New Irrigation Improvement Tool Available
Dr. Matt Yost
Extension Agroclimate Specialist
matt.yost@usu.edu
Where did this investment tool come from?
One of the major tasks of the Utah Agricultural Water Optimization Task Force was to conduct a literature review on various approaches to water optimization in Utah to learn about potential water savings and the cost of various technologies and approaches. A thorough report was published on this review. With support of the USU water initiative, some of the information was also used to develop an online irrigation investment tool in collaboration with Washington State University.
Tool can be accessed here:
https://extension.usu.edu/crops/tools/irrigation-technology-cost-benefit-calculator
What does the tool do?
The tool allows you to determine the potential water savings, cost (per acre per year), and cost per water saved for up to 16 different irrigation technologies or tools. Five of these tools apply only to pivot irrigation and the remaining 11 can apply to almost any irrigation system.
How does it work?
Please be sure to read the instructions at the top of the online calculator. Here is a quick recap of steps to effectively use the tool.
Step 1 - Select an irrigation technology to evaluate in the dropdown box. They are organized by pivot irrigation technologies and others that are applicable to any system.
Step 2 - Read the description of the technology under the description heading to ensure that you understand what comparisons and assumptions are being made. You can also click on the "Learn More" hyperlink to read more about the technologies. Most of the comparisons are the cost to switch from one technology to another and are not the full cost of implementing new systems or approaches.
Step 3 - Selecting a technology will populate values with some defaults (estimates from 2020) to get you started. Mouse over the parameter names to get more information about the values to be entered in the text boxes. Mouse over the ** next to the values for some notes about the assumptions used for the chosen technology.
Step 4 - Adjust all inputs so they are specific to your farm, operation, etc. Your system and fields and costs will be different than the defaults! You should revise the values to match your situation and so that they are realistic for you. This includes labor rates, technology costs, field size, water use, etc. After changing any of the values hit enter, or click out of the text box to recalculate the totals. To be meaningful, the costs should be the difference between what you are currently doing. i.e. the costs more or less than your current practices, not total absolute costs.
Step 5 - Explore other options. After changing some values, re-selecting a new technology will overwrite any entered values in the text boxes with new defaults.
Interpretation
The text displayed in Red is the summary of the calculator results. It displays the:
- Cost of the technology/approach per year
- Cost of the technology/approach per acre per year
- Calculated water savings per acre
- Cost of water saved per acre
This information can be used to help explore the costs and potential water savings of 16 irrigation technology/approaches. We hope you find it useful. If you have any concerns or suggestions for improvement, please let us know.
Disclaimer
This tool is just a calculator and the output depends entirely on the assumptions being correct for your situation. It also uses estimates of water savings (mainly reduced diversions and not depletion) from available published studies. These estimates have also not been validated in all places so use with caution.