Everything About Irrigation Pivots (Farmers are Geniuses) - Smarter Every Day 278

OK, so straight up..... This might be one of my favorite Smarter Every Day videos ever. It has everything I love.... hard work, fluid dynamics, mechanics, control systems, nature, beautiful shots, teamwork, different people working together. It feels like cramming 2,000 pounds into a ziploc bag. I genuinely love it, and I'm grateful that your support made it possible. A huge thank you to everyone who supports me on Patreon. If you'd like to get the stickers, I'd love to send you some, so please make sure your address is correct! If you'd like to consider joining the "team", you can sign up at www.patreon.com/smartereveryday. Again, thank you so much for helping me make this kind of stuff. If you'd like to see the extended cut, it's here: https://youtu.be/wTPnV7YfaGQ.

Shoutout to all the mentors that tolerate and teach the new guy, you guys are legends.

So wholesome seeing Destin slowly earning their trust and eventually getting jobs to do, love your vids mate!

My man's Jose is out here in a long sleeve in 90 degree weather. he mentioned hes done 4 or 5 hundred CPI systems in alabama - dude has probably seen 110 degree summers elsewhere. respect to the man

As a former engineer and career farmer in Mississippi, I still found this fascinating! Your slo-mo video was excellent and informative. It is also great to see two intelligent, understated southern boys shining the light on our enthralling world of agriculture.

What I love about Destin is how humble he is when talking about the roles and jobs of others. Whether they’re NASA engineers or a couple of guys who assemble grain bins he always emphasises how important they’re roll is and how they know much more about their role than he does and views every single one as an expert in their own field, regardless of what they do.

Just want to say thank you to all the farmers out there. Your job makes all of our lives a whole lot easier.

I operate around 60 pivots, and this might be the first video I’ve ever seen about them. Very cool!

It’s amazing how much technology and science work together to fit every little aspect of crop yields.

Thanks for sharing. Had no idea it was that complex, but also simple at the same time.

I grew up around these systems; even did some IT contracting for one of the largest center-pivot manufacturers, but I never realized how fantastic the systems were. Thanks for the video and your way of telling the story.

I have 11 pivots on my farm in Tasmania, Australia with the largest being 10 spans and of all the machinery and equipment the pivot is the one thing I tell new employees that they will have to learn as you go as I'm constantly learning new things. When everything is working they appear very simple but when they go wrong it's a bottomless pit of complications. Once you add variable rate irrigation to the mix and the mapping that's required you start to understand just how technical farmers need to be to operate in the modern day. Thank you so much for the video!

I am a Hydrogeologist at the Wisc dept of agriculture, and I constantly think of Destin's farming videos as a useful oppurtunity to better understand the sort of things people I work for deal with. I'm very excited for this center pivot irrigation episode in particular, as my job revolves around the wells they draw from.

You talk like a pilot. When someone gives you a direction, you loudly and clearly repeat it back to them so they know you know. What an absolutely great communication style, and always well adapted to your audience. I think watching you empathetically connect with people who usually don’t get a lot of appreciation is my favorite part of your videos.

Modern farmers are geniuses but don't make a ton of profit. It means a lot and it's very honest work

@SmarterEveryDay - Thank you for putting this together...I'm not a farmer, but I've seen and been around these pivots my whole life and always wanted an in-depth explanation of how they work. You've provided that in spades and I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for putting all the work into this video. You explained everything beautifully.

I love how willing Destin is to get his hands dirty in order to teach the audience, rather than sit by and just record. You really proved yourself out there to them while providing solid content

Huge shoutout to José and his crew for having you on(tolerating a new guy is an exercise). Also shoutout to you Destin for putting yourself, time and time again, in the "new guy" position for your audience. Being the constant new guy takes a level of bravery and I tha k you for sharing.

Thanks Jose for sharing your specialty

The fact that the entire system is controlled by the one motor and the rest of the segments manage themselves is awesome. Also, the pump that drives those things is terrifying. I've heard so many stories of when those have issues and the fun it causes.