29 IREC Farmers' Newsletter No. 199 — Autumn 2018 l  Rob Jakins’ property at St George, where the latest version of Glenn Lyons’ bankless irrigation layout is being installed l  Cubbie Station at Dirranbandi l  Vast Solar, at Jemalong Station, Forbes, which is a pilot solar farm looking at thermal storage of solar-generated power. Catching up with Lachlan neighbours The first stop on the tour was at the Central West Farming Systems (CWFS) Research Innovation Hub at Condobolin. Previously known as the Lachlan Irrigation Research Station, CWFS took over management of the 120 ha irrigation site in 2014, enabling CWFS to expand its research capabilities into irrigated cropping. Di Parsons, CEO of CWFS, explained the range of projects being conducted at the site, including CSIRO barley isogenic phenology and wheat breeding, and Neil Fettell’s time of sowing and nutrient research, as well as other trials conducted in conjunction with a number of universities. This stop also provided a good opportunity for growers across the southern irrigation valleys to talk about research priority areas and future collaboration between IREC, CWFS and the other irrigation grower groups. Comparing irrigation technologies One of the main purposes of the tour was to attend the Gwydir Valley Irrigators Association research field day held at Keytah, west of Moree. Keytah is part of the family-owned operation Sundown Pastoral Company and comprises of 25,042 ha growing cotton and grain crops. The company follows a strict rotation with half the property growing cotton in a year. The other half is either left fallow or sown to grain. Keytah director David Statham is passionate about farming, always keen to learn new things and willing to push the boundaries, especially in the area of adopting new technologies. His pioneering and questioning attitude saw an irrigation system comparison trial set up at Keytah in 2009–10, which was initially funded under the Raising National Water Standards Program by the National Water Commission. Continuing funding has been obtained through the Cotton Research & Development Corporation (CRDC) and the Federal Government’s Smarter Irrigation for Profit Programme. Four irrigation systems — sub-surface drip, bankless channel, lateral move irrigator and Islex smart siphons — were installed in order to measure comparative water use efficiency of different systems. Performance over eight years has resulted in a range of observations about the systems, highlighting the fact the there is no one system suited to all locations and all operations. The drip system has worked well despite some issues at the start of the season with broken pipes due to machinery damage and filtration issues. The Keytah team has found it needs to “push the water through” to ensure crop is getting enough. The lateral system has great cotton establishment as it is all no-till, with the cotton sown straight into wheat stubble, which seems to eliminate droplet impact. The bankless system has some establishment issues due to overtopping of beds in some areas. This illustrates the point that care must be taken to keep water levels lower and irrigate slower when watering cotton seed for establishment. The smart siphon field watered up well once installation was complete. Small teething issues included a snapped cable and the timing of shutoff time. It was also found that more care must be taken compared other systems as rotabuck installation and maintenance is more complex in the smart siphon set-up. Adopting ideas from north and south As a result of the systems comparison trial at Keytah and attending the IREC Automation tour in 2017, the management team decided that an automated bankless system suits their operation best and after an initial installation of the system they are now in the process of re- developing a further 500 ha to bankless layout. At Keytah, the bankless system has far more advantages than just labour savings. It is easily automated and has no rotabuck and head ditch maintenance, which not only saves money but also allows greater access to the field with machinery. The bankless system also results in minimal tail-water, which means nutrients and silt are not leaving the field. Further savings are made by machinery efficiencies, with minimal turning required in longer runs and ease of turning provided by the bankless channel. Machinery considerations will become increasingly important as the Keytah operation intends to have automated tractors in the near future. Findings from the irrigation system comparison can be found on the Gwydir Valley Irrigators Association website and the Islex Smart Siphon is explained in edition No. 197 — Spring 2017 of the IREC Farmers’ Newsletter. Other topics covered at the field day included new telemetry and water measurement equipment in development by Dosec Design and National Centre for Engineering in Agriculture (NCEA) teams. Dr Alison McCarthy from NCEA provided an explanation of VariWise, the new yield prediction tool currently in development. This tool combines in-field plant measurements from different management zones in a field (such as different soil types). This data is fed into a predictive crop model to give an end of season yield estimate. Plant measurements are obtained through an image analysis system, either a camera mounted on a lateral irrigator or sensors mounted on drones. Plant data collected includes number of flowers, area of cover and number of bolls. As the season progresses follow-up images are taken, refining the data which results in more reliable yield estimate. In the bullpen at Keytah, where researchers on nitrogen management for cotton spoke at the Gwydir Valley Irrigators Association field day.