Roger Tobias, a relatively new farmer, went to work and built something that he needed for his business. “I thought either it would work or it wouldn’t,” he says. It worked.
What he needed was a moving irrigation system for a pasture. T frames are made from scrap angle iron brace arms from an earlier system so they have already been drilled on one end. Tobias attached insulators, gave space around the wheels and then stretched wire through the insulators from the first to the last tower. Both the 2 mile, 0.1 joul 6 volt solar fence charger and the jets are mounted high. In addition, the wires are fenced in so that the cattle don’t chew on or rub off small parts.
“I watered the district twice with cattle in the field. You never mind. In fact, it was 90 ° F. The second time they were stored underneath to cool off, ”reports Tobias.
When the tower stops, a stake is driven into the ground to connect a wire for better grounding. Steel wheels provide a floor even when the fulcrum does not move. “It’s hot. Maybe not as hot as the boundary fence, but the cattle get the idea. So far, so good,” says Tobias. Grazers brought another 100 cattle after installing his system.
Portable storage plates protect the center pivot elements, the fertilization tank and the pump.
Tobias, recently retired from family medicine after 40 years, was a doctor in Lyons, Kansas. “I laugh when I think of my lifelong farmer friends who will say, ‘What? Doc did it? ‘”
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