25 Reasons REVM Is Using Lumo Across 25+ Ranches

Redwood Empire Vineyard Management has been an early and eager supporter of Lumo since our CEO, Devon Wright, interned as an irrigator there for a couple weeks to learn about their irrigation challenges firsthand. 

They installed early versions of our smart valves, expanded to a dozen ranches in year two, and will use Lumo to precisely execute their irrigation plans across 25+ different vineyards this season. 

Here are 25 reasons why. 

1. “Lumo’s been the best tool in my toolbox to ensure that I've been able to get the water on the vines in the right amount and in the right way,” Hunter Emch, Northern Unit Area Manager at REVM
2. “It saves me so much time with logistics,” Hunter 
3. “Lumo’s helped us find problems we didn’t know we had!” Tyler Klick, Partner and Viticulturist at REVM.
4. “Lumo helps me follow up and follow through on every irrigation. I schedule it, evaluate the results, and make corrections as needed,” Hunter 
5. “The ease of use has been pretty great so far. Especially because it's a simple interface, not only on the software side, but also on the hardware side. It's hard to mess up just one button, so it's been very easy to explain and for the guys to get comfortable in the field,” Hunter 
6. Because Lumo listens. “Most of the time tech companies come in and try to tell me what I need, and it’s not even near. And here Lumo comes in and instead of telling me, they’re trying to learn what I actually need. That felt like a much better approach to me,” Tyler 
7. “It helps us catch leaks earlier, which is really helpful. That way we can get things back up and running quicker, and we have more time to make up for that lost irrigation time,” Hunter 
8. “Being able to manage everything virtually is a total game changer. Because we're spread out across three counties from south of Petaluma all the way up to the northern part of Booneville up in Mendocino. Just travel time alone. Some ranches take over an hour to get to. And just trying to coordinate. If you don't have a guy that's stationed there on site, you're going to have to spend a lot of time just traveling up to turn a valve on,” Hunter 
9. “Running things overnight has just been an absolute game changer, too. I feel pretty confident now that I can execute those with precision. We've even got clients that are saving money on their PG&E bill because they're running systems and pumps during the non-peak hours. And from what I understand, the water uptake is much, much better. There's less evaporation, so you lose less moisture in the top soil when you irrigate overnight. I think there's a multitude of benefits,” Hunter 
10. “Because we can now schedule irrigations back to back to back, we’re able to get through and irrigate an entire ranch a lot more quickly. With some of these systems, it can take a week to get through all the different blocks because you can only irrigate a certain number at a time depending on your pump and your well and water holding capacity via tanks or whatnot. We’re getting those done in a fraction of the time,” Hunter 
11. “The software platform is extremely easy to use and functions very well,” Tyler  
12. “I've had stellar interactions with everyone on the team. Super responsive, wonderful to work with, definitely get the sense that everyone's in good communication. I can talk to anyone about a single problem and somehow it makes its way back to the right person. I couldn't be happier about the customer service aspect,” Hunter 
13. “With Lumo I can schedule as freely and openly as I want, rather than relying on what a human can do in a 10 or 12 hour day. You can only get so much done in that amount of time, but with Lumo I can use all 24 hours,” Hunter 
14. Maintenance is easy. “I can tell the valve was developed and designed in a pretty straightforward way, that makes it easy to diagnose problems and replace components, It’s been a breeze so far,” Hunter 
15. “I spend a lot of time diagnosing issues and trying to figure out what’s going on underground, especially with inherited systems that we didn’t put in. Without the data Lumo provides, it would take way longer to play detective,” Hunter 
16. Scheduling make-up irrigations is straightforward. “It’s easy to see what went out versus what we planned. Oh, we only got 75% of the volume we intended. I can just schedule another irrigation set to make up that gap,” Hunter 
17. “For end-of-year record keeping, it’s really helpful to have all this data to reference. All irrigations across dozens of ranches and thousands of acres. Having an easily obtainable record for any water reporting requirements, rather than bugging my irrigators or digging through scraps of paper or trying to find that notebook you lost in your truck. Now I have one uniform place to reference and generate reports to send out as needed,” Hunter  
18. “It’s helping our irrigators be more efficient and focus more on repairs. Rather than turning on a valve and waiting for a problem, our irrigators are able to move from ranch to ranch, go directly to where problems occurred the day before, and fix issues a lot more quickly,” Hunter  
19. “Lumo helps us ensure that things are getting done exactly as we planned them, and to do so in an efficient way. Saving labor. Saving our clients money. Reducing our costs. It helps everyone’s bottom line,” Hunter 
20. Faster response to heat events. “With those heat waves, we're monitoring the vines extremely closely throughout the day. Taking porometers. Once we hit those thresholds, we've gotta irrigate immediately. It needs to happen right away, and if it doesn't, then the vines crash out pretty quickly. That's where crop loss can become a huge factor,” Hunter
21. Planning and preventative maintenance. “There's some systems that I think are more prone to fail now and that we’ll probably need to replace soon. We're seeing different issues and trends that are happening repeatedly. And I think that's gonna allow us to better manage and predict, avoid an unexpected pump failure or something going haywire at the wrong time, and even budget for a new irrigation system in another two years at a particular ranch because we know things are quirky,” Hunter 
22. “At the end of the day our job is to produce the best grapes we can at the optimal yield we can deliver to our wineries. If Lumo helps us manage that better, it increases our value to our clients and winery partners,” Tyler 
23. “I just feel more of a connection to how these irrigation systems actually work and operate, which is great. Not just intellectually understanding your system, but actually evaluating it on a day-by-day basis and seeing how it's performing,” Hunter 
24. “There’s a night and day difference from the other irrigation automation systems we’re working with. It’s everything everyone else says they can do but Lumo actually does it,” Tyler
25. “With the way things are evolving, technology is definitely going to be utilized in every aspect of farming going forward. And this is just an easy transition for us to make,” Hunter