End guns back in favour
Davey customised solution for pivot irrigation
Main use: Centre Pivot and Lateral Move
Customer: Flow Smart
Location: Griffith, NSW & Stratford, Victoria
When Bryce Yates, Managing Director, Irrigation Company Flow Smart wanted to find better ways to water the areas that pivot irrigators can’t reach, he turned to Davey Water Products and their Commercial Solutions team.
The Flow Smart Group design and install customised spray irrigation systems for agricultural and horticultural clients throughout Southern NSW and Victoria.
Bryce and his team recommend many of their customers use end guns: large sprinklers on the end of a machine designed to irrigate field areas beyond the reach of a pivot irrigator. But while they are great in theory, Bryce found many end guns could not deliver the additional water pressure required effectively and efficiently due to poorly specced motors and pumps.
“A few years ago we started working with other brands to try to resolve our end gun issues with the motor and pump. We got the results we were looking for with properly specced 50Hz pumps and motors, but we were still seeing a large failure rate with the motors. The standard motors on these pumps were not up to the standard we required.,” Bryce says.
“So we contacted a few pump companies, and Davey Water Products were the most proactive to engage with us and work together on a custom-built solution to meet ours and our customers’ needs.”
The Davey SOLUTION
“In Gippsland and regions around Ballarat, the cost of land is quite high here, so landowners want to keep it watered to optimise their investment. Most of the end guns are being used on pasture or horticulture where producers are trying to maximise every bit of their land for the cows to graze or crops. They might have an obstacle or hit a boundary, so they can’t make the pivot any bigger, but we can water significant additional area with an effective end gun.”
“End guns generally add 5-10% to the irrigated area on top of the pivot, depending on the site, so they’re a really important part of an irrigation plan – if they work properly,” Bryce says.
Working collaboratively, our Davey rep, the Davey Commercial team and Flow Smart came up with a solution based on a specially built IP66 rated motor, which comes with a rain cap and offshore water guard protection, paired with a Stainless Steel Davey CS industrial pump.
To find out more about Davey’s customised water solutions, head to daveywater.com
To find out more about Flow Smart Group and irrigation solution, head to flowsmart.net.au
“The IP rating for the motor is crucial because of its exposure to water and coastal climates. We need to ensure that it’s sealed correctly so no damage occurs,” Bryce says.
One of the key things Flow Smart noticed was the quality and reliability of the Davey pumps. They’ve seen 100% improvement rate of pump failures since the integration of the Davey pump.
“Before we went through this process of customising our end guns, we had a lot of clients that were done with them. They were sick of the poor performance, maintenance and how unreliable they were. Now we’re seeing an uplift of our customers using end guns. We are also seeing significant improvement on the effective area from the guns, with reduced power input and a huge increase in reliability. This has definitely resulted in higher customer satisfaction,” Bryce says.
