TIA Irrigation Newsletter | July 2018
No Images? Click here
In this newsletter
- Message from Sue Hinton, Leader, TIA Irrigation Program
- Water for Profit end-of-project workshop
- Ground-breaking soil reports
- Message from Macquarie Franklin
- Sense-T Sensor-Smart Irrigation
- Dairy irrigation study tour
- Farm trials show way forward for smarter irrigation
- Statewide Irrigation Event - watch the presentations
- Webinar with soil scientist Dr Bill Cotching
- TasAgFuture survey
Message from Sue Hinton and the Water for Profit team
Over the last three years, Water for Profit has engaged with more than fifty businesses across Tasmania. We've organised numerous meetings for the five farmer groups, several regional field days and public events, and three annual state-wide events. We've recorded and communicated the farmer-led research activities through many images, videos, articles and interviews across a wide range of media. With your help, we've completed new research on benchmarking, decision support tools, and soil characterisation.
Thank you for making Water for Profit such a successful project.
regards
Sue Hinton (Leader, Irrigation Program, Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture)
All good things must end - but there's more to come
Thanks to the members of our farmer groups who were able to attend Water for Profit's final workshop in Campbell Town on 21 June.
We presented the dual-purpose cropping and CropARM wheat decision support tools, as well as other modelling work done for peas and potatoes. The group participants have been instrumental in the collection of data, and your feedback was invaluable in directing the modelling team to create useful decision support tools.
Twenty reports on soil testing results were prepared, combining technical information with an overview of the soil types encountered and how to manage these under irrigation. These were distributed to the individual group members that participated.
Participants also completed a post-skills survey so that data can be compared with the pre-skills survey at the beginning of the project three years ago. This will provide valuable information to be included in the project's final report.
Ground-breaking reports
For the first time in Tasmania, detailed soil profiles have been completed in irrigation areas, on sites managed by participants in our grower groups.
"This is foundational work," Dr Marcus Hardie told the final workshop. "This data will be used for the next ten to twenty years."
Twenty sites were sampled and characterised. Hydrologic characteristics of infiltration and hydraulic conductivity were measured at the surface and on subsurface horizons at each site. Soil porosity characteristics, plant available water
holding capacities and bulk density were analysed and calculated for each soil horizon, for complete profiles to 1.0 metre depth, and for plant root zones.
Water contents at field capacity and irrigation start-up were measured on each soil horizon at all sites.
Chemical analysis was completed for each soil horizon at all 20 sites.
At the workshop, Dr Marcus Hardie and Dr Bill Cotching discussed the implications of the results for irrigation scheduling and soil management, and provided a summary of soil water storage and irrigation intervals.
"The 'buckets' are smaller than we thought," said Dr Hardie. "These numbers are important because we never had any idea of this before."
A general message is that drainable porosity is maintained by soil management, while readily available water is dependent on soil type.
From our partner...
Macquarie Franklin had the pleasure of working with TIA to roll out the peer-to-peer learning part of WfP over the last few years. The producer-driven discussion groups from four irrigation regions (Central Highlands, Southern Midlands, Hagley and Campbell Town) accessed information on key topics
like drainage, sensor technology, benefits of irrigated pasture for livestock production, and irrigation scheduling. This knowledge will assist in driving on-farm changes, leading to greater economic return on investment.
regards, Hugh Ludford
Sense-T Sensor-smart Irrigation
Irrigation is often difficult to apply evenly, with under and over watering causing crop losses and reduced yields. Soil water-logging also wastes precious water, causing run-off and nutrient losses. Soil variability makes it hard to get the right amounts of water on the right parts of the paddock.
Technology can help with these issues. The sensor-smart irrigation project has built software to give on-farm irrigation managers real-time soil moisture maps to support watering decisions. We made some code to cluster soils into management zones and to locate the best spot for soil moisture sensors to go. With variable rate centre pivots, different parts of the paddock can be irrigated as individual management zones.
Irrigation study tour of Tasmanian dairies
In March, Dairy Australia organised a study tour for mainland dairy farmers to visit Tasmanian farms. The Smarter Irrigation for Profit project (led by Dr James Hills) and Rob Bradley hosted a TIA field day at Rosemount near Cressy. Here's what some of the participants said about what they learned in Tasmania:
"Tasmanians are lucky, they’ve got a very good climate for irrigating. I was actually under the impression that they didn’t need it. Something I’ll take home is about our start-up times, we let our soils dry out a lot more where we are, and I think if we start our irrigation a bit sooner, which is something we’ve been working on with our moisture monitoring, I think we’re going to get some gains in productivity and production from our paddocks." (Perrin Hicks, Mt Compass SA)
"Just getting the basics right. How they talk about the soil as a bucket, and learning the three things of how much water that bucket holds, how much water the environment takes away, and how much your irrigation infrastructure can put it back on. Knowing those three basic things can help you manage properly." (Will Russel, Bega NSW)
"They probably have a little more freedom to do things than we do where we’re from...It brings us back to reality in some senses, they’re talking about slightly lower production per cow than what we’re used to, which is probably a lot more manageable. It’s good to see that people aren’t just talking about breaking records and competing – I guess everyone’s competing – but they’re not trying to over-produce from cattle and it’s something that’s probably a little more sustainable." (Robert Russel, Bega NSW)
Farm trials show way forward for smarter irrigation
Tasmanian dairy farmer Rob Bradley found that changing the way his irrigation was scheduled (as part of the Smarter Irrigation for Profit project) led to a significant increase in pasture production of more than 200 tonnes under his 117 hectare pivot, which also led to major savings on feed costs.
“We’re putting the water where it needs to go, we’re using less power to do it, and we’re growing more grass,” he said.
Irrigation trials across five sites in Tasmania demonstrated how savings in water and energy can be achieved.
Statewide Irrigation Event 2018
On 10 April, more than one hundred farmers, consultants, agribusiness reps, scientists, and students gathered in Longford to discuss precision irrigation, soils, and drainage. This was the third state-wide event organised by Water for Profit.
Get down and dirty with Bill Cotching
Dr Bill Cotching, a soil scientist at TIA, hosts a webinar and Q&A about Tasmanian agriculture, sharing challenges, reality, expectations, sensing and perceptions derived from 40 years of working on farms with farmers.
Have your voice heard and help
shape Tasmania’s agrifood future
Tasmanian farmers, and food and beverage manufacturers (and their employees) are invited to participate in TIA's TasAgFuture survey.
The TasAgFuture project is asking those directly involved in the agriculture and food sector: What big factors are influencing your business decisions, now and into the future? The project will help shape the future of Tasmania's research, development and extension (RD&E) and inform policy.
By filling out the survey, you are helping TIA better support the goals of Tasmania’s farmers and manufacturers of food and beverages.
The survey follows 100 in-depth interviews carried out by the project’s research team. They have interviewed a wide range of food producers and processors across the State about their goals, and factors that are hindering or helping them prosper in a competitive market.
TIA is keen to hear from everyone in the sector, especially those voices that sometimes get missed. By participating, you’ll get a personalised report that compares your responses with those of your peers, and you’ll have the chance to win one of three iPads.
More information about the project, including contact details, are available at utas.edu.au/tia/tasagfuture.
