Number of employees: 51
Size of service area in acres: 70,000
Amount of water diverted for irrigation per year in acre-feet: 125,000
Main crops irrigated: Citrus fruit, corn, cotton, grain, sugarcane, vegetables
Predominant irrigation methods: Flood, drip, sprinkler
Troy Allen
General Manager
Delta Lake Irrigation District
Edcouch, TX
Irrigation Leader: How many vehicles and pieces of equipment does your district own?
Troy Allen: The district’s vehicle fleet consists of 14 light-duty trucks, 16 medium- to heavy-duty trucks, 1 dump truck, and 1 haul truck. The district’s equipment fleet consists of 7 tractors, 3 backhoes, 2 dozers, 2 loaders, 8 excavators, and 1 forklift.
Irrigation Leader: What kind of maintenance is required for your vehicles and equipment?
Troy Allen: The vehicles and equipment follow the manufacturers’ recommended service intervals. Depending on the daily use of the vehicle or equipment, we decide if we follow the severe or extreme service intervals for all the fluid changes. We use a synthetic oil for all our fluid services. We take samples of the motor, transmission, hydraulic, and differential oils every service to make sure we catch any potential issues.
Irrigation Leader: What kinds of records do you keep of that maintenance?
Troy Allen: The district keeps a physical and digital file on each vehicle and piece of equipment. The file consists of all the oil samples and records of the required service, parts, material, and labor, if any.
Irrigation Leader: How do you buy or bid for equipment?
Troy Allen: The district uses BuyBoard, SmartBuy, HGACBuy, and direct manufacture bidding for equipment and vehicle purchases.
Irrigation Leader: How long do you use your vehicles and pieces of equipment before replacing them?
Troy Allen: The district replaces the canal-rider and supervisor trucks every 5–6 years or 200,000 miles. The crew, service, and welding trucks are replaced every 10– 15 years or 200,000 miles. We keep the best trucks and cycle them down to the pumpers and helpers or use them as spare vehicles. We retire most trucks at 300,000–350,000 miles. The equipment is replaced between 18,000 and 22,000 hours.
Troy Allen is the general manager of the Delta Lake Irrigation District. He can be contacted at troy@deltalakeid.org.
