Food & agriculture · 1948

Center-pivot irrigation

A rotating sprinkler arm watered a whole circle of field, visible today as green discs from space.

Frank Zybach invented center-pivot irrigation in Colorado in 1948. It opened the dry High Plains to corn using the Ogallala aquifer, though its pace of pumping now outstrips recharge in many areas.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

Electric motor 1834
Irrigation 6000 BCE

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Cereal yield Latest: 4.21 t/ha (2024) Source: Our World in Data