There are many cam drive irrigators on the market and each brand will have different characteristics. Difference includes boom width, length of cable or how far they can run down a paddock. The common areas include the total pumping volume per hour (18 to 25m³/h), the wetted width (25 to 35m) and the application uniformity.

Advantages

The advantages of the traveling irrigator are:
• Low capital cost
• Can operate on low pressure (20m/30psi), any less and you may experience stalling.
• No solids removal required
• Move along themselves covering a large area in one application
• If maintained well, they can be a low maintenance
• Suit high filtration (well rained) soils on flat land
• Some irrigators claim low application depth of less than 10mm

Disadvantages

• High labour content when shifting from paddock to paddock.
• If not maintained, the maintenance can be high
• Pour uniformity in distribution of the nutrients.
• Doesn’t suit medium to heavy soils
• High instant application rates
• Prone to ponding and runoff
• Not suitable for land > 8º

Things to consider

Research has shown that the traveling irrigator will suit high filtration soils without causing an environmental risk. However, if the intension was to utilise the nutrients within the FDE, the uniformity can have up to 500% variation. You need to decide how important the nutrient utilization is in relation to the distribution benefits.