Reinke Manufacturing's Electrogator 3 pivot captured AgTech Breakthrough's Irrigation Innovation of the Year Award this fall, capping a year in which the Deshler, Neb., irrigation maker rolled out three new remote-management products aimed squarely at water costs and uptime on irrigated acres.

The family-owned company, founded in 1954, sells center-pivot and lateral-move systems in more than 40 countries. Its spring launches — RC3 EOS, RC3 Well and RC3 Dual — extend the RC3 family of irrigation controls, all built to run on the ReinCloud telemetry platform.

What does the new RC3 hardware do?

The three modules cover different control points on an irrigation system:

• RC3 EOS delivers complete system monitoring and limited remote control through a simplified interface, powered by ReinCloud software. It works with most pivot brands.
• RC3 Well sits at the well station, monitoring water usage and pressure and linking well controls to irrigation.
• RC3 Dual pairs an EOS unit on the last tower with an Ultimate unit at the main control panel, plus an RC3 expansion module for additional sensor inputs.

CEO Chris Roth said the design goal was consolidating controls that historically lived in separate places. "Some controls were at the end of the system, some were at the pivot center, others at the well. Each had a separate interface to control point," Roth said. "We needed to make it where the hardware didn't determine the user experience, but the other way around."

Why did the E3 pivot win the award?

The award-winning E3 stands out on the mechanical side, Roth said. "One of the things people want to say is that a pivot is a pivot," Roth said. "But it's not. We were able to think about where the future of irrigation is and where it is going. We talk about precision all the time, but we were thinking about precision on the mechanical side with the E3."

That precision shows up in consistent coupler spacing from the center point to the end of the machine, including systems with an end gun or corner arm. The design matters beyond water application, Roth explained, because producers are fertigating and applying chemicals through the pivot as well. Efficient water use is what consumers increasingly demand from farmers, he added.

How does one platform handle a mixed fleet?

Many irrigators run pivots of several brands. Because RC3 works on most electric pivots, a grower can standardize on one platform across a mixed fleet, with control, monitoring and decision support in one place.

Justin Kinnan, who farms near Cozad, Neb., has used ReinCloud for two years and runs several Reinke pivots dating from 2013 through 2024, each with a swing arm. "I really like the app because it is kind of self-explanatory how to use," Kinnan said. "It is just like the touch screen Reinke has at their panels, so anyone can figure it out."

Reinke is adding the ability for ReinCloud to manage multiple pivot brands, which Kinnan sees as the practical payoff. "You have one app for all of them," he said. "For me, that is really nice to be able to place other vendors on this same app and not have to manage three different apps." He gets local support from technicians at Holdrege Irrigation.

Roth frames the company's development filter in bottom-line terms: growers want efficient water use, remote water management and better watering decisions that maximize yield for each drop applied. "Everything we build starts with a grower problem," Roth said. "If it doesn't save water, save time or protect yield, it doesn't get much attention."

With the E3 award and the RC3 line now shipping, Reinke is betting that unified control across brands and mechanical uniformity along the pivot span will define the next round of competition in irrigation equipment.