Category Archives: Irrigation

Agronomy, Automation, Irrigation, LandWISE People, MicroFarm, Nutrients, Precision Agriculture, Projects, Sensing, Soil, Tillage, Water

The Farm of 2030

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The 2015 LandWISE Annual Conference attracted record numbers. It’s theme looked forward 15 years to contemplate what a farm might look like in 2030.

We are most grateful for the strong support of our many sponsors, a vital feature for bringing such events to the community.Sponsor_Sheet_600

 

You can see the full programme here>

RobertFitch2 TristanPerez1 Cheryl-McCarthy

Three speakers, Robert Fitch, Tristan Perez and Cheryl McCarthy, travelled from Australia to help lead discussions.

Tom Botterill PeterSchaare Ian Yule

Add Tom Botterill, Peter Schaare and Ian Yule

GertHattingh John Ahearn JohnChapman

Gert Hattingh, John Ahearn and John Chapman

BruceSearle200 FinlaysonChristina_200x200 geoff-low-res-e1423206134526

Bruce Searle, Christine Finlayson and Geoff Bates plus others from New Zealand and see the wealth of knowledge and experience available.

You can see all speakers and their biographies here>

On Day 1, presenters discussed sensing, control and robotics. Developments in this area are proceeding remarkably fast, with prototype machines finding their own way around farms, identifying weeds by species and applying custom treatments including sprays only to leaves. Additional presentations on pasture and plant quality detection, grapevine pruning and fruit quality analysis made it a full informative day.

At the end of the day, delegates formed small teams to design their dream agricultural robots – an excellent way to consolidate information. The key however, was identifying what their robots should do (not how) and describing the constraints under which it would need to operate.

As soon as you state a “how” you limit the options that can be considered in determining the final design. Maybe it shouldn’t be a 4-wheeled rover, but an aerial vehicle, or even a ground crawler. Get the specifications right, and the design will identify itself.

AgBot - image from Queensland University of Technology
AgBot – image from Queensland University of Technology

Day 2 began with discussions around variability. Identifying what variability exists, where it is and whether it justifies custom management is a critical starting place. Speakers also focused on managing two important farm  inputs to ensure the right job is done – seed placement and fertiliser application.

Day 2 was completed at the LandWISE MicroFarm at the Centre for Land and Water. There were demonstrations of in-field nitrogen testing, a soil pit to examine, a robot pulling a urine patch detector, a one pass strip-till and planting machine, testing fertiliser spreaders and UAVs.

AltusMissionNDVI
An AltusUAS UAV takes off at the Centre for Land and Water, a mission to collect data at the LandWISE MicroFarm

Something for every forward thinking agriculturist!

More on-line here>

 

Agronomy, Irrigation, MicroFarm, Projects, Sensing, Soil

MicroFarm Update March 2015

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MicroFarm happenings are updated on Twitter @LandWISENZ with tweets appearing on both the LandWISE main website and the MicroFarm specific site.

The aerial view above of the MicroFarm was provided by new Centre for Land and Water residents, AltusUAS. This is a wide angle colour image, but we are also looking forward to capturing a range of other image types over coming weeks.

So far this season we have completed fourteen irrigation rotations across our various crops. We have guidance from HydroServices soil moisture monitoring and advice. Their weekly reports are posted on the MicroFarm Irrigation Monitoring page.

The linear-move irrigator that the Ritchie family  provided has been critical to success this year – one of the driest we’ve seen for a while. In August we posted a story about rebuilding the linear from parts.

Now, part way through Cyclone Pam, Hawke’s Bay is getting much needed rain. In our case, this has been a manageable amount and we have been fortunate to avoid the strong winds that have caused trouble north of us.

Since last week we’ve received regular showers, with daily rain totals of 20mm, 10mm, 0mm, 5mm and 25mm and moderate rain continuing. So 75mm so far, with about 12mm ET in that time. You can access our weather data from the MicroFarm site weather page, provided for us by HortPlus MetWatch.

Cover crops planted last month are coming away well. We irrigated them to get them started, but with the current rain, that is probably it for the season. The mustard and the oat/vetch mix were both direct drilled by Mike Kettle Contracting.

Our two crops awaiting harvest are sweetcorn for McCain Foods and navy beans for Heinz-Watties. Both crops are looking good.

Looking at the AltusUAS image above, the gaps in the sweetcorn on the left are where crop samples were taken to compare growth of seedlings with and without cover.

At the far end of the MicroFarm, the navy beans glow yellow as they reach maturity. Despite the colour change, HydroServices soil moisture monitoring shows water use has remained high, suggesting plants remain active.

The four white squares in the paddocks on the right are cover cloth on our cover crops: mustard and on an oat/vetch blend. We will remove two covers soon and monitor growth. Two other covers will remain in place for a few more weeks.

We are keen to involve even more technology partners at the MicroFarm.

Wintec has established a trial network of soil moisture sensors which are being compared with the HydroServices neutron probe results.

Installing the WINTEC wireless soil moisture sensor array
Installing the WINTEC wireless soil moisture sensor array

CoverMapOnionsASL software, (LandWISE Yield Estimation software) and apps for pipfruit and irrigation industries) have developed a ground cover measurement tool. We used it to map MicroFarm onion crop canopies and found good correlation with final yields.

If you have something to test or demonstrate, or know someone that might add value, let us know!

Remember, you can follow @LandWISENZ on Twitter, or keep an eye on the MicroFarm website for the most up to date information on happenings.

Agronomy, Irrigation, MicroFarm

MicroFarm News: Nov 2014

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Recent postings on the MicroFarm Website

To November 2014

Spring on the MicroFarm

Two thirds of the way through spring our micropaddocks are approaching full canopy. Onions that progressed so slowly over winter are growing rapidly and peas planted in September are well established. A key question now is when to irrigate. More>

Crop covers laid on onions and peas

CosioPlotsWeb
Squares of Cosio cover cloth placed on peas and onions

Following the lead of Dr Charles Merfield at the BHU Future Farming Centre at Lincoln, we laid some trial crop covers at the MicroFarm. More>

Linear Move Irrigator

The MicroFarm has a linear move irrigator. The Ritchies replaced the original linear at Drumpeel, and after Hugh made some necessary adjustments to the old one, arrived with a truck and trailer carrying a single span linear and a Manitou to put it up with. More>

Irrigation, LandWISE People, Precision Agriculture, Water

Visitors Return to Tennessee

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After a month with LandWISE researching the implications should Tukituki Plan Change 6 rules be applied to the Heretaunga Plains, our two Interns have returned home.

Makenzie and Rachel at the Flaxmere Community Gardens
Makenzie and Rachel at the Flaxmere Community Gardens

While in Hawke’s Bay, they met a number of farmers, policy makers and community stakeholders in order to understand different perspectives. Their report is available here.

Rachel and Makenzie were also able to visit True Earth Organics, the BioRich compost facility at Maraekakaho, Te Aranga Marae and the Flaxmere Community Gardens.

We were also able to involve them in an afternoon of soil surface shear strength assessment at Eskdale. Appropriate health and safety equipment supplied by Centre for Land and Water staff.

Equipment used to assess soil surface shear strength on forested rolling hills at Eskdale
Equipment used to assess soil surface shear strength on forested rolling hills at Eskdale
Agronomy, Irrigation, MicroFarm, Soil, Water

Irrigation: Do peas benefit? Do farmers?

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At the MicroFarm, we just harvested our second lot of peas.  We tracked their water use since planting to build on learning from our first crop (see the December 2013 issue of “Grower” reproduced here>).

Once again, HydroServices’ Melanie Smith established three neutron probe access tubes in each of two crops. These were read weekly and analysed to tell us paddock soil moisture content down to 80 cm.

Both pea crops were planted on the same day with the same drill. Paddock 1 is dryland and Paddock 2 has drip irrigation installed 200mm deep.

Figures Paddock 1 and Paddock 2 show soil water content for each crop.

Paddock 1_Peas
Paddock 1_Peas
Paddock 2_Peas
Paddock 2_Peas

We see the crops tracked about the same at the start. In mid-December, Paddock 2 received two 9mm irrigations from our buried dripline.

Melanie estimated that the irrigation was 80% efficient, so only added about 7.5mm to the budget each time. Paddock 1 is not irrigated, and continued to drop towards stress point.

Paddock 1 reached Refill Point on Boxing Day two days before rain fortunately lifted it back out of stress. Paddock 1 again hit stress point on about 6th January. With no more significant rain, it stayed stressed. With irrigation applied as required, Paddock 2 remained stress-free throughout.

Overall, the two crops used similar amounts of water through until early January. After that the 0 – 30 cm soil reached stress point, and water use from the unirrigated Paddock 1 began to taper off.  The steeper lines in the bottom part of the graphs show it began to get more water from deeper in the profile.

By harvest, Paddock 1 was using only about half as much water as the drip irrigated Paddock 2 and drawing it from much deeper in the profile.

The difference in what a crop did use and what it could have used if the water was available is described by Potential Soil Moisture Deficit. We estimate that by harvest, Paddock 1 suffered about 100mm of PSMD. I am not sure what the pea response is to stress. I am told it is a “very elastic” crop. For many crops this would indicate a growth reduction of about 20%.

So did irrigation pay?

We sampled each crop pre-harvest and found Paddock 2 had about 30% more fresh weight canopy than Paddock 1. The difference was easily seen, being significantly taller and generally more “lush”. The peas in Paddock 1 reached harvest maturity at least three or four days before the irrigated peas in Paddock 2.

We get paid for peas not canopy. We also sampled yields and quality as measured by TR (pea tenderness) and found differences.

There was a lower tonnage in Paddock 2, but the quality (and pay-out value) was much higher.

At harvest the Paddock 1 tonnages were reasonable at 6.85 t/ha paid yield. But TR was 137; a bit high and the lowest pay-out grade.

We delayed harvesting Paddock 2 for two days. The paid yield was similar at 6.55 t/ha but the TR was 102, a 30% higher pay-out grade.

Paddock 1 returned $2,059/ha and Paddock 2 returned $2,625/ha gross, so a benefit of $566/ha from irrigation.

We applied 81 mm so our return from irrigation was $6.99/ha/mm applied. Many people quote an irrigation cost of about $2/ha/mm so let’s claim a benefit of $5/ha/mm applied.

Looking at it another way. If we had a 20ha paddock, irrigation would have made us about $8,000 better off. If we also sold pea hay, the benefit would be even greater.

Answer: Irrigation pays!

Thanks to: Centre for Land and Water, ThinkWater, Netafim, HydroServices, McCain Foods, Ballance AgriNutrients, BASF Crop Protection, FruitFed Supplies, Agronica NZ, Nicolle Contracting, Drumpeel Farms, Greville Ground Spraying, True Earth Organics, Tasman Harvesting, Plant & Food Research, Peracto NZ

Agronomy, Controlled Traffic Systems, Drainage, Irrigation, MicroFarm, Nutrients, Precision Agriculture, Soil, Tillage, Water

LandWISE 2014 Event update

Ever Better: Farmers, land and water

Awapuni Function Centre, Palmerston North. 21-22 May 2014

Just two days to go to LandWISE 2014! The final programme and some tasters of individual presentations are on the website.

In a change to previous years, our “outdoor session” on Day 2 includes a bus tour of a small catchment with intensive land use – vegetable cropping and dairy farming – and a regionally significant lake. This will be in the middle of the day, with buses returning to the conference venue for the final afternoon presentations and panel discussion.

We have a focus on farm plans to avoid or minimise off-farm impacts, especially from sediments and nutrients. This is a critical issue now, and farmers need to understand how new expectations may affect their day to day activities.

Register hereSponsorSheet64

Many thanks to our Conference Sponsors and the many speakers and others who bring you this opportunity. We especially thank our Platinum Sponsors, BASF Crop Protection, AGMARDT and John Deere.

Please pass this message on to your friends and colleagues you believe would gain benefit from attending.

Drainage, Irrigation, LandWISE People, Precision Agriculture, Soil, Tillage, Water

2014 Farmer of the Year Field Day

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Around 300 people attended the Silver Fern Farms Hawke’s Bay Farmer of the Year Field Day on 8 May. Hugh and Sharon Ritchie won the award and opened Horonui, Drumpeel and Wainui farms to public gaze.

A good selection of images from the day can be found on Kate Taylor’s website, rivettingkatetaylor.com. A sample image of folk at Drumpeel is below (thanks Kate)

foy-field-day-drumpeel

Kate Taylor’s photo of people visiting Drumpeel during the Farmer of the Year Field Day

The weather put on a good show as 120+ utes travelled across the three farms.

Horonui has most of the rolling hill country and is the largest part of the the animal enterprise. Check Kate’s photos to see more. The flats are used for cropping with a 50ha area block irrigated by a towable pivot fitting with variable rate technology.

Drumpeel has been the cropping base since Hugh’s parents David and Sally took over the farm and began developing it. Now fully irrigated it has been the site of many trials and field days over the years by FAR and companies testing seed and plant protection options. Hugh himself is constantly testing new ideas!

Hugh has hosted many LandWISE events and supported LandWISE Smart Farming investigations including pH mapping, EM soil scanning, minimum tillage, strip-tillage. Generally he’s been ahead of us.

The Drumpeel linear move irrigator was a test-bed for LandWISE nozzle option research into improving application uniformity. This has been a passion of Hugh’s since his Nuffield Scholarship when he visited Charles Burt at the Irrigation Training and Research Center in California.

Wainui is a new aquisition that adjoins Drumpeel. The Ritchies have just completed their first summer of cropping. A large centre pivot on Wainui has variable rate irrigation which should give increased flexibility and use a set amount of water most efficiently.  A programme of GPS surveying and levelling to enhance drainage at Wainui has begun. This will be discussed at the upcoming LandWISE Conference in Palmerston North on 21-22 May.

Once again, congratulations Hugh and Sharon and their family and staff.

Irrigation, Precision Agriculture, Soil, Water

Regional land use tracking

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Analysing satellite data to identify land use and cropslcare

David Pairman, Heather North and Stella Belliss, Landcare Research

Remote sensing scientists at Landcare Research, in collaboration with Environment Canterbury, have developed a new capability for mapping agricultural land use from satellite imagery. The methods are aimed at gathering regional statistics on areas of various land use types, and their change over time. The maps of land use and crops can also be laid over other topographic data, for example soil maps, to see what land uses are occurring on what soils.

The maps, even though covering large areas (e.g. a 60 x 60 km satellite image) are detailed enough to show individual paddocks.

LandcareRemoteCropMapAn extract from a landuse map is shown at the left. This is an enlargement of summer 2011/12 classification, showing land use timing at paddock-level

Assuming suitable images can be acquired (the weather plays a part), it is possible to carry out a land use classification every 6 months, i.e. a summer and a winter land use map each year. This ability for frequent updating, and provision of paddock-level information, have prompted the researchers to ask farmers whether they see uses of such mapping for more local- or catchment-level applications of value to themselves.

The LandWISE Conference seems the ideal forum to put this question to a tech-savvy group of farmers. David will present land use maps from summer and winter classifications in Mid-Canterbury, and ask for input on potential farm-scale uses, such as alleviating some of the work in filling in agricultural statistics questionnaires, or other possibilities.

To find out more, come to the conference and tell David your reactions, ideas and aspirations.

Drainage, Irrigation, Precision Agriculture, Soil

S-map Online – accessing soils information

The National Soils Database (NSD) is a crucial part of our soil data legacy in New Zealand. It is the fundamental dataset that underpins our soil knowledge of New Zealand.

SamCarrick_LandcareImage
Sam Carrick recording information from a soil pit (Landcare Research photo)

It comprises the profile data collected in over 1,500 soil pits scattered throughout New Zealand. It is the record of almost all we know of the soil chemistry and soil physical properties of our soils. From it we have determined how we classify our soils, interpret our soil maps and understand how soil properties vary with geology, rainfall, vegetation, topography, and land management across the New Zealand landscape.

SharnHainsworthSharn Hainsworth is a pedologist with Landcare Research.   One of Sharn’s projects was a study of soil maps, soil data and actual soils in the Ruataniwha Basin in Hawke’s Bay. He found more detailed information about the properties and spatial distribution of soils in the Ruataniwha Plains is required to evaluate the potential changes in productivity, versatility and environmental impacts from the proposed irrigation scheme.

Sharn is a presenter at LandWISE 2014 – Ever Better: Farmers, land and water. He will explain how soil maps and reports and new information products are delivered in S-map Online and he will outline initiatives to continue enhancing the information available.

Irrigation, Nutrients, Precision Agriculture, Soil, Water

Good practice, precision agriculture and farm plans

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Good farm plans ensure we understand our resource base – primarily our land, water and climate – and manage to make production efficient. What will a cropping farm plan look like? What should be included?

We will achieve greater efficiency by carefully monitoring our inputs and outputs, and applying just enough to get the results we want. Nutrients, water, cultivation and crop protection can be necessary inputs but we don’t want too much of a good thing. We also get efficiency by planning so each action fits properly into the mix of daily, weekly, monthly and longer term events.

The 2014 LandWISE Conference in Palmerston North will focus on the constant drive to improve performance on and off farm. Farming never has, and never should, stand still. Much on-going improvement is now linked to precision agriculture, and the timely application of intelligence. But we must still get the basics right.

LandWISE farmers are leaders in precision agriculture. Initial steps for most were GPS tractor guidance, offering immediate input efficiency gains and importantly reducing fatigue. Many farmers have stopped there. Others have leapt ahead.

Leaders are capturing increasing benefits by mixing precise positioning with automation, sensor technologies, smart software and their own ingenuity. Some hone in on precision nutrient management with detailed mapping and variable rate application. Others have become highly skilled at level surveying and land shaping to assure good drainage.

Precision agriculture is a whole shopping trolley of tools and techniques. The best options for one farmer on one farm may be quite different for another. Massey University Professor of Precision Agriculture Ian Yule describes this as “bricolage”, a French word for tinkering.

In fine arts bricolage describes the construction or creation of a work from a diverse range of things that happen to be available. Farmers tend to be excellent tinkerers. When aware of the huge choice in the precision agriculture shopping trolley, they are able to develop a unique package that best suits them and their farm system.

The LandWISE Conference provides a meeting place where opportunities and ideas can be shared and custom solutions built from what happens to be available.

Keynote speaker Rod Collins from Agri-science Queensland is an experienced research agronomist, working with growers to implement a voluntary self-assessment and planning process. He will share thoughts on Implementing Best Practice, multi-sector efforts to integrate environment and economics, and accelerating adoption of farming practices that improve catchment water quality.

On Day 1, Conference delegates can also anticipate stories from Controlled Traffic for vegetables in Tasmania, impacts of reverting from CTF to RTF in Auckland, advances in crop sensing at regional scale, and precision ag research and implementation in New Zealand and overseas. There will be updates on nutrient management, irrigation management, drainage planning, technologies and implementation, and land shaping.

On Day 2, we turn our focus to the Arawhata Catchment near Levin. With the Tararua Vegetable Growers’ Association and Horizons Regional Council, we will tour Lake Horowhenua and farms. We will look at tools that can help us improve drainage and increase production while reducing sediment and nutrient losses.

With farm plans forming the base of future management and regulation, we’ll think about what is involved. What should a cropping farm plan look like? Where might we get information to support our planning? How can precision agriculture help?

LandWISE 2014: Ever Better – farmers, land and water

21-22 May 2014
Awapuni Function Centre
Palmerston North

Many thanks to our Platinum Conference Sponsors, BASF Crop Protection and John Deere. Thanks also to Gold sponsors, Potatoes New Zealand and Process Vegetables New Zealand, Horizons Regional Council and Trimble Ag specialists, GPS Control Systems.
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