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Mousetrap Controls This Irrrigation Alert System
If you have tensiometers in your fields that you have to check once a day or more to tell when it's time to irrigate, you'll like this new "irrigation alert system" that uses an ordinary mousetrap to tell you at a glance when it's time to turn on the water.
Invented by University of Missouri re-searchers, it uses
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Mousetrap Controls This Irrrigation Alert System IRRIGATION Acessories 22-3-9 If you have tensiometers in your fields that you have to check once a day or more to tell when it's time to irrigate, you'll like this new "irrigation alert system" that uses an ordinary mousetrap to tell you at a glance when it's time to turn on the water.
Invented by University of Missouri re-searchers, it uses a conventional tensiometer to measure available soil moisture. A mouse-trap connects to the vacuum gauge of the tensiometer. When the trap is triggered by the gauge, it raises a surveyor's flag, which can easily be seen from your pickup.
Extension ag engineer Bill Casady and agronomist Gene Stevens came up with the idea. Their invention is now patent-pending and will soon be on the market.
It consists of a 3 by 5 by 7-in. black plastic box housing a magnetic switch and small electric motor powered by two C cell batteries. A mousetrap with a surveyor's flag soldered to it is also in the box, which mounts on a pipe next to the tensiometer.
When soil moisture drops to a pre-set point, the tensiometer signals the magnetic switch which activates the electric motor. It tugs on a piece of fishing line that triggers the trap, raising the easily visible flag.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Bill Casady, Room 211, Agricultural Engineering Building, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, Mo. 65211 (ph 573 882-4370 or 2731).
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