Missing parts

When it comes to managing water, farmers already have plenty of stresses to worry about. This season, in addition to allocation or availability, they’re also dealing with a continuing contraction of the market around irrigation equipment parts and maintenance. The supply chains around those products tightened during the pandemic. Rather than loosening over the past year, additional pressures have added on to make it even tougher for some farmers to get what they need to keep crops and revenues healthy. Going into this season, growers are making adjustments and planning ahead as they see that strain continuing.

Joe Wahlgren, farm manager at R&J Wahlgren Farms, Brady, Nebraska, who handles about 5,000 acres using both center pivots and gravity-fed irrigation, was warned by some suppliers in the summer of 2021 that the turnaround times on pump repairs and rebuilds would be extending. In some cases, those projected times wouldn’t allow for equipment to be available to finish the irrigation season. What used to generally be a six-day process was increasing at points by almost 10 times.

“We went through and did a bunch of pressure testing and tried to assess if we had any trouble anywhere preemptively,” says Wahlgren. “If a well went down, I was being told it was going to be a 60-day turnaround because of parts and availability. That’s a lost crop, in my business.”

While that summer has come and gone, the stress on the irrigation supply chain hasn’t let up, says Wahlgren. He’s gotten some of the same warnings from suppliers and repair professionals that quick service in case of a breakdown might not be possible because of the availability of parts.

The contraction isn’t just affecting parts, but also the labor involved in maintaining and repairing irrigation systems, says Roric Paulman, owner of Paulman Farms, Sutherland, Nebraska.

“On the service side of the business, it’s tough finding qualified people to do the work,” he says. There have been times in the past year when a dealer he worked with wanted to help with an issue but didn’t have the staff to spare. He’s also seen shop rates increasing faster than typical.

While assigning blame isn’t helping the problem, there isn’t even a single target to point at, says Kevin Harsch, owner of Prairie Fire Farms, Wood River, Nebraska.

“It’s a raw material shortage and a labor shortage,” says Harsch. “It’s just a perfect storm.”

For Wahlgren, there’s a sense of disappointment as he and other farmers are left waiting on supply despite being efficient and effective in their planning and projects. “It’s disturbing to all of us to hear that,” he says. “If my primary job as a manager of a large farm is to assess and lay off risk, what can I do to lessen my risk in this light?”

Paulman, who manages about 5,000 acres with groundwater and center pivot irrigation, has seen irrigation supply chain stresses across all of the types of equipment he needs to keep the farm running. In the past, that’s encouraged connections between professionals.

“Fortunately, in agriculture, for the most part you’re able to work together,” he says. “For a lot of those pressures, you can call up a neighbor, say, ‘You know that grain cart you’ve got parked out there? Can I swipe a part off of it?’”

But as the irrigation supply chains have started to pull tighter, that’s caused everyone to feel the pressure.

“That was OK for a while,” he says. “Now it’s more, ‘Wait a minute, are we going to be able to get that part to replace it and get it running again?’”

Stocking up

Ensuring water availability for plants is always a major task for growers, especially while farming in an area where water use is under allocation. As irrigation system parts have gotten more difficult to track down, he’s had to make tough decisions about buying new when it makes sense just to make sure the crops are getting what they need rather than going dry.

“We’re in an allocated area where they restrict our pumping, so there’s only so much water we can pump,” Paulman says. “You have to think really strategically in terms of making sure you’re prepared for whatever’s coming next.”

For much of his typical order of replacement parts, he’s added about 10% to 15% over the standard quantity, just to make sure that he’s able to get some products coming in. Even if he only gets half of the order in the near term, that will help him manage his needs.

Before the pandemic, when Harsch needed parts for his irrigation equipment, he could often get them in a day or so. While many parts weren’t being warehoused, it was possible to get what he needed. But even having to wait a handful of days prompted him to begin stocking commonly used parts, he says. Covering about 2,200 acres with both center pivots and gravity-fed irrigation, he tries to keep spares available.

“The parts that we know we’re highly likely going to need, we’ve just started stocking because we know the inventory isn’t there,” Harsch says.

As the pandemic continued and into this year, the stress on the supply chain for parts hasn’t lessened. “There are significant supply chain shortages now, worse than it was last year,” Harsch says.

Last December, a corner arm fell over on a pivot during a windstorm, he says. He ordered the replacement right away, but it wasn’t slated to arrive until the first week of May.

Wahlgren has pushed to develop as much efficiency in his farm’s irrigation system as possible, including having his well tested through a program with Nebraska’s Natural Resources Districts as well as others. Between those efforts and tracking the farm’s actual water use, he’s been able to make better choices about how to protect the farm against irrigation supply chain stresses.

He used that data to direct the company’s investments in updating the systems where he’s been able, starting with the least efficient to strengthen those weak points and make the need for repairs less likely. “I’m trying to direct a limited budget toward the highest payback,” Wahlgren says. “Those would be the systems with considerable age, losing pressure, losing volume or starting to see problems.” Now, almost all of their pivots are models that are less than three years old. “We decided to spend the money where it makes sense.”

For Harsch, building a stock of commonly used parts is following the adage that fate favors the prepared. “It’s not just a pandemic thing,” he says. “Nothing ever seems to get cheaper.” Having spare parts on hand even for large equipment like pivots not only helps him avoid having to make tough choices and deal with insurance companies, it’s an overall cost savings.

“Whatever we think we’re going to need, we’re trying to get it on hand,” Harsch says. “Any type of maintenance we’ve been trying to do, we tried to do a bunch of it in spring in case we needed any parts, so we would have time to try to get them.”

One more contemporary tool that’s been useful in securing parts has been the internet, Paulman says. Where farmers haven’t always been the most eager to embrace new technologies, online marketplaces have been an increasing resource.

Leasing of some equipment like sprayers is also becoming more popular again, says Paulman.

“Leasing is back in vogue because it’s a way to get more machines out and traded back in to get the U.S. market running,” Paulman says.

Planning ahead

The most effective way for a farmer to get the parts they need is to do their best to make allowances for time in their planning, Paulman says.

“You have to start earlier,” he says. “Your schedule has to be moved up. I’m not talking about a week. I’m talking about 30, 60 or 90 days.”

While the stress on the irrigation supply chain isn’t likely to let up soon, doing system evaluation and equipment maintenance right after the end of the season will be more popular among farmers this year, he says.

It’s important to keep in contact with suppliers and establish a conversation on parts that goes throughout the season, Harsch says. If a grower is looking to start keeping some parts on hand to mitigate irrigation supply delays, start by looking at your high-use parts. Whatever gets used inside one year, such as tires for pivots, should be kept available so you’re not left in need when a repair is necessary. Think about what parts you can get by without for a little bit, and which could cause heavier losses if they’re missing.

“You don’t have to go overboard and stockpile the whole system,” Harsch says. “It’s just the parts that you’re going to be needing and don’t want to wait on.”

Building a purchasing program that includes continuous investment in the older parts of the system as they lose efficiency is a requirement, says Wahlgren. Without that in place, he’d just be waiting on a more catastrophic failure to force him to pay attention, which could be even more difficult now with the possibility of delays on parts.

That starts by making certain to actually measure inputs and creating an ongoing record of how fields are performing. “At the very least, write down your pressures that your pivots are running at from the beginning of the season, middle and end of the season year over year. That will show you where problems lie within,” says Wahlgren. “If there are issues out there, that would be where you should direct your investment. If you simply measure it, it would show you where to go.”

Kyle Brown is the editor-in-chief of Irrigation Today and can be reached at kylebrown@irrigation.org.