— 5 IREC Farmers' Newsletter No. 200 — Spring 2018 Highly variable weather from one season to the next seems to be a topic that never goes away! Spring of 2016 was too wet for optimal planting and just 24 months later it appears we are facing a very dry spring. CHANGING seasons are a continual challenge to all primary producers. The industries and communities that rely on the business and produce from our farms are equally impacted when our water resource fails to meet expectation. In these difficult times it is important for all of us to remain positive, talk to neighbours, family and others in the community to realise everyone is dealing with the same issues and better times are just around the corner. It is also a reminder that research, development, extension and demonstration of new and innovative irrigation practice will help our businesses cope with the inevitable changing climate. IREC is working in partnership with our major commodity groups, universities and research organisations where ever possible to identify technology that will improve efficiencies right across our farming systems. Field station We will be managing the IREC Field Station at Whitton again this year, which gives us the opportunity to turn the profit of our second-year cotton crop into finance for IREC’s operations into the future. It has been overwhelming to see the commitment to IREC’s research and extension activities by the businesses that have contributed to this year’s cotton crop. There is plenty happening at the field station at the moment. A fully-automated recirculation system is being implemented for the coming irrigation season and work is under way to remove the subsurface drip tube from 15 ha, which will be converted to a fully-automated ‘pipe through the bank’ system. Coupled with automation on the bankless block, automated storage and the Murrumbidgee Irrigation automated supply, the new development will provide a great comparison between layouts and automated systems. I would like to thank all individuals and organisations for their ongoing support of the field station. The next article provides more detail on developments at the field station. In mid-May we held a very successful ‘post-picking’ machinery field day. It was well supported by machinery dealers and many farmers. I would like to thank the machinery dealers for working around the clock to have machinery on site at short notice for the field day. This will become an annual event. IREC structure The IREC has been looking at its structure over the past twelve months, with the view of changing things to better reflect how we fit into today’s changing research and extension space. To get better value out of our current ‘representative’ committee, it was decided to the committee should spend less meeting time on fundraising and administrative issues and get back to using this forum to delve into detailed research issues that affect our members. To this end it is proposed to create an executive committee of four (including the chairman) to deal with the capital A large membership base is vital for IREC to play its role in irrigated agriculture in the future. Through its members, IREC can identify relevant key areas for targeted research, extend findings to the farming community and encourage quick uptake of new technology. PHOTO: Rob Gill. Chairman’s welcome