1. Evaluation of automated bay irrigation Rod Smith, Jasim Uddin, Malcolm Gillies – NCEA Peter Moller, Kevin Clurey – Rubicon Water

2. Trial Sites
10 Bay irrigated dairy farms in northern Victoria automated with Rubicon ‘Farm Connect’ systems
1 bay per farm X multiple irrigations
Irrigations carried out by farmer using usual management

3. Fully automated bay irrigated dairy farm
Zigbee radio communication within farm

4. Channel control gate

5. Bay gates

6. Pipe and riser system

7. Data used in evaluation
Flow rate – measured at Rubicon ‘Smart Meter Gateway’ at farm inlet
Advance time and flow depths – measured by Rubicon ‘FloodTech’ sensors at various locations down the bay
Soil moisture deficit – from moisture probe or ET estimates

8. FloodTech flow depth sensor
Mean Ground Surface Level

9. Process:
Simulation model (SISCO) calibrated using measured data, that is, the bay infiltration characteristic and the flow resistance provided by the crop or pasture determined by finding best fit between model prediction and measured advance & depths
Use SISCO to simulate the irrigation and calculate the performance parameters, ie to give:
Application and requirement efficiencies
Depth of water that has infiltrated
Volume of runoff
Deep percolation loss

10. Calibration of SISCO – advance data

11. Calibration of SISCO – depth data

12. Summary of irrigation performance
Farm
Crop Ea % Er
Runoff %
Deep Perc % Gr
Perm pasture 67
100 27 6
Inv
Soybean 92 1 Ll
Lucerne 96 99 3
Min 71 33 - P
70* Q
81* R 5 24
* Advance did not reach end of field

13. Example 1 – High performance irrigator
Combination of high flow rate, accurate selection of duration (Tco), & consistent scheduling gave:
High efficiency
Minimal deep drainage & runoff
Example 1 – High performance irrigator

14. Soil moisture

15. Depth infiltrated

16. Example 2 – Lesser performance

17. Example 3 – Interpretation?
D soil moisture = 15 mm
SETo = 85 mm
Depth infiltrated = 44 mm

18. Minimising uncertainty
Accurate & sufficient data
Multiple irrigations – consistent results
Ground truthing observations