Trimble has announced its Irrigate-IQ precision irrigation solution is now available in North America. Along with the North American launch, Trimble also introduced the Connected Farm Irrigate app, which provides farmers with real-time status and control of their pivot irrigation systems using a smartphone or tablet.

The Irrigate-IQ GPS-controlled solution, which is installed on the pivot, enables farmers to remotely control their irrigators via the Internet, including performing variable rate irrigation, and receive reports about where water or fertilizer has been applied. With the solution, farmers can apply the optimal amount of water, fertigation or effluent where needed, which can improve crop quality and yield, while minimizing nutrient and chemical runoff.

The solution enables farmers to conserve water use and improve efficiency, reduce energy costs for fuel and electricity, minimize input costs, comply with environmental regulations, and safely dispose of effluent. In addition, Trimble’s brand-agnostic strategy allows farmers to use the solution with most irrigator makes and models. Irrigate-IQ is also available in New Zealand.

In addition, Trimble introduced the Connected Farm Irrigate app for use on an iPhone, iPad, Android smartphone or tablet. The app allows farmers to see the status of their pivots, including whether they are operating or not operating, in which direction they are traveling, the heading, pump pressure, pivot voltage and type of material being dispersed (water, fertigation, or effluent). It also gives farmers the ability to remotely start or stop their pivots, choose the direction (forward or reverse), turn the pump on or off or switch the type of material being dispersed. This new functionality comes in addition to farmers’ ability to remotely control their irrigators by accessing the Irrigate-IQ software on a desktop or laptop computer, rugged mobile computer or tablet.

“Now that Trimble has expanded availability of its Irrigate-IQ solution, and launched the Connected Farm Irrigate app, farmers across North America and New Zealand will be able to monitor and control their irrigators from virtually any location,” said David Fitzpatrick, business area director of Trimble’s Agriculture Division. “Irrigate-IQ allows farmers to be more strategic with their irrigation planning, while the app creates time savings and increased efficiencies by allowing farmers to respond to weather changes or faulty equipment on the fly without being on site.”

Although the app is free, farmers will need to purchase the Irrigate-IQ solution in order to access irrigator data. For more details on the Irrigate-IQ solution, visit:  http://www.trimble.com/Agriculture/irrigate-iq.aspx. The free Connected Farm Irrigate app is available now on the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.

The Irrigate-IQ solution and Connected Farm Irrigate app are both part of Trimble’s Connected Farm solution, which includes a robust suite of recently announced features including soil analysis, rainfall totals, weather forecasts, commodity tracking, and now irrigation monitoring and control.