Demonstrating and integrating irrigation technology for cotton

Broad-acre irrigation control and optimisation technology in furrow irrigation and large mobile machines has advanced substantially in the last six(6) years, in part as a result of the research efforts of the CAE Irrigation and Water Management team at USQ, and the wider activity of the very active Smarter Irrigation for Profit projects to promote opportunities for water, labour and energy saving across our Australian Cotton Industry.   This project proposal specifically focusses on enhancing the uptake of advanced irrigation management technology across our irrigated grower community with a three-pronged approach for : ·       our actively engaged grower cohort through demonstration and peer interaction, ·       our dedicated on-farm agronomic service providers who are continuing to seek more understanding of these irrigation technologies, and ·       our industry’s very active extension networks busily dealing with a wide range of broad industry challenges.   The integration of irrigation technologies to automatically optimise on-farm irrigation events across a wider cohort of farms that are automation ready, delivers improvements in volumetric efficiency in a broader way across the industry to increase average water productivity.  In conjunction with the now more active and visible irrigation technology supply industry represented by many SMEs, and in further partnership with the existing network of on-farm agronomic service providers operating across the regions of the Australian Cotton Industry, this proposal seeks to put in place activities to engage these groups opportunistically on farm sites where technologies are already used, or are installed separately and temporarily for demonstrations