Introduction
Meet Doug Saathoff from Trumbull, NE! Doug’s been around irrigation his whole life—he started with gravity irrigation alongside his dad, then shifted to pivot as he grew up. Now, Doug is moving forward with subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) and has 260 acres, with his first field installed in 2012. His biggest takeaway? “You don’t want to get behind with drip irrigation, especially if things are dry. You have to stay ahead of the game.” Doug is seeing the benefits, using less water and getting better yields than when fields were gravity irrigated.
Doug's Drip System's
All of Doug’s drip acres were previously gravity irrigated and NutraDrip installed 62 acres of drip for him in the spring of 2021. NutraDrip has also provided maintenance for his preexisting systems. "We service all systems" states Trevor Halbmaier, NutraDrip central Nebraska sales representative.
Doug, a Nebraska based grower, encourages people to look at drip irrigation and see if it could work on your operation. Doug feels like switching from gravity to drip irrigation on his odd-shaped fields worked perfectly. “Now it's a no brainer for me.” he states.
Water Usage With Subsurface Drip Irrigation (SDI)
Doug's water usage is a lot less than it was before. Doug was using 20-30 inches of water when he was using gravity irrigation. Now with drip, Doug hasn’t gone over 8 inches per acre of water.
Working with NutraDrip
When asked what set NutraDrip apart from everyone else and he said “They always just seem to be available. Always a phone call away.”
Doug is looking into switching more acres from gravity to subsurface drip irrigation in the future.
Sustainability
A lot of people have different definitions for sustainability. What sustainability means to Doug is saving water and resources for future generations. With drip irrigation, he can be assured that there will be water available for whoever is going to farm his land next.
“They (NutraDrip team) always seem willing to help. They always have new ideas and are always learning and trying new things. It’s been great.” Doug Saathoff
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