ABSTRACT
The ideal irrigation system, or scheme, would somehow default to correct water delivery methods unless energetic efforts were made to subvert the operation. The basic function of an irrigation system is to place water and nutrients in the crop root zone on a timely basis. Considering the engineering aspects, the highest production with minimum expenditure of energy and resources, limited water would be used first on the well-drained, medium-textured, deep, and level soils, where almost any irrigation system can be effectively used. One major attraction for the large center pivots and the drop systems that are independent of the system efficiencies is the built-in control and management ease that are usually installed as part of the system. Institutional changes, computer-assisted scheduling, and accurate system response modeling are "software" items that require no construction project in order to upgrade a schedule.
