the rain, and the majority will run off, wasted.

Know the Infiltration Rates of your Soil

Understanding your soil type is the first key to knowing your infiltration rate. Infiltration rates are helpful because they help identify how much of the rain will be usable. If it rains more than can infiltrate your soil, it will be wasted. Rain much less than what your soil can accept will evaporate and not be used by your plants.

How Wet is your Soil when it Rains?

The final factor for getting the most benefit from rainfall is how wet is your soil when it rains. If you watered the day before it rains, most of the rain would be wasted. If you water a normal amount the day after moderate or heavy rain, most of the irrigation will be wasted as well.

Use a Smart Controller that uses Rainfall for Irrigation Scheduling

Purchasing a smart controller like the ETwater controller using Jain Unity makes all these calculations easy because the controller does it all for you. Jain Unity measures rainfall, calculates the effective precipitation based on your soil type, knows your current soil moisture balance looks forward to rain events, and automatically adjusts your irrigation schedule. These calculations are done on an hourly basis, so you get the most benefit from rain.

Source: JAIN

The post Jain Describes Five Rules for Getting the Most Benefit from Rainfall in your Garden appeared first on North America FarmQuip Magazine.

Investments Will Support Ontario Farmers in Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair Watersheds

The post Governments Improving Water Quality and Farming around Lake Erie appeared first on North America FarmQuip Magazine.

Under the announced deal, all of McDermott’s employees will be joining CBR, under the leadership of CBR President Jim Maxwell.  Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“We are pleased to be able to welcome J. F. McDermott’s staff and lines of business as they join the CBR team, becoming our ninth location in New England,”

stated Maxwell.

“McDermott’s business and expertise, as well as their long tradition of excellence in customer service, will be an outstanding complement to CBR’s existing operations and growth strategy as a leader in heavy equipment sales, leasing, renting, and servicing in the New England market. We’re excited about the possibilities and relationships we can build upon for McDermott’s customers, and look forward to continue serving them in an expanded fashion.”

The post Chadwick-BaRoss Announces Acquisition of J.F. McDermott appeared first on North America FarmQuip Magazine.

“As a grower, when we plant a field, we want to install an irrigation system one time. We want to have a product that will last the life of the orchard or vineyard.  The fact that Jain provides products with high-quality resin and a 12-year warranty, we feel confident when we plant this orchard, the Jain tubing and sprinklers will be in this field for the rest of its life.”

“Sprinklers provide the flexibility we don’t normally get in sandy soils with double line drip. We almost mimic the flood irrigation aspect  of 100 percent coverage but with the precision of a pressure compensating sprinkler.”

We can all learn from Austin’s experience and dedication to sustainability:

“By applying only the water, we need to apply we are farming at a high level of efficiency, allowing us to save money and resources. With the advent of products Jain offers, we are finding solutions to our long-term problems.”

Source: JAIN

The post Jain Irrigation Explains Water Management Solutions for Long-Term Problems appeared first on North America FarmQuip Magazine.

Richard Restuccia, Jain Water Manager, talks about Resin Market in 2021. Here is the full-text

The New Year brings hope for change, but so far, the spot resin market in 2021 looks very similar to 2020. Prices continue to soar insignificant percentage jumps, and the impact is felt throughout the irrigation industry. In addition to high resin prices, the industry is hit hard with record historically high rates for containerized freight (up to over 150% from a year ago), and spot truckload pricing hit an all-time high as well.  Many irrigation products are injection molded or extruded. In the case of supply tubing or emitter line, 60% -70% of the product’s cost is the resin. Because resin makes up such a large percentage of the cost of irrigation products when resin prices increase rapidly manufactures, dealers, distributors, and end-users need to react quickly or businesses will suffer.

How High Is The Price of Resin

In April 2020, the U.S. spot price for resin (LLDPE – Inj) touched $.38/lb. Today the same product is up 95% to $.74/lb. in nine months.  COVID’s impact on the economy and the uncertainty ahead for the world economy contributed to the low price last April. This rapid acceleration causes issues for anyone manufacturing plastic products or products packaged in plastic.  Manufactures without a process to increase costs as the resin price explodes to the upside will be challenged to operate at a profit.

Why Are Prices So High

It’s hard to keep track of all the major news in 2020, but remember, the U.S. experienced the most active and fifth costliest Atlantic hurricane season on record.  Hurricane Hanna made landfall in Texas, and a couple of others impacted the gulf coast and Louisiana.  Since the significant manufacturers are in the states with exposure to hurricanes, plant closures are expected. Most years, the increase in pricing is due to supply issues as a result of the closures.  However, this year the hurricanes were only part of the story.

There we also planned several turnarounds in 2020. A turnaround – which is sometimes referred to as a TAR – is a highly-expensive planned regeneration period in a plant or refinery. During this time, an entire part of the operation is taken out of production while plants are inspected and revamped. In late November early December, there was a surge in orders for resin from Asia, catching most suppliers by surprise. Also, a primary PE plant in Mexico shut down in December. This is important because the ocean freight prices put resin prices from Asia out of reach for Mexico, so they turned to the U.S. for resin, which caused supplies to get even tighter.

If you aren’t feeling bad enough, there is one additional notable issue. When COVID hit, most producers sold off what they had because they, like many others at the time, thought the economy would spiral down quickly.

What We Can Do About It

Unfortunately, we can’t do much about the price of resin. As demand increases and supplies decrease, the price goes up, and when demand decreases and supplies increase, the price goes down. Resin prices change, and we have no way to impact these price changes, but what we do control is how we respond to them. If you are a dealer or distributor of plastic products that have 60% – 70% of the cost tied up in resin’s price, work to negotiate a contract based on agreeable profit to the producer.  The agreement should allow regular (think monthly) price adjustments, both up and down, to ensure you have an adequate supply of products.  When prices are high, keeping customers happy is primarily a function of getting them good product on time.

The price of resin is just one of many increases we are experiencing as consumers. The freight and container prices are hitting everyone. How much did you spend at the grocery store in February last year compared to this year? I know my bill is up over 30%. Good business managers will evaluate where increases are coming and where shortages may occur and take steps to ensure they can get a consistent product at a fair price.

Source: JAIN

The post Jain Focuses Attention on Resin Market in 2021 appeared first on North America FarmQuip Magazine.

With this method the pumped water is primarily used for irrigation purposes; however, it is also used for flood control or water supply in general.

Over the years, this type of installation has also been used for other applications where system and environmental requirements were similar to those above: mines, industrial plants, etc.

Inclined submersible pumps offer numerous advantages compared to vertical pumps or horizontal pumps mounted on floating platforms, particularly because they are easily installed. The pump inclined on the bank of the basin requires no large structural parts to be installed, with consequent cost and time-saving.

Another important advantage of inclined submersible pumps is that they are highly compact machines and can be positioned on banks with very irregular slopes with no need for the shaft to be aligned, contrary to a vertical turbine pump.

Finally, the well-appreciated characteristics of this solution: pumps are easily handled, bearings are less stressed and the level of noise generated by these pumps is low.

The choice among a wide range of wet ends and submersible motors combined with Caprari know-how assures total reliability and efficiency in the selection and installation of the product with a guarantee of a long operating life of the system as demonstrated by the dozens of projects installed around the world.

Installations of the inclined submersible pumps are found in Queensland, Australia, where the banks of the water basin are very steep.

The solution offered by Caprari enabled an efficient water pumping system to be quickly installed to permit irrigation of the surrounding areas.

The post Caprari introduces the Inclined Installation for Submersible Electric Pumps appeared first on North America FarmQuip Magazine.

Introduced in 2014, Cummins’ QSK95 diesel generator has been installed in over 35 countries, making its mark on every continent except Antarctica. From data centers to hospitals; wastewater treatment facilities to mines; and many other industries, the series provides reliable power for a range of standby and prime applications.

“Reaching the production of the one-thousandth QSK95 Genset is a remarkable achievement for Cummins and a testament to the market’s acceptance of the product. Demand for the product continues to be strong,”

said Doug Sunkel, Cummins Fridley Plant Manager.

Although the QSK95 engine is produced in Seymour, Indiana, the generator set is assembled at the Cummins manufacturing plant in Fridley, Minnesota. This year a significant milestone was achieved when Cummins produced its one-thousandth QSK95 generator set, which will power a data center facility in North America.

The product offers exceptional durability and superior transient performance, demonstrated by its ability to achieve 100% single-step load acceptance. Capable of operating at low loads without the risk of wet stacking, the QSK95 is the ideal solution for phased buildouts. Furthermore, with market-leading low in-cylinder emissions, the product meets most local permitting requirements without the need for exhaust after-treatment. Finally, with extended maintenance intervals and easily accessible components for timely servicing, the QSK95 ensures five-nines reliability.

Learn how the QSK95 can support your power generation requirements by reaching out to any of our 8000 distributors/dealer locations globally. Find your local distributor/dealer at cummins.com/locations.

Source: Cummins

The post Cummins QSK95 Diesel Generator Series Reaches 1000th Unit Milestone appeared first on North America FarmQuip Magazine.

For Caprari the new series E10PX in AISI 316, an extension of the well-reputed Endurance range of borehole pumps, represents the pinnacle of innovation and performance on the market. Result of the experience developed over decades of installations throughout the world, the Endurance series ensures an absolute level of quality and the highest real hydraulic performances.

The appropriate sizing of massive components and the selection of ever high-performing materials, make the E10PX Endurance pumps unique for their durability, efficiency, and flexibility of use. With a design configuration based on precision-casting stainless steel AISI 316, the E10PX Endurance guarantees maximum efficiency and durability over the years, standing easily in challenging conditions or aggressive waters.

The shaft and coupling of the E10PX are in Duplex to maximize reliability in harsh environments, and the pump-motor coupling area is fitted with the device Protector: an additional element of protection against possible abrasion. Thanks to the Defender (a Caprari International Patent), quick passivation of external components is generated, protecting at best the entire pumpset, right from the beginning of the installation.

This product boasts many positive and distinctive features, such as an innovative hydraulic design that allows high flow rates, with a reduced external overall diameter. In fact, the Caprari E10PX Endurance electric pumps have an operating range that covers duties normally met by 12” (or larger) pumps and deliver a high head per stage, allowing a more compact and reliable pump to be selected, for comparable hydraulic needs. Last but not least, maintenance and servicing is easy and quick, due to an extremely rational construction and no necessity of special tools.

The Caprari E10PX Endurance 10” borehole range, can therefore be used in a wide variety of applications, including captation from deep wells, many civil and industrial uses, RO, and artificial snow-making. Heavy-duty applications such as mining and offshore are now performed with total peace of mind, thanks to the innovative design and technologically advanced solutions. From now on, durability and efficiency are available at good value.

The post Caprari introduces the new E10PX Borehole Pumps appeared first on North America FarmQuip Magazine.