One of the questions that I regularly get asked by farmers is “do we really need all this new irrigation technology?” Driving from farm to farm I see a range of farmers using a range of farming practices and incorporating technology in different ways. For some farmers it seems that carrying a mobile phone is as close to tech savvy as they will ever be. Other farmers embrace technology so much they can turn the irrigation pumps on, check the weather station data, see who’s at the front door and much much more.
I saw a good example of old and new technologies working well recently. Hard hose irrigators have been around quite a long time now. Whilst they have evolved and improved slightly over the years they effectively haven’t changed much over time. To improve efficiencies Agline client Premium Fresh have added a new technology in Variable Speed Drives to their pumps to enhance the hard hose system.
In a recent interview with Farm Manager Deon Gibson, he was asked what he thought the future of irrigation was on their farm. “We have been looking into replacing our travelling irrigators with pivots and linears but in some cases it is hard to justify the expense due to the fact we have been able to set up our current pumping system so well”.
“Since installing Variable Speed Drives (VSD) with phone link on our pumps and shut off valves on the irrigators we have more flexibility over our watering than ever before. Our hard hose irrigators can be more adaptable to smaller plantings. Small plantings are really important to us as supermarkets require fresher and more consistent products. For our small plantings we have the ability to run three irrigators at once and overnight in the same paddock with different sized runs say from 150m to 300m. For example, we can set three irrigators going when the shortest run finishes the shut-off valve stops the irrigator and the VSD ramps the pump down to run the two remaining irrigators. Then the second irrigator will finish and stop, and then the third, and the pump will stop automatically”.
“With the addition of the VSD and phone link to our pumps most of our watering can be done at night when the wind drops. We set up the irrigators during the day and they will be sitting there waiting for pressure, we start the pump with our phone and away they go. We find that most of the faults that we have are human error, they almost always complete the run without any problems”.
Back to the original question. “Do we really need all of this technology?” Of course the answer is no. But when you hear about the good results other farmers are having, surely you feel the confidence to think ‘I can do that too’. It is possible that a little bit of technology could save you time, money or resources. For more information on irrigation systems please call Agline on (03) 6391 8695.
Published in the Tasmanian Country newspaper July 26, 2019.