Catch Cans Help CSU-TAPS Maintain Irrigation Consistency

CSU-TAPS Precision Irrigation Manager Wub Yilma stands with the 400 catch cans used to test the CSU-TAPS competition irrigation system for the 2025 competition. (photo by Omer Izrael)

The CSU Testing Ag Performance Solutions (CSU-TAPS) program Wub Yilma, CSU-TAPS precision irrigation manager, and Omer Izrael, CSU-TAPS program manager carried out a catch can test this week. This test is a kind of irrigation system audit. 

“It's a uniformity test to make sure that the linear move irrigation system that we are using in the competition is applying water in a uniform manner as it travels across the field,” Omer says.  

The catch can itself is a graduated cylinder that is held in place by a stand inserted into the ground where irrigation is taking place. The team distributed two rows of 200 catch cans every five feet. 

The team performed this initial catch can test on the 2025 CSU-TAPS competition field, just south of the field used in 2023 and 2024, also at CSU Agricultural Research, Development and Education Center (ARDEC). They ran the test for the entire linear irrigation system at a fixed amount to get a baseline assessment.  

Early next spring, once the new competition plots are determined, they’ll run another catch can test to assess the performance of the variable irrigation rate system used for the competition. It will enable them to see what happens when they enter an irrigation prescription that requests different amounts of irrigation to be applied to competition-sized plots across the field. 

“We want to see if the irrigation system actually applies the water in the right amount for the whole plot,” Omer explains. “And, when it moves to the next plot, we want to know how long it takes to change the irrigation rate.” 

The catch can test is part of the CSU-TAPS' team advance preparation for the 2025 season.  (photo by Omer Izrael)

The CSU-TAPS team will use this information to ensure that participants’ irrigation decisions in next year’s competition are implemented consistently and precisely.  

 With irrigation now finished for the 2024 growing season, and with another week until harvest, this was a good time for the team to devote some time in running this test as preparation for the program in 2025.