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Measurement is critical to irrigation management
Sketching water - Queensland’s water use efficiency cotton and grains adoption program
P.J. Goyne, G.T. McIntyre, Queensland Department of Primary Industries
The Cotton and Grains Adoption Program has helped growers use information generated by meters and soil moisture monitoring devices installed in the irrigation inlets, outlets, siphons and furrows to improve water use efficiency. It has been found that some irrigators apply three times the amount of water required without recycling the excess as tail water. The meters showed that crop water-logging, which can be more detrimental than water stress, can be minimised by two thirds by increasing flow rates and reducing shift times. Irrigation tools are now being used effectively to time irrigation and calibrate tools to show the irrigator how much water needs to be applied in each irrigation. Water is saved, run-off reduced and crop yield increased.