PHOTO: LINDSAY CORPORATION


A VRI equipped irrigator working on corn in the US. Note shut-off area over the watercourse.


water saved was redeployed with a gun on 12 ha of previously dryland, lifting cereal yields from 7t/ha to 10.5t/ha and making high value seed crops an option. “You don’t get offered seed contracts here without irrigation.” Wheat yields under the pivot also increased by an estimated 5%, thanks to better match- ing application to demand. At NZ$400/t (€234) and 11t/ha of wheat, that equates to another NZ$220/ha (€129). “And when we put high value seed crops in, the gain is prob- ably more,” he points out. Add it all together, and Mitchell says it was “absolutely” the right decision to invest in VRI and they’ve since put it on a linear irrigator as well. All areas have been EM (electro-magnetically) scanned, costing about NZ$40/ha (€23) and they’re investing in 60cm AquaCheck probes at about NZ$3,000 (€1,756) each plus running costs to check soil moisture readings. However, he


wonders if such spot checks on soil moisture will one day be superseded, or augmented by an on-the-move laser, EM or possibly sonar


scans from the pivot measuring soil moisture content continuously and fine-tuning water applications accordingly in real-time.


Control boxes on the top of the boom continuously vary irrigation rates of every sprinkler. ▶ FUTURE FARMING | 25 May 2018 21


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