Irrigating Agriculture

Topic: smarter irrigation

published - 27 March 2020
By Dennis Watson
Weekly Irrigation Requirements – North East Victoria

Weekly Irrigation Requirements – North East Victoria
This update provides ‘reference evapotranspiration’ (ETo) data to assist with improved irrigation scheduling for top yields and high water productivity.Note: To convert mm to megalitres /ha, divide by 100. Eg. 50mm = 0.5ML /ha.
Below is a table showing a possible starting time for irrigation for …
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Home, Irrigation Scheduling, Resources

published - 26 March 2020
By James Paulet
Weekly Irrigation Requirements – Macalister Irrigation District

MID ETo Update
19 March to 25 March 2020
The Ag Vic Maffra Team sends our well wishes to you during the COVID-19 event.
We are all working from home but are still contactable by mobile phone and email.

Flood irrigation interval for the last week was 11 days
Spray irrigation amount was 23 mm of irrigation water for the last week
The predicted weekly …
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Home, Irrigation Scheduling, Resources

published - 4 July 2019
Centre Pivot/Lateral Move 2 day training course

Centre pivots and lateral moves (CPLM) have the potential to offer greater control and flexibility of irrigation management. Growers are seeing the many possible advantages for their businesses including potential yield improvements, reduced labour, more control of soil moisture as well as possible fertigation potential.
AGRICULTURE VICTORIA IS OFFERING A TRAINING …
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published - 8 February 2019
By Alexis Killoran
Upgrading to spray irrigation in the Macalister ID

At a glance
Project: Flood to spray conversion
Area: 36 hectares
Soil type: Moderate permeability
Water source: River diversion and reuse system
Production: Significant increase
Stock numbers: Tripled
Project cost: $138,314
Incentives rebate: $12,472
Project cost per hectare: $3,842
Automated: Remotely operated
Manual labour: Significantly reduced
The Farm
Alex and Olivia McArthur from Waverly Pastoral operate a dairy farm in Maffra. They milk …
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Farm Planning, Home, Irrigation Systems, Resources

published - 29 November 2018
By Rob O'Connor
What to know about Evapotranspiration and how to use it to schedule irrigations

Evapotranspiration provides a relatively objective and reliable estimate of the water requirements of actively growing plants in a farm situation. Evapotranspiration information can be used by irrigators to more accurately schedule irrigations to help achieve top yields and improve water productivity.
What is Evapotranspiration?
Evapotranspiration is an estimate of the loss of …
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Home, Irrigation Scheduling, Resources

published - 16 August 2018
Advanced Drip Irrigation course

ADVANCED DRIP IRRIGATION COURSES
Agriculture Victoria in conjunction with Netafim Australia, will be running the following half day workshops for irrigators who are looking to receive the latest information in drip irrigation management.
DRIP IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT
Topics covered are:
Drip system specifications – understanding designs and specification sheets
Drip system monitoring – measuring pressures and …
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published - 14 August 2018
Advanced Drip Irrigation course

ADVANCED DRIP IRRIGATION COURSES
Agriculture Victoria in conjunction with Netafim Australia, will be running the following half day workshops for irrigators who are looking to receive the latest information in drip irrigation management.
DRIP IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT
Topics covered are:
Drip system specifications – understanding designs and specification sheets
Drip system monitoring – measuring pressures and …
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published - 20 July 2018
By Jeremy Giddings
Variable speed drives — an energy saving option for irrigated horticulture

A variable speed drive (VSD) is used to adjust a pump’s flow or pressure to the field requirements (actual demand). Adopting VSDs in irrigation was historically for operational reasons such as providing constant pressure outputs, ‘soft starts’, or reducing pump wear. More recently, as energy prices continue to rise, the …
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Home, Irrigation Systems, Resources

published - 17 April 2018
By Jeremy Giddings
Managing horticultural crops with less water

Irrigators may be faced with reduced water allocations at some stage in the future. In this situation a range of decisions may need to be made including:

       the purchase of additional water (at a likely elevated value);
       prioritise water onto preferred patches;
       giving other patches reduced volumes with consequent reductions …
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Farm Planning, Home, Resources, Water Management