Lindsay announces its focus on precision irrigation, smart farming practices

Date:03-08-2018

Lindsay Corporation (NYSE: LNN), a leading global manufacturer and distributor of irrigation and infrastructure equipment and technology, recently hosted Water Matters 3.6.18 - an educational event focused on efficient irrigation and the role it plays in precision agriculture and emerging smart farming practices. The event was held at Lindsay-owned Elecsys Corporation, a technology design and manufacturing production facility in Olathe, Kansas.

"Whether it's driverless tractors, drones or smart irrigation - precision technology is the key to helping farmers meet growing global food, fuel and fiber challenges," said Brian Magnusson, vice president of technology at Lindsay Corporation. "Our goal today was to raise awareness of precision irrigation tools and practices and the increasing, global impact they will have on the future of agriculture."

The event featured a panel discussion with growers and other industry experts, hands-on demonstrations of some of the cutting edge technology that's driving precision irrigation and a behind the scenes tour of Lindsay's technology production process.

"I'm a farmer that likes to be on the edge and try new things, and one of the biggest things I have in my operation is irrigation," said panel member John Breedlove, owner of Breedlove Farms in Manito, Illinois. "I'm lucky, because I have a great aquifer to run from. It would be easy to just push the button and run the system whenever I want, but I don't think that's the right way to do things anymore. It's important for me to understand how my crop is using water, so I can be more efficient with my irrigation and maybe bump up my yields, too."

Breedlove relies on Lindsay's FieldNET technology for remote monitoring and control of his irrigation systems. He added FieldNET's fully-integrated FieldNET Advisor irrigation recommendation tool into the system last year, so he now also receives field-specific information that helps him decide when, where and how much to irrigate.

Also at the event, Randy Wood, Lindsay's president of agricultural irrigation, announced a new data connection with the John Deere Operations Center, which will help FieldNET Advisor users make even faster, better-informed decisions using data from their farm equipment that's connected to the John Deere Operations Center. This, he said, can result in improved productivity and profitability for growers.

Wood also commented on the company's commitment to continuous innovation, announcing enhanced technology offerings and the expansion of FieldNET and FieldNET Advisor to more growers around the world. He also detailed a goal to help growers save more than 700 billion gallons of water and more than one billion kilowatt hours of energy by the year 2022.

"To put that in tangible terms, the amount of water we hope to help growers save is over 10 percent more than the Lake of the Ozarks or roughly half the size of Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain," he said. "In terms of carbon emissions, the savings is equivalent to 200,000 passenger vehicles operating for a year or the equivalent of burning 100 million gallons of gasoline."

Wood added that progress toward these goals will be tracked at www.myfieldnet.com. He also called on other organizations to make a similar commitment to water conservation.

"The effort to sustain and protect the world for future generations must include effective water management," he said. "It's up to all of us to make 'water matters' a priority."