Close-Spaced LEPA Installations: Saving Water and Energy and Increasing Yields, was selected in the Agriculture category of the Irrigation Association’s new Vanguard Award. The Vanguard Award was established in 2017 to honor a team of individuals, companies, organizations or other group entities that have spearheaded or been involved with a completed, innovative installation project in the irrigation industry.
Close Spacing LEPA (Low Energy Precision Application) takes technology that began in the 1980’s and adds product innovations which alter the application pattern. Then it reduces the spacing between the hose drops to 40 inches or less to distribute water over most of the soil surface. These LEPA systems gently deliver water from a height of 8 to 18 inches above the ground to combat wind drift and prevent evaporation loss. Conservation tillage practices further help prevent evaporation loss, and run-off by holding the water in the rows until the soil can absorb it. As a result, Close Spacing LEPA achieves application efficiencies typically exceeding 95 percent.
