Mobile Drip Irrigation: An Interview With Monty Teeter
Dragon-Line in use in South Africa.
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Kris Polly about his company’s history and its current offerings, and about developing and pioneering new technologies in a competitive market. Kris Polly: Please tell us about your company, Dragon-Line, and how long Dragon-Line has been on the market. Monty Teeter: Mobile drip irrigation is not a new idea, but I believe that we have perfected and patented the process. I have been involved in the pivot-irrigation business since 1972 and have been a drip-irrigation dealer for more than 25 years. Most people in the drip business don’t work with pivots, and pivot-irrigation people don’t work with drip. Being involved in both industries, I was always intrigued by how much more efficient drip irrigation was than the sprinkler application traditionally used in pivot irrigation.
About 10 years ago, I became aware of pressure-compensating (PC) emitters for drip irrigation. These emitters are pressure regulated and self flushing, so that each one emits an exact, predetermined amount of water once a minimum pressure is established—regardless of the elevations or topography of a field, and regardless of whether the emitter is at the pivot point or at the end of the overhang. Technology had finally caught up to the idea of mobile drip irrigation, enabling it to be effective and efficient. I used that technology to create Dragon-Line. Dragon-Line is a complete system, including drip tubing, hoses, cabling, and manifolds, that is used to convert a center-pivot irrigation system into a mobile drip irrigation system. We have partnered with the WISH Group, our U.S. distributor and a software company, to generate
PHOTO COURTESY OF TEETER IRRIGATION.
eeter Irrigation, Inc., was founded by Monty Teeter in 1977 in his garage and has since grown to eight locations across western Kansas and eastern Colorado. Mr. Teeter’s most groundbreaking invention is Dragon-Line, a system that uses drip tubing to convert a center-pivot irrigation system into a mobile drip irrigation system. In addition to saving water, Dragon-Line applies that water precisely and directly into the soil, rather than spraying it in the air where it can blow away, evaporate, or cause leaf burn. Dragon-Line, LLC, was established as an independent company in 2014, and the technology won the Irrigation Association’s best new agricultural irrigation product award at its 2016 Irrigation Show. In this interview, Monty Teeter, the founder and chief executive officer of Teeter Irrigation and the founder and president of Dragon-Line, speaks with Irrigation Leader Editor-in-Chief
