As many of you know, Valley® Irrigation is a global company. Farmers from all around the world utilize Valley center pivot technology, like AgSense® and BaseStation3™ irrigation monitoring, to increase their yields and water efficiency. Like local growers, international farmers face the same yearly challenges of running a farming operation. This includes proper pivot maintenance during the winter season.
Even if your off-season preventative maintenance program has already begun, or is nearly over, I thought it would be interesting to share the opinion of a farm irrigation expert in Spain.
Antonio Sanches Martinez is the Service Manager at Riegos y Montaje Mancha in Albacete, Spain. With over eighteen years of experience, it is easy to tell when speaking with Antonio that he is very enthusiastic about the quality of Valley equipment, and he is passionate about growers taking care of their equipment in the off-season to ensure the equipment’s longevity.
I recently sat down with Antonio to talk about preventive maintenance and hoped that his thoughts and experience would be useful to other Valley owners, wherever they are in the world.
“Before the winter, I suggest that you check your transmission and check your center drive’s noises,” Antonio says. “You should also check the oil level in all of your gearboxes. Verify that you do not have any water in the gearboxes, and remove the water immediately if you do. Lastly, check the tire pressure in all of your pivot tires.”
In his 18 years of working on Valley pivots, Antonio has learned all of the ins and outs of keeping a pivot running in top condition. Though the regular preventative maintenance listed above is important, he emphasized one specific suggestion. “After all of these years working with farm irrigation equipment, I have come to find that one of the most important things I could share about preventative maintenance is to constantly verify that your spans are in a good general state and that your towers are well aligned.”
These may be things that you are already doing, or have already done, but no matter where you are located in the world, it is nice to remember how much we have in common with one another and can learn from one another. So, do not hesitate to explore and share practices and solutions you find, you never know who may find it helpful!