Leader:
(07) 4631 1691
(07) 46311873
|
Project Description:
Overview
This project provides research and technical support to Industry Development Officers and South East Queensland (SEQ) Catchments through the Summer Zone of the CRC for Irrigation Futures, which will lead to improved irrigation water use efficiency, benchmarking and best management practices. This will be achieved through focus on a number of priority research areas including:
1. Irrigation management practice and system performance improvements
2. Irrigation scheduling and crop water use
3. Monitoring and measurement for performance benchmarking
4. Water storage and delivery systems
5. Irrigation and nutrient management
6. Improved extension and adoption of best management practices
The research will underpin and support the Industry Groups in benchmarking, development of best management practice and reduction targets and promotion and communication of research outputs.
Objective
The key objective of this project is to provide research and development outcomes that will underpin a 10% improvement in water use efficiency within South-East Queensland.
Strategies
This project is being delivered in partnership with the local horticultural, dairy, turf, nursery and flower industry bodies by:
Providing a basis for changes in on-farm water management practices and/or take-up of more water efficient equipment and operations;
Assisting in the uptake of farm management systems through better definition of best management practices and efficiency targets; and
Improving grower involvement in local on-farm research activities.
Research in this project is conducted within the industry identified priority areas of:
Monitoring tools to improve water use efficiency;
Improved management of irrigated root zones;
Crop water requirements and deficit irrigation; and
Optimising performance and managing in-field variability. |
Progress to Date:
JUNE 2008 UPDATE
The South-East Queensland Irrigation Futures (SEQIF) Research and Development Support (RADS) project has provided support to the SEQIF Industry Development Officers (IDOs) and SEQ Catchment staff across five industries and eleven field sites during 2007/08. The targeted research activities conducted during the year were focused on the industry priority issues identified collaboratively with IDOs:
An evaluation of the physical degradation of coir based potting media was conducted for the nursery industry.
A second season of trial work was completed evaluating the relationships between irrigation uniformity and spatial variability in lettuce production.
Water use requirements for some popular nursery plants were quantified under commercial conditions.
An evaluation of rootzone salinity under beetroot irrigated with marginal water found salt increases will threaten production levels.
Evaluation of water use on a turf farm found that approximately 400 mm of water was required to maintain turf quality for sale. The study also highlighted that small improvements in irrigation uniformity can increase the saleability of turf considerably.
Work continued on the development of monitoring tools to assist the IDOs and farmers identify opportunities for improved water use efficiency. The major outcomes of this work are:
The ability to produce field scale EM38 of soil, rootzone constraints and irrigation uniformity problems is now available and has been demonstrated on both turf and dairy farms.
The ability to produce field scale NDVI surveys of crop vigour using a ground-mounted rig is now available and has been demonstrated on turf and dairy farms.
The deployment and analysis of DSL data for pressurised systems has been shown to be able to detect irrigation shifts, filter flushing events and associated hydraulic inconsistencies.
The prototype PIMS unit has been deployed on a range of irrigation systems for evaluation.
Evaluations of the eddy correlation micro-meteorological station on irrigated dairy pastures has demonstrated the influence of crop cover on evapotranspiration.
The RADS team has also continued to provide ad hoc mentoring and technical support regarding (a) irrigation performance evaluations, (b) soil, water and crop management issues, (c) the appropriateness of sensing equipment and (d) interpretation of grower results or options. Training on the delivery of the “soils” workshop was also provided to the IDOs over three separate workshop sessions.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
The priority work areas for this project during 2008/09 have been identified in consultation with the IDOs and other stakeholders and are:
Horticulture: Evaluate the effect of irrigation design and management on root zone salinity and nutrient movement
Turf: Evaluate the effect of spatial variability in irrigation or environmental variables on the potential to improve water use efficiency
Flowers: Identify strategies to improve irrigation scheduling and opportunities to use the DSL technology to identify water savings
Dairy: Evaluate the effect of spatial variability in irrigation or environmental variables on the potential to improve water use efficiency
Nursery: Develop techniques and assess the potential to use weight-based irrigation scheduling in nurseries. |
Publications:
| Author
|
Title and Published Conference Paper or Workshop Paper
|
| Hussain, A., and Raine, S. R. (2008)
|
A preliminary evaluation of the potential to use electromagnetic induction to assess sprinkler irrigation performance in horticultural crops
First Global Workshop on Digital Soil Sensing and Mapping
|
| Hussain, A., Raine, S. R. and Henderson, C. W. (2008)
|
Preliminary evaluation of relationships between irrigation non-uniformity and crop responses in lettuce
National Conference, Irrigation Australia
|
|
Media Releases:
- SEQ irrigators now ‘website savvy’ on water use
- $10K grant to improve irrigation performance
|
Researchers:
|
Postgraduate Students:
|
Partners:
Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management
The University of Southern Queensland
|
Workshops:
- Annual Research Forum 2008 - Presentations
- Annual Research Forum 2008 - Poster Session
|
Irrigation Toolkits:
|
Training:
|
