Irrigation – Grow with the Flow

Next week the historical Waitaki region will be host to the 2016 IrrigationNZ conference, IRRIGATION – GROW WITH THE FLOW. There is a variety of keynote speakers from all around the world and a jam-packed programme of interesting presentations and workshops. I have picked out a few presentations and workshops of mention that may be of interest to the H2Grow followers. For the full programme click here.

We all know information is key and many of the posts that you may have read on H2Grow share the many different sources of data that you can gather, monitor and measure in relation to irrigation. But with so many options for irrigation management you may be left wondering which are going to give you the greatest benefit. I’m hoping that this workshop may shed some light…

WHAT TO MEASURE MONITOR AND HOW TO MANAGE DATA FOR IMPROVED IRRIGATION PERFORMANCE – ENERGY, PRODUCTION & ENVIRONMENT presented by Ian McIndoe (Aqualinc) & Steve Breneger (INZ)

And…

REGEN WATER – USING SCIENCE, INFORMATION AND SOFTWARE TO MANAGE IRRIGATION presented by Bridgit Hawkins (Regen)

And furthermore…

REAL-TIME SOIL MOISTURE MONITORING IRRIGATION DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS presented by Pierre Roudier, Carolyn Hedley, Jagath Ekanayake, and Joseph Pollacco (Landcare Research)

Coincidentally the team presenting this later topic from Landcare Research have been involved in many variable rate irrigation and electromagnetic surveying studies.

Once you have monitored, measured and made an informed decision of when, where and how much to irrigate you may be after a tool that allows you to implement your irrigation schedule. This next workshop should enlighten you on the latest options to do so…

COMPLETE CONTROL FROM YOUR MOBILE DEVICE presented by Stu Bradbury (Lindsay NZ)

And lastly, one of the most topical irrigation related discussions at present (second to the tough economic conditions for many) is…

HOW REGULATORS AND FARMERS ARE DEALING WITH IRRIGATION AND NUTRIENT USE EFFICIENCY – THE CHALLENGES AND THE OPPORTUNITIES

Once we’ve been educated by the educators and experts I thought interesting food for thought would come in the form of…

OUR FUTURE – WHAT WILL IRRIGATION LOOK LIKE IN 2050? This will be presented by Christopher Neale (Director of Research, Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute, University of Nebraska). Currently development of remote irrigation management technologies and pinpoint irrigation control systems seems to be the focus but what will be next? And what will an irrigator look like when my son is the age that I am now?

I hope that provides a small taster of some of the information that will be on offer. As well as the presentations there is a exhibition with over 35 stands where you are able to talk to those in the irrigation industry including irrigation designers, engineers, suppliers and support companies.

Lindsay NZ are at site 17, we will be unveiling two exciting new product releases (which I will share more information on next week), but we look forward to seeing you all there.

If you are not able to make it to the entire conference there is a Farmer’s Trade Afternoon, on Tuesday 5th April from 3:30pm–5:30pm.

Today's post has been written by Sarah Elliot from Lindsay NZ.

Inaugural PAANZ Conference - Summary

Precision Ag in New Zealand is finally starting to gain a bit of traction in NZ & this was seen last Friday by:

1)      the fact that the Precision Ag Association of NZ (PAANZ - www.precisionagriculture.org.nz) ran their first conference

2)      the  number of attendees that came from far and wide to attend & learn

Firstly, I’d like to congratulate the PAANZ committee on organising a well-run event with some thought provoking topics and speakers. I’m going to run through a bit of a summary of the day in terms of what was covered and some ideas to ponder.

Andy Macfarlane from Macfarlane Rural Business kicked the conference off to a start with a general overview of NZ ag and where we’re at in terms of water, nutrients and farming within limits. One of the key points from his presentation was that “Good Management Practice (GMP) is a given – everyone needs to get there NOW!” GMP will evolve and is not a fixed point. ‘Good’ will also not be good enough, farmers will need to be ‘great’ to keep ahead of the game and ensure long term farm viability. Precision Ag is going to be integral going forward to achieving this.

Some Key Principles for mitigating N leaching

1. Measure before you apply – need to know what you’re dealing with so you can make the right input decision.
2. Use nitrogen (& water) interceptors – roots, different crops etc
3. Smaller and often applications are better than large amounts and less often
4. Do not put nutrients where you don’t need them (use targeted application technology – Precision Ag)
5. Apply less urine or less nitrogen concentration in urine
6. Increase nitrogen utilisation in gut to decrease output of nitrogen
7. Less water drained = less nitrogen leached
8. Integrated farm systems approach required to achieve long term desired outcome
9. Validation of science needed both at research level and on farm

Keith Cameron, Professor of Soil Science at LincolnUniversity also posed a sound point that irrigation, even though it might be controversial in some areas and need better management allows increased N uptake as the plants are actively growing and not under stress, therefore less leaching of nitrogen results. Is there a case for environmental irrigation? Especially in summer dry areas? He also pointed out that we need to look at plant uptake as a mitigation strategy for decreasing nitrogen leaching. Catch crops following/during winter grazing is likely a good way to achieve this and studies have shown that this can be by between 20-40%.

While we all know that nitrogen itself is a key part to the nitrogen leaching discussion, in irrigated Canterbury and other parts of the South Island managing soil moisture is key to effective nitrogen management. Dr Tony Davoren from HydroServices spoke on this topic and highlighted the following:

• Measuring and understanding your soil moisture is key to good irrigation management and reduced leaching
• No drainage throughout the growing season from pivots if managed well – the same can’t be said of other irrigation systems with high application rates in particular
• You need to measure soil moisture at and below the root zone. Firstly to understand your plants requirements, and secondly to know and be able to prove that you aren't leaching and wasting water
• It’s also important to measure soil temperature as this is also a factor when scheduling irrigation and brings in the ‘farm systems approach’ that Andy talked about by looking at multiple factors.

As the focus of the day was mostly looking at how nitrogen leaching could be reduced using Precision Ag (PA) techniques there wasn't a lot of emphasis on other areas, however some were slightly touched on. These included Ian Yule (Massey University) talking about the economic impact of poor spreading pattern and that it could cost a farmer on average $45/ha if his spreading CV was at 20%, however CV was likely to be nearer 30% when out in the field. At costs like this we obviously need to get our spread pattern accurate before we start doing variable rate fert. Accuracy is key to everything in Precision Ag. The benefits of ‘All Paddock Soil Testing’ was highlighted for reducing paddock to paddock nutrient variation and pushing pasture yield along on dairy farms.

There were a vast array of topics covered during the day, stretching further than just nitrogen leaching and it was truly encouraging to see such a good turn-out of interested people to this inaugural event as well as the robust debates and discussion that went along with it. It’s truly heartening to see NZ farmers and industry pushing the boundaries and meeting NZ farming targets using tools and technologies that are already out there today. The future is very bright for NZ ag and coupled with all of the emerging technologies and the science to back these up I feel very encouraged about the position of the New Zealand farmer. Now to get everyone dabbling their toe in the water of Precision Ag…

~ Jemma

Workshop: Technology to Reduce N Leaching

If you're under pressure to mitigate N leaching and improve efficiency and profitability on farm - then the PAANZ Technology to Reduce N Leaching is for you!

Note registrations now close on March 18th. 

Register: paanz-workshop.lilregie.com