Due to the growing demand for increased food production to feed the expanding population, along with rising land prices and increasing fertilizer and fuel costs, making precise choices about irrigation and nutrient management is more critical than ever.

Valley Irrigation has developed a way to share precision irrigation data that facilitates data-driven decisions and simplifies irrigation management. The first of its kind, Irrigation Exchange provides the seamless transfer of precision data to other ag companies from BaseStation3, the new Valley remote irrigation management product.

“Valley is working with major original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of agriculture equipment, seed and fertilizer companies, and leading agronomy service companies to design and develop the next level of integrated farm management,” said Craig Malsam, vice president of global engineering and strategic technical development. “OEMs are invited to create application programing interfaces (API) that link into BaseStation3 to synchronize irrigation with other critical and interdependent farm operations.”

Irrigation Exchange allows for data retrieval, data-based decision-making and implementation through mechanized irrigation during the most critical phase — the growing season, Malsam said. It also gives growers complete control over their data and who has access to it.

Although an abundance of precision ag data is available, it is difficult to aggregate the information into sound conclusions and execution because various OEM management systems reside on different platforms, Websites and cloud-based servers. Irrigation Exchange overcomes those obstacles.

Irrigation Exchange puts the grower in command of the most powerful stream of irrigation data ever developed. With this new technology, growers can manage and monitor Valley irrigation equipment directly from selected partner software systems; integrate irrigation information into complementary management systems; use irrigation management tools across multiple platforms; and synchronize irrigation with other critical farm operations. All this means that growers can develop a plant-to-harvest strategy that will make them more productive, efficient and profitable.