Green Cane Trash Blanket with Chris Hesp
In this clip, Chris Hesp explains that the long rows and flat conditions of typical Burdekin farms makes it difficult to cut green and flood irrigate. Most of the farmers in his area have tried trash blanketing, however the cane tends to get waterlogged, and turns yellow from fertiliser loss due to de-nitrification. So the idea is to rake every second row and get the flood irrigation water through quicker.
Posted by Henry Thomas, 3 years ago on Thursday, December 18, 2008[ , Read more... ]
Enviroscans and Lysimeters with Chris Hesp
Chris Hesp describes how his irrigation scheduling is done with Enviroscans. He has two in the furrow system and four on the overhead system. They are installed in the top 100 metres and the bottom 100 metres of the paddock. He also has Lysimeters, at a 1.5 metre depth to intercept any water that is beyond the depth of crop roots. Lysimeters are used to help understand the amount of water and nutrients going to deep drainage and help calculate water balances for the crop. The data collected has been used to ground truth irrigation simulations using SIRMOD.
Posted by Henry Thomas, 3 years ago on Thursday, December 18, 2008[ , 1 comment... ]
Centre Fed Lateral Irrigator with Chris Hesp
Chris Hesp describes his Zimmatic centre fed lateral irrigator. The centre fed design was chosen to reduce pumping costs, although the trade-off is the loss of 15m of production area for the channel. The lateral irrigator greatly reduces water usage compared to the flood irrigation in Chris's furrow block. It provides greater control over irrigation applications, has very little run-off or deep drainage recorded and can be used effectively on green cane trash blankets. The machine is 600 metres wide in 12 spans and travels 1.5km to cover a 100ha area. It can apply 14mm of water to that area in a 24 hour period. It is powered by a 150hp 6 cylinder motor, which drives a 6" pump, consuming 15.5 litres of diesel an hour.
Posted by Henry Thomas, 3 years ago on Thursday, December 18, 2008[ , 1 comment... ]
San Dimas Flume with Bryce Davies
Bryce Davies (Project Manager, BBIFMAC) describes how a San Dimas flume is used to measure the runoff from a furrow irrigated paddock. When this information is combination with the the amount of water being lost to deep drainage is subtracted from the amount being applied they can estimate the amount available to the cane plants. This information is run through simulations to optimise the water use efficiency.
Posted by Henry Thomas, 3 years ago on Tuesday, December 16, 2008[ , Read more... ]
Ground Water Drainage with Bryce Davies
Rising ground water tables are a major concern in areas of the Burdekin delta. Bryce Davies (Project Manager, BBIFMAC) discusses a BBIFMAC lead project where a new set of drainage pipes was dug under the road near the gum holes. The theory was that water was pooling due to the drainage pipes being to high. The hope is that the new pipes will help lower ground water levels upstream from the road crossing. Groundwater heights in the area are being monitored as part of the Upper Haughton Water Balance Study run by BBIFMAC.
Posted by Henry Thomas, 3 years ago on Tuesday, December 16, 2008[ , Read more... ]
Trash Raking with Shane McNee
Growers in the Burdekin have been slow to adopt green cane trash blanketing because they believe trash causes problems for flood irrigation. Shane McNee demonstrates his inter-row trash rake. It clears the trash from every second furrow. Shane hopes this will let him cut green, without effecting his irrigation management.
Posted by Henry Thomas, 3 years ago on Thursday, September 18, 2008[ , 1 comment... ]
