irrigation Click-on water calculator
New onlinemanagement tool helps farmers determinemost efficient use of their system. By Judie Steeves
O
ver-watering not only can leach nutrients from the root zone of plants, and set up
plants for diseases such as root rot, it also can have an impact on community water supplies. With all that in mind, the agriculture ministry has created a tool to help growers manage the amount of water they use to irrigate, based on the weather, soil and crop type and the stage of growth their plants are in.
The agriculture irrigation
scheduling calculator can be used by farmers as a guide to adjust their irrigation system to achieve the most efficient use of water for the weather, climate, crops and field, explains Ted van der Gulik, senior engineer with the sustainable agriculture management branch with the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands. Determining when to start an irrigation or how long to run a drip system can be a bit tricky, and you could over-water your fields if you don’t make adjustments for the weather and the time of year, he explained.
The online tool is available at www.
irrigationbc.com, where you can just click on “agriculture calculator” on the right.
Each grower enters his own details and sets up the account, entering any number of fields. Different scenarios can be saved so they can be referred to later.
It’s a bit more work at the start to enter field data into the calculation, but that information is stored so it doesn’t have to be re-entered the next time the calculator is used, explained van der Gulik.
The calculator automatically inputs the needs of the plant based on its growth stage, weather, time of year, and irrigation system used. Although normally you would only
JUDIE STEEVES Ted van der Gulik
check in monthly, if the weather’s unusually hot or cold, you could check to see what the plants’ needs are with those changes, he said. Obviously, if it’s wet out, you would just shut down your irrigation. The calculator inputs rainfall data as well, so it will help determine the
next irrigation start time. It has been up and running for a year now, so most of the bugs have been worked out, he said, but farmers must include their contact information in case ministry staff have to get in touch with them about it.
If you’re applying more water than the roots can store, the program puts up a red flag to warn you to adjust your irrigation.
The calculator’s success is based on its use of data from the nearest weather station, so maintenance of a reliable network of such weather stations is vital to ensure the tool continues to be up-to-date and useful, he noted.
The calculator is still new, but van der Gulik says a presentation on the tool was made to water managers in Quebec last summer and it looks as if they’re going to begin to use it too. In such areas as Langley, where there are concerns about the quantity of water available from underground aquifers, use of the calculator is vital to ensure there’s no waste of water by over-irrigating.
However, over-watering can also have serious impacts on plant health. Use of the calculator ensures the most efficient use of water to produce the healthiest plants.
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