However, the bigger challenge is deciding at what angle to turn off the end gun. Occasionally, the shutoff device will fail, and water is applied to the road, which must be fixed as soon as possible. Weed, insect and plant disease pressure can build up in this area, and can move into the rest of the field.Īnother challenge is keeping the water off public roads. If not planted far enough, the end gun will waste water and may stimulate the growth of large weeds. Plant too far, and the crop will suffer drought stress. In addition, the water application depth drops off dramatically toward the outside edge, making it difficult to decide how far to plant the crop past the end of the pivot. Moderate to high winds increases the problem because the water is sprayed a long distance and high into the air, resulting in the wind distorting the application pattern and causing high drift and evaporation losses. First, the application pattern of the sprinkler is not uniform even in low-wind environments when operating as an end gun. The poor uniformity is caused by multiple factors. The downside is that it is the most inefficient part of the pivot because it does not apply the water uniformly. It is turned on when the pivot goes past the corners to provide a low-cost method of irrigating an extra 8 to 10 acres on a 160-acre field. So as you can imagine, the corners of a square field cannot be irrigated.Įnd guns are a large sprinkler that can deliver water up to 120 feet on the outer end of the machine. Some farmers would not have a pivot without an end gun, and others would not have a pivot with one.Ĭenter pivots are designed to have the lateral pipe just long enough to irrigate as large of a circle or part of a circle in the field as possible, and still not go past the property boundaries.
End guns have been on center pivots from almost the beginning, and the merits of their use have been debated about as long.
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