On 10/26/16 Mr. James Atkins visited our Delaware Agriculture class to give us a guest lecture about agriculture irrigation and its new and growing technologies.  Mr. Atkins showed us different irrigation systems used in today’s agricultural farming practices.  Some of these different systems of irrigation include the traveling gun, shallow surface and subsurface drip irrigation, and the most widely used center pivot system.  He further explained that new technologies have been outfitted on center pivot irrigation systems to increase their efficiency such as zone and variability controlling and even corner arm extension pivot systems.  Zone and variability controlling refers to specific control of each individual water dispensing nozzle on the center pivot irrigation system.  Using variability irrigation, farmers are able to efficiently irrigate their crops without over watering or under watering in specific areas of the field, for example, if the farm is not perfectly level then some crops would get more water than others.  These new technologies greatly increase the precision agriculture for everyday local farmers.  The corner arm extension for the center pivot irrigation system really comes in handy when your farm isn’t a perfect circle.  The extension arm acts as its own pivot system to get those hard to reach areas of your crop field.  James Atkins also showed us new and upcoming forms of agriculture technologies such as the use of drones.  He explained that drones are being used more and more in the agriculture industry for things like scanning and surveying farm lands.  Using drones is another important aspect of becoming a more efficient and accurate farmer when it comes to planting, harvesting, and watering.