Center-pivot irrigation

1952Major

Great Plains farmer Frank Zybach receives a patent for a self-propelled sprinkler that circles a central pivot. Center pivots open dry plains to irrigated corn, drawing heavily on aquifers like the Ogallala.

Longest chain: The Big Bang → First stars ignite → Supernovae seed heavy elements → The Sun forms → Earth forms → First oceans → First life → Photosynthesis evolves → Great Oxidation Event → Complex cells (eukaryotes) → Multicellular life → First animals → Cambrian Explosion → First vertebrates → Jawed fish → Fish walk onto land → The amniotic egg → The Great Dying → Dinosaurs appear → Asteroid ends the dinosaurs → Early primates → Apes split from monkeys → Human line splits from chimpanzees → Walking upright → First stone tools → Genus Homo appears → Homo erectus → Control of fire → Habitual fire and cooking → Homo sapiens appears → Complex language → Natufian villages → Oldest known bread → Agriculture begins → Irrigation → Center-pivot irrigation

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Documentianrnews.unl.edu

Center pivots: innovation that grew crops and acres in Nebraska (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) ↗

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How center-pivot irrigation brought the Dust Bowl back to life (Smithsonian Magazine) ↗

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center pivot irrigation history Zybach ↗

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