Growing with the flow
By Ella Henson ABA Sustainability Officer
CONSUMERS are becoming more and more interested in understanding where their food comes from and how it ’ s produced . As a result , water use associated with almond production has gained a lot of traction in the media . As an industry , our need to improve our irrigation efficiency has never been greater . In Australia , 99 % of almond orchards use drip irrigation systems , delivering water straight to the root zone . In addition , many irrigators use sophisticated technology to measure soil moisture , plant water use and water stress in almond trees . That should make us efficient … right ? Not always . It ’ s a great start , but knowing your orchard ' s soils and checking how well your system is working is also needed to achieve irrigation efficiency . In July , the ABA hosted a series of irrigation management workshops in each of the three major growing regions . The workshops ran over two mornings and were facilitated by Jeremy Giddings of Agriculture Victoria , and Peter Henry from Netafim . Each workshop was well attended with over 60 irrigation managers and staff with a wide range of experience from ‘ first day on the job ’ to ‘ I ’ ve been doing this for 10 years ’ and ‘ just looking for a refresher ’. The workshops were tailored for the soil types in each region focussing on improving and maintaining irrigation efficiency , covering a wide range of topics including soil water principles , system specifications , drip system monitoring , drip system maintenance , and irrigation scheduling . One of the strengths of the workshops was that everyone tested their understanding by putting theory into practice at a local orchard to inspect some pre-dug soil pits .
After Jeremy showed everyone what to do , he passed around samples of dirt to work out the soil texture using the ribboning technique . Rootzone depths were measured , and then the ‘ readily available water ’ was calculating for each soil type . If you weren ’ t getting dirty you were getting wet and everyone seemed to enjoy measuring dripper system pressure and emitter output along the drip line . It wasn ’ t until all the numbers were crunched that they could see just how much variability there was across the orchard . The workshop kept everyone engaged for the two half-days and provided the opportunity for experienced irrigators to share their knowledge and skills with those who were new to the role . The practical components of the workshop helped everyone understand the textbook theory in a practical setting .
22 In A Nutshell - Spring 2022 Vol 23 Issue 3