Preparedness for irrigation season 'vital'

3 August 2016
Preparedness for irrigation season 'vital'

With low groundwater levels confirmed by Environment Canterbury today and the outlook for recharge before the coming irrigation season not looking good, irrigating farmers must ensure their equipment and irrigation schedules are up to scratch if they are to survive another dry summer, says IrrigationNZ.

“Preparedness for the coming irrigation season is vital. Poorly operating irrigation systems cost time and water efficiency, not to mention the additional cost to production. Farmers must make sure irrigation systems are operating as efficiently as possible because water resources are already stretched so every drop must be optimised,” says IrrigationNZ Project Manager Steven Breneger.

Mr Breneger says August is the time to starting reviewing systems and technologies before irrigating gets underway in September.

“Now is the time to starting looking at the application performance of your irrigation assets. Here are 5 simple things that you can do;

1. Check your flows and pressures – These are often overlooked. They are generally affected by the wearing of pump impellers over time. Checking that your flow and pressures are within 10% of operating design is critical to application efficiency.

2. Check for Leaks – Water not irrigating the right place is water wasted. This also applies to end gun settings and broken sprinklers.

3. Do a bucket test (if you haven’t already). This lets you know how much water you are applying and how even your application is (distribution uniformity - DU). Knowing how much water you are applying is critical for irrigation scheduling. Improving your DU will result in more of your irrigation being beneficially used.

4. Invest in soil moisture monitoring and weather forecasts – An efficient irrigation system is only as good as the scheduling of the irrigation. Knowing when to irrigate and how much to apply will save both time (irrigation days throughout the season) and money (pumping costs per day). Linking soil moisture monitoring with weather forecasts will allow any rainfall during the irrigation season to be taken advantage of.

5. Make a plan – With the experience of a few tough seasons behind us, now is the time to look at your seasonal plan. Does your consent have Adaptive Management conditions? How would this affect your irrigation scheduling? Identify your higher production areas and your lower productions areas. Does your system have the capability to isolate areas of lower performance if the season gets tight?

IrrigationNZ’s SMART Irrigation programme (www.smartirrigation.co.nz) provides the resources, training and tools for irrigating farmers to get them through the coming season. Additionally support is directly available from staff by phoning (03) 341 2225.
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www.smartirrigation.co.nz
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