T-L pivots reveal additional benefits when floodwaters inundate Missouri River bottomland.

Richard Oswald has never felt that water and electricity were a good mix, which is one of the reasons he has always preferred T-L center pivot systems over electric pivots. However, he never thought of safety in terms of floodwaters.

In the last 20 years alone, at least four of the six T-L center pivots on Oswald’s 2,000-acre farm near Rock Port, Missouri, have been partially or totally submerged in water from the nearby Missouri River. Prior to that, the area hadn’t experienced widespread flooding since 1952, before the current levy system was finished.

Although Oswald’s farmland used to be split nearly 50/50 between hill country and bottoms, the mix has changed significantly since his son, Brandon, started farming in 1989.

Today, most of Richard’s farm ground is in the river bottom, while most of his son’s land is in the hills. Although portions of the farm are owned together, other fields are owned and managed individually. Interestingly, some of the land that Richard and his wife, Linda, farm under the umbrella of Oswald Farms is also fifth-generation property owned by cousins living as far away as New York. In fact, they technically own five of the T-L pivots, even though they left the purchase decision up to Oswald.

“The worst thing about the gumbo in the bottoms is that when you till it and leave it exposed to the wind, it tends to blow and drift worse than sand,” Oswald insists. “When it’s wet, it’s the heaviest soil you can imagine, but it can also be like powder when it dries.”

That’s why Oswald has been using irrigation for as long as he can remember and a total no-till program since 1986.

“Not only does no-till farming reduce the potential for erosion, but it offers a tremendous amount of savings in fuel and equipment. Tillage implements wear out and I don’t see a need to put that many hours on a tractor.”

Oswald has the same conservative view of center pivot irrigation. “My father purchased the first T-L center pivot in 1984 after years of he and I wading irrigation ditches and moving pipes and siphon tubes,” he says. “We liked the idea of the oil drive in place of electric motors. At the time, I remember reading that electrocution was the second leading cause of death in farmer fatalities; and I think center pivot irrigation systems were the leading cause within the category. So that made an impression on me.

“My children were growing up on the farm at the time, and we just thought T-L offered a safer solution,” he adds. “I understand that electric drive is what most of the center pivot industry has evolved into; but as long as there is still another option, I’ll take it.”

Little did he know at the time, though, that T-L pivots would be better suited to withstand submersion in flood waters. Unlike the flood of 1993, which came and went quickly, due to heavy rain throughout the Midwest, the 2011 flood occurred when the Corp of Engineers opened the spillways on dams in South Dakota for an extended period of time. In fact, Oswald was forced out of his own home for nearly four months.

“After the flood of 1993, all I did was pull the drain plugs on the drive units and refill them,” he says. “We never had any other damage. However, the towers on four of the six pivots were setting in water for 14 weeks or more this time.

“I don’t anticipate too much more damage than last time, but I certainly wouldn’t think it would be good for electric motors to set in water that long … even if they are sealed to withstand normal conditions.”

Oswald insists he also likes the continuous movement of the T-L units, which was once more important than it is today.

“I don’t think they have as many problems as pivots that start and stop every few minutes,” he relates. “We certainly haven’t had any problems anyway.

“However, it was an even bigger issue when we used to do a lot more chemigation,” he adds. “Several years ago, when Dad was still farming, we used to put on a majority of our fungicides through the pivot. However, with Bt corn, that has pretty much ended.”

Oswald says he has also cut back on his practice of applying liquid fertilizer through the pivots as the price has increased. Today, he puts most of his nitrogen on in the form of cheaper anhydrous ammonia, even though he had great success with liquid nitrogen applied through the pivots just prior to tasseling.

“I still think T-L pivots are a good investment, though, even if they aren’t used for anything more than insurance in dry years when you need moisture,” he says. “We’ve fought wet more than we’ve fought dry the last couple years or so. But if you consider the price of a combine or tractor compared to a center pivot, knowing that the center pivot is going to last a lot longer, it’s still not a bad investment ‚Äî especially when bottom ground is selling for $5,000 to $6,000 an acre and corn is selling for over $7.00 per bushel.”

Back when Mark Utecht and his dad raised hogs near Hastings, Nebraska, the wheat grown in the corners of fields irrigated with T-L center pivot units went to good use. Not only was it an extra dryland crop for the cash grain market, but the straw was actually needed for bedding in the hog barns. A lot of things have changed since then, though.

Now that the hogs are gone and the barns are empty, there’s no longer a need for straw. Plus, the center pivot, which was adjacent to the hog operation, was already close to 40 years old. So, in an effort to “kill two birds with one stone,” Utecht installed a new T-L corner pivot system this past spring that covers the entire field. The irony is that a portion of the old pivot is still going after 39 years.

“Dad installed the very first T-L center pivot in 1973; but that part of the farm went to a cousin who has since replaced it with a new T-L,” Utecht explains. “However, the one I just replaced was a pivot that Dad bought and installed in 1975.”

While the original unit utilized chain drives on each tower, Utecht had since replaced all but one of those with hydraulic motors on the wheels, bringing it closer to today’s standards. Still, the unit was too good to totally retire as salvage.

“I sold eight of the towers and spans to a neighbor,” he explains. “He hasn’t done anything with four of them yet, but he has already used the other four to build a pivot that covers a corner that he can’t reach with the main pivot.”

In the meantime, Utecht enjoys the benefit of being able to irrigate approximately 152 acres in the field with the newest unit … particularly since approximately two-thirds of his 600 acres consists of corn-on-corn.

“I’ve always felt like corn gives me the best return on investment,” he continues. “And I still do things the traditional way by using a disc/chisel in the fall and following it with a field cultivator in the spring before I plant.”

Not surprisingly, he feels the same about T-L center pivot units. They’re simple and reliable.

“I’ve priced other brands, but I’ve always stuck with T-L, partly because of the hydraulic drive, but mainly because of the dealer and the service,” he says. “I’m more comfortable around hydraulics and think they’re a lot simpler than electric drives. Plus, every so often, I hear another horror story about the service, or lack of it, that somebody got from another brand.”

After taking over the family farm and beginning to farm fulltime in the mid-’90s, Utecht says he actually bought his first T-L unit on his own in 2005. That was placed on a quarter-section farm that he purchased in an effort to expand the operation. Otherwise, all his land lies south of Hastings within a few miles of the home farm.

“At this point, everything is under irrigation with all but 70 acres being under pivots,” he relates. “The only field that is still being flood irrigated has a good slope to it, so it’s easy to irrigate. But it still takes a lot of work that I don’t have with the pivots,” he adds, joking that his time isn’t worth much.

The only other regret that Utecht has is that the newest corner pivot system is the only one that makes a full circle. The rest of them automatically reverse due to a farmstead or other obstacle blocking the path.

“I wish they all went in a full circle,” he insists. “But at least with this newest T-L, I’m getting more of the field watered than we ever did in the past.”

In the meantime, most any farmer in Nebraska will tell you that corn returns more per acre than wheat. And as livestock disappears from more and more row-crop operations, there certainly isn’t as much need for straw.

“Confidence.” That’s how Roger Brining of Great Bend, Kansas, expresses his feelings about his three hydrostatically powered T-Ls, even though a service man for a major electric brand lives only a mile away and his T-L dealer is 134 miles over the horizon.

And furthermore, he says that when he bought his most recent T-L he didn’t even “research” or compare prices with other brands.

His reasoning: “My T-Ls just run and run and run and run….”

He used to farm ten quarter-sections of land near Alamosa, Colorado, in the 1980s where ten electric systems were running. What he learned from this was, “I really had my fill of microswitches.”

“Also, when we flew over our fields there we’d see just horrendous spoking from all that starting and stopping,” he says. “The input shaft of an electric system goes from zero to 1,760 rpms and then to zero again several thousand times a day.”

“What impressed me the most about T-Ls was their continuous movement that didn’t either over apply or under apply water. I knew with T-Ls there would be less maintenance and wear and tear on the gearboxes and motors due to their steady, continuous motion.”

Brining also remembers clearly when he was knocked off an electric system in Colorado. A previous tenant, in an effort to save $11 on a micro-switch, had done some bypassing so there was electricity when there wasn’t supposed to be any.

Soaking wet, yet luckily on the back side of the sprinkler, his leg barely touched the electric system–in a fraction of a second he was blown into a muddy wheel track with the wind knocked out of him. It required $3,000 in microswitches and fuses to render some measure of safety.

“Each tower was so complex that one such failure would shut down everything. So, in 1989 I told my Dad I thought a hydraulically powered T-L was the way to go. He then installed the first of our T-Ls,” Brining remembers.

It replaced the first center-pivot in the county, a 20-year-old non-T-L unit that hadn’t run much for five years.

“It’s an art to align electric systems. On the other hand, alignment is a breeze with a T-L,” he comments.

Brining is in the process of replacing his older T-Ls, not because they have maintenance problems, but due to the effects of his hard, high iron content water on the pipe.

“The new ones will have T-L’s poly-lined pipe,” he continues. I’m anticipating that I’ll be able to run these systems for 30 years, too. Thirty years is a long time for a pivot. I’d dread having a 30-year-old electric. That would be a nightmare.”

He sums up his feeling about T-Ls by saying, “I love the T-L simplicity!”

Brining is utilizing some sub-surface drip irrigation (SDI). Both methods have advantages, he believes. His main thrust, though, is irrigating via T-L center-pivots.

“I’m almost 100 percent no-till, and I double-crop 40 percent of my 3,000 acres,” he says. “The center-pivot is easier for real intensive double-cropping, because with it I can safely drill in wheat in less than ideal conditions.”

Wheat following corn can be difficult to germinate due to the crop’s residue. His solution: Sprinkle on a quarter-inch of water every two to three days until plant emergence. This practice has resulted in an essentially 100 percent stand.

Being able to water up any crop is also a big advantage of center-pivot irrigation over drip, he thinks. Additionally, drip can’t be used for “chemigation” if the herbicide requires plant contact.

Then there are the problems of how deeply a drip tape field can be worked without destroying the tape, and the rodents that often find the tape tasty. Initial investment is generally lower with a center-pivot, too.

Brining believes two rules of thumb for farming apply: (1). Any irrigation, even flood irrigation, is better for producing higher yields than dry land farming, and (2). Center-pivot and sub-surface drip irrigation are both much more efficient than flood irrigation, not to mention their being substantially less labor intensive.