IANR named Irrigation Association Partner of the Year

November 17, 2015

Lincoln, Neb. —The Irrigation Association has named the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln its 2015 Partner of the Year.

Established in 1995, the Partner of the Year Award honors those who have made exceptional contributions to irrigation as part of an organization that is allied with, related to or an integral part of the irrigation industry.

IANR is recognized for its outstanding work on the Nebraska Center Pivot Water Conservation Project, a joint program sponsored by Nebraska Extension, the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources, the Nebraska Environmental Trust Fund and the four Nebraska-based center pivot manufacturers (Lindsay Corporation, Reinke Manufacturing, T-L Irrigation and Valley Irrigation).

Launched in 2008, two three-year educational projects were conducted statewide, with special emphasis on the Republican River Basin and Platte River Basin upstream of Kearney, Neb. The program’s objective was to help producers using center pivots achieve maximum efficiency from their irrigation systems.

In its first two years, the project put on 42 education programs at various instructional levels, reaching more than 2,500 pivot irrigators. In a post-event survey after the program’s first year, participants indicated they saved just over 2 inches per acre for a total reduced pumping of 131,000 acre-inches and a savings of $545,000 annually. Based on these findings, the project team estimated that farmers reduced pumping by 374,286 acre-inches, saving $1.55 million annually as a direct result of attending these education programs.

To learn more about the Nebraska Center Pivot Water Conservation Project, visit https://youtu.be/8Bqe3C0nXj4. 

Ron Yoder, associate vice chancellor at UNL, accepted the award on behalf of IANR during the general session Nov. 12, at the 2015 Irrigation Show & Education Conference in Long Beach, Calif.

To learn more about the Irrigation Association, visit www.irrigation.org.