Case Study
Mark Sherfy
D & J Farm Management LLC
D & J Farm Management LLC is based out of the Central Valley in California, in which they farm over 12,000 acres. This specific project was overseen by D & J’s former Water Resource Manager, Mark Sherfy. The goal was to design a system that would allow full pump and valve control, soil probes to measure moisture levels, and a weather station to monitor temperature and humidity.
Almonds
12,000 acres
Irrigation System
- Crop Type: Almonds
- Varieties: Nonpareil & Monterey
- Area: Bakersfield, CA
- Crop Age: 1st Leaf
- Tree Spacing: 15’x22’
- Irrigation System: 1 centrifugal pump, 1 VFD, 10 field valves, single-line drip & fan jets w/22psi thresholds
- Irrigating based off of historical ETo data and soil profile in the orchard using telemetry
Not only did D&J see a similar growth of 27-28mm between these two cases, the automated block in 2019 was irrigated with 13 inches less of water and accrued a total savings of one acre-foot per acre.
- 1 acre-foot x 80 acres = 26+ Million US Gallons
