Pipe Planner, Delta Plastic’s web-based, updated version of the NRCS PHAUCET program, is now available free of charge to Midsouth crop producers.

The Mississippi Soybean Promotion Board funded the production of an instructional video that explains how to use Pipe Planner to design water-conserving plans for furrow-irrigated fields. Dr. Joe Massey of the YMD Joint Water Management District led the production effort for this video, and was ably supported by Mr. Zac Ashmore of the MSU Office of Agric. Communications, Mr. Chris DeClerk, Irrigation Specialist with Delta Plastics, Dr. Chris Henry of the University of Arkansas, and the Arkansas Soybean Promotion Board. A team of experts from Mississippi and Arkansas provided technical assistance with the video. The video provides instructions designed to address 80 to 90% of furrow-irrigation designs used in Midsouth crop production.

The training video has the following nine chapters:

●          Why producers like using Pipe Planner to conserve water;

●          How Pipe Planner makes furrow irrigation more efficient;

●          Tips on getting started with Pipe Planner;

●          Entering or importing necessary data needed to create plans with Pipe Planner;

●          Creating a design for furrow irrigating a regularly (e.g. square, rectangle) shaped field;

●          Creating a design for furrow irrigating an irregularly (e.g. triangle) shaped field;

●          Creating a design for a ridged field that requires irrigation out of both sides of polytube;

●          Creating designs for split fields that require a tee to irrigate both sides of the field; and

●          Acknowledgments of contributions to the video production.

By viewing all the chapters, producers who use furrow irrigation can learn the benefits from using Pipe Planner as an irrigation water conservation tool, and how to use it to create designs for fields of varying sizes, shapes, and row lengths, and to prevent polytube blowout. Pipe Planner uses the functionalities of Google Maps to create a design for each identified field that is to be irrigated. The end result will be that individual fields will be irrigated uniformly, thus reducing water loss from the end of furrows.

Before using Pipe Planner to develop plans, producers must know the following for each field:

●          Output or discharge rate in gallons per minute from the well or riser;

●          Furrow spacing and direction; and

●          Elevation change along the polypipe set.

Once the required information is entered, Pipe Planner calculates the optimum polytube size, the sizes and number of holes to punch in each section of tubing, and the approximate time required for proper irrigation. The resulting irrigation designs can be used in paper or electronic form, and can be remotely accessed.

Producers are encouraged to view all the modules of this video so that they will become acquainted with Pipe Planner and how to use it to develop efficient plans that can be stored and changed when needed for furrow-irrigated fields.

Composed by Larry G. Heatherly, May 2015, larryheatherly@bellsouth.net; edited by Dr. Joe Massey, jhm4501@gmail.com