Thursday 31 March 2016

Irrigation – Grow with the Flow

Next week the historical Waitaki region will be host to the 2016 IrrigationNZ conference, IRRIGATION – GROW WITH THE FLOW. There is a variety of keynote speakers from all around the world and a jam-packed programme of interesting presentations and workshops. I have picked out a few presentations and workshops of mention that may be of interest to the H2Grow followers. For the full programme click here.

We all know information is key and many of the posts that you may have read on H2Grow share the many different sources of data that you can gather, monitor and measure in relation to irrigation. But with so many options for irrigation management you may be left wondering which are going to give you the greatest benefit. I’m hoping that this workshop may shed some light…

WHAT TO MEASURE MONITOR AND HOW TO MANAGE DATA FOR IMPROVED IRRIGATION PERFORMANCE – ENERGY, PRODUCTION & ENVIRONMENT presented by Ian McIndoe (Aqualinc) & Steve Breneger (INZ)

And…

REGEN WATER – USING SCIENCE, INFORMATION AND SOFTWARE TO MANAGE IRRIGATION presented by Bridgit Hawkins (Regen)

And furthermore…

REAL-TIME SOIL MOISTURE MONITORING IRRIGATION DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS presented by Pierre Roudier, Carolyn Hedley, Jagath Ekanayake, and Joseph Pollacco (Landcare Research)

Coincidentally the team presenting this later topic from Landcare Research have been involved in many variable rate irrigation and electromagnetic surveying studies.

Once you have monitored, measured and made an informed decision of when, where and how much to irrigate you may be after a tool that allows you to implement your irrigation schedule. This next workshop should enlighten you on the latest options to do so…

COMPLETE CONTROL FROM YOUR MOBILE DEVICE presented by Stu Bradbury (Lindsay NZ)



And lastly, one of the most topical irrigation related discussions at present (second to the tough economic conditions for many) is…

HOW REGULATORS AND FARMERS ARE DEALING WITH IRRIGATION AND NUTRIENT USE EFFICIENCY – THE CHALLENGES AND THE OPPORTUNITIES

Once we’ve been educated by the educators and experts I thought interesting food for thought would come in the form of…

OUR FUTURE – WHAT WILL IRRIGATION LOOK LIKE IN 2050? This will be presented by Christopher Neale (Director of Research, Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute, University of Nebraska). Currently development of remote irrigation management technologies and pinpoint irrigation control systems seems to be the focus but what will be next? And what will an irrigator look like when my son is the age that I am now?

I hope that provides a small taster of some of the information that will be on offer. As well as the presentations there is a exhibition with over 35 stands where you are able to talk to those in the irrigation industry including irrigation designers, engineers, suppliers and support companies.

Lindsay NZ are at site 17, we will be unveiling two exciting new product releases (which I will share more information on next week), but we look forward to seeing you all there.

If you are not able to make it to the entire conference there is a Farmer’s Trade Afternoon, on Tuesday 5th April from 3:30pm–5:30pm.

Today's post has been written by Sarah Elliot from Lindsay NZ.