After a cold and damp start, the 2019-20 irrigation season has finally begun. In the last post we predicted it would be early November before irrigation needed to start-up. This prediction turned out to be on the money. It was informed through running a water budget using Winchmore and Lincoln climate data, 2-day and 10-day […]
It’s meant to be spring, but it’s not quite kicked into gear yet! In my last column I talked about September being the month to check your irrigation and October being the month to start keeping an eye on your soil moisture sensors or water budget alongside the 3-day weather forecast. If you’ve been doing […]
Spring is here – which means it’s time to start thinking about your irrigation! In mid-September I spent a morning with a client who started out by telling me he would need to start-up his irrigation very soon. He didn’t want to risk getting behind. Given this we had the following conversation. For the 10 […]
Given our last two posts have focused on the recurring issues we’ve found with irrigation systems, for this one, instead of pointing out the problems, we thought we best talk about solutions! The team at Water Strategies has spent the last few months working through how we can cost-effectively deliver a service that meets Farm […]
As previously highlighted almost 50 percent of center pivot irrigation systems in New Zealand are now over 10 years old. This means they are beyond half their serviceable life and issues are starting to occur. Water Strategies continues to undertake much infrastructure assessment work for clients, providing each with a detailed report on the remaining […]
Almost 50 percent of Center Pivot irrigation systems in New Zealand are over 10 years old. This means they are now beyond half their serviceable life and issues will be starting to occur. There are also many Center Pivot systems that have been installed on rolling hill country, or that climb up and down river […]
Technology – the biggest change Technology has been the biggest and most exciting change in the irrigation sector and much of this was initially triggered by the water metering regulations 2010. There were a wide range of viewpoints around metering, some supportive of its compulsory introduction, others arguing against it and stating that real-time measurement […]
After a month back out in the field it’s become clear there is an urgent need for tailored advice and services. Irrigation and Irrigation good management practice advice is all about what works for the farm in question not a blanket recipe. We visited a client last week where the audit requirement was to ‘Do a Bucket Test’ […]
