orchard irrigation system assessments and demonstration of irrigation...
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Orchard irrigation system assessments and demonstration of irrigation scheduling best practice More Dollars per Drop – Royalty for Regions Project-Water Use Efficiency
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James Dee, Project Manager
More Dollars per Drop
•Water use and production focus •Water use Efficiency = T/ML saleable product
•Active industry partnership •Fruit, Vegetables, Dairy and Viticulture
•$3.8 Million State funding over 4 years
•4 major components • Industry support, On farm assessment, BMP demonstration , Web
based irrigation management tools development
More Dollars per Drop - Assessment team
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More Dollars per Drop
• Fruit Industry focus
• Industry Support and Development (2012-2016) • Funding industry development officer (David Williams)
• Irrigation Assessment across industries (2012- 2014) • 75 assessments by June 2014, • 31 Expressions of Interest and 21 assessments completed so far
• Irrigation Scheduling Tools Development and Extension (2012 – 2015) • design and grower needs analysis underway
• Best Management Irrigation Practice Demonstration linked in with APAL Climate Change Project – Netted orchard in Manjimup WA
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• On Farm Assessment Process • Structured Interview – approx 1.5 hours per grower interview • Evaluate irrigation management knowledge and skills • Record production data –down to block level if possible • Record water used for irrigation – down to block level if possible
• Rapid irrigation system evaluation – 3 blocks per farm • Record pump, mainline and block description (emitter type and spacings) • Test pressure and flow variation within each block (6 reading per block) • Record mainline flow and pressure at pump to evaluate pump operation
• Individual grower reports developed • Review of irrigation management • Water use efficiency figures per crop for the farm • Irrigation system evaluation and problem identification • Areas for improvement and recommendations on how this can be achieved
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•What we have found so far
• Irrigation system design, maintenance and management is important to growers but not a high priority
• Production system key factor to WUE :Low level of adoption of high density planting is limiting water use efficiency.
• The level of understanding of the principles of irrigation scheduling is not as high as we would have expected. • Linking root zone soil water storage with the plant’s ability to extract water and
the environmental interactions driving crop water use is not well understood
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• Demonstration of Best Management Practice for Irrigation Management with and without netting
• Demonstration site also linked to APAL Project – • AP12029 “Understanding apple & pears production systems in a changing
climate”
• Netting established over high density Cripps pink apple orchard
• Irrigation system is microsprinklers overlapping down the row, soil moisture monitoring using capacitance probes and Watermark sensors
• Irrigation scheduling will be based on Evapotranspiration (ET0) using the ASCE Tall Crop/Alfalfa equation and appropriate crop coefficients
• We will validate the use of Effective Area of Shade in WA over the 3 year period
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Fuji
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Weather station
Fruit temp sensors
Leaf temp sensors
Capacitance probe and gypsum blocks Water meter Solenoid valve
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Leased area
Thank you
For more information, contact James Dee, project manager on Ph: (08) 9780 6285
Supporting your success