A trick to combat rust on your irrigator

Many of us have seen brown or orange irrigators out in the field. If the spans, truss rods, v-jacks and towers are all orange or brown, that’s a sure sign that there is a lot of iron in the water that is being irrigated and in the scheme of things it isn’t generally a big concern. 

Discoloration caused by iron in water supply

What you should be concerned about though is all the moving components that can rust, especially if your irrigator is in a coastal area where the salt in the wind causes rapid corrosion. In these areas some of the first signs and parts to cause problems will be hinges and tower alignment components.

Tower alignment components are vital to keeping your irrigator straight and if any of these parts seize, they can break and the corresponding pivot tower could either get stuck in a moving or still state, or if you are lucky, just safety out the machine before anything bad happens.

Likewise, any hinges that seize will either stop you getting into panels, or simply corrode and snap off. 

We’ve found that fish oil products like the one pictured here are fantastic for preventing rust (or at least slowing it down), making your components last much longer. The frequency that you need to apply it will depend on the climate you are in, but keeping a tin of fish oil based product in the shed and applying it frequently to moving and rust-susceptible parts will go a long way to help extend the life of your system.