Irrigation - Setting up & Options for Recording

The choices for irrigation record keeping are based on your choice of determining the Output Per Hour of your irrigation system(s)  

To enable irrigation, please navigate to the Business Unit setup tab... 

System Setup > Organization > Business Unit tab. Click on the pencil (Edit) icon to display the Business Unit details form...

Enable irrigation as shown here. Also shown in this screenshot are the options available for Orchard and Vineyard systems.

You have two choices when it comes to getting agCommander to auto calculate total output of water, or hours needed to apply a total amount of water (e.g. 50mm).

You either have emitters (or pivots) or you don't.

If you have emitters or pivots, you need to do the following .... (See further down for setting up for irrigation where no emitters or pivots are involved or where you just want to be able to enter the total rainfall equivalent of an irrigation event and optionally record the cost of it ... see at the bottom of the article)

If you are using the Orchard or Vineyard cropping options for your Business you can choose to use Irrigation By Valve or use your Emitter Outputs for calculating the total output per hour. 

To see how to set up and use agCommander for Irrigation by Valve, click here 

For Irrigation using Emitter Output 

Under the Organization setup ... System Setup > Organization > Business Unit tab

Choose to use the Emitters option, set a default output per emitter per hour (this can be overridden when setting up your blocks). 

Choose to force agCommander to use the Total Tree or Vine count per block as the Emitter Count per block. 

Choose your preferred Unit of Measure for reporting

When setting up your Blocks... You need to set up the number of emitters (unless you've chosen to use total plant count as total emitter count) & the output per hour at the perennial cropped area level if you have sub-areas in your blocks and different outputs per hour in those sub-areas ... OR... set them up the number of emitters per block (unless you've chosen to use total plant count as total emitter count) & the output per hour at the Block level if the output is consistent across all sub-areas or if there no sub-areas. 

PLEASE NOTE:

If you choose a water source when entering irrigation records AND you are using Emitter or Pivot outputs, the water source chosen will ONLY be used to calculate the cost of the job (based on the water sources $/Hour or $/Unit of Water)

When setting up for Center Pivots, you tick that option when configuring your fields, then enter in the output hour of the whole pivot.

You need to set those up under Operations and Assets > Machinery  and Other Assets.
Set up their Output per Hour & units of Measure & Costing Method & Cost. 
Asset Costs can be maintained under the Input Costs Maintenance system. Search for that in this Knowledge Base.

So. If you have chosen NOT to use Emitter Output or Pivot Output AND you have set up an output per hour for a water source, then that will be used as the output per hour for your irrigation records... so long as you choose such a water source when entering your records 

Use Rainfall Equivalents for the Output (NEW) If you choose a Water Source when entering a record, it will be ONLY used for costing the job.

PLEASE NOTE: If you choose a water source when entering records and your preference is to simply enter a rainfall equivalent/hour as the output, then you need to ensure there is NO output set up for the Water Source as that will be used in preference

Units of Measure for Irrigation Reporting are set up under your Business Unit settings (System Setting > Organization > Business Units) regardless if you are using irrigation by emitters, by pivots or by some other system (e.g. Flood irrigation)   

If you want to track the cost of irrigation, set up an Asset as a Water Source  

You need to set those up under Operations and Assets > Machinery and Other Assets.

Set up their Output per Hour & units of Measure & Costing Method & Cost.
Maybe just set up some generic water source name like "Flood Irrigation". Set the output to 1 Megalitre Per Hour and the cost to whatever is applicable. 

When entering an Irrigation event you will see just one field that can be entered (apart from the Water Source)

I you want Costs ... Firstly set up a water source under Cropping > Configuration > Operations and Assets > Machinery and Other Assets

How you choose to cost the water source is up to you.

You have a choice of $/Hour or $/Unit of Water 

Below I have set a cost of $2/KL (or Cubic Metre) and I have set an output of 100KL/Hour 

Now to see how that works when we enter an irrigation job and we just want to enter the total mm (or inches if in the US) of water applied.

See how it uses the Output per Hour that was set up for the water source (Big Lateral) to calculate the hours needed to apply the 50mm. 

The cost of $2/KL is displayed after choosing the water source.

Here is the irrigation event recorded above in the Season View

And in the Irrigation Events report