| CPC A01G 25/16 (2013.01) [A01G 25/092 (2013.01); B05B 1/20 (2013.01); B05B 12/124 (2013.01)] | 10 Claims |
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1. An irrigation system for distributing an available water supply over a ground surface of a field, said irrigation system being utilized by a dedicated additive spraying system movable over the ground surface to distribute a fluid additive to a growing crop or over the ground surface with or without a simultaneous pumping of an available water supply, the dedicated additive spraying system comprising:
at least two pipe spans generally extending outward forming an axis of a longitudinal length of a water-bearing conduit, the at least two pipe spans forming a fluid additive path;
at least two support towers configured to support the pipe spans above the ground surface;
said conduit configured to apply a water supply to the ground surface of the field;
an irrigation system position sensor configured to monitor and report a current position of the pipe spans of the irrigation system with respect to a reference position of the spans;
an additive pumping apparatus comprising:
a reservoir configured to hold a quantity of the fluid additive, the fluid additive path originating at the reservoir,
a plurality of flow control valves to control a flow of the fluid additive through corresponding additive carrying conduits, said additive carrying conduits each including a first-portion of said additive carrying conduit terminating at an additive conduit juncture with an end-portion of said additive carrying conduit with a spray nozzle set, and
wherein a plurality of end-portion of the additive carrying conduits each with the spray nozzle set may each terminate at a distal-end of the additive carrying conduit, each said distal end of the additive carrying conduit being located along an axis of a longitudinal length of the water bearing conduit, a location of distal-end of conduit determined by a length of each corresponding additive carrying conduit; and
a pump controller with memory to store a fluid additive prescription, said prescription providing pipe span positions for opened and closed operating parameters, said pump controller using a processor to compare stored opened operating parameters and stored closed operating parameters to a current pipe span position of the pipe span positions and based on said comparison to act on corresponding flow control valves to either open or close the corresponding flow control valves to thereby either start or stop a flow of fluid additive to the corresponding additive carrying conduits, said additive carrying conduits configured to apply said fluid additive to any plurality of corresponding discrete polygon-shaped areas within any plurality of field sectors of the field.
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