— 6 IREC Farmers' Newsletter No. 201 — Autumn 2019 Supporting your organisation I would like to encourage you to spread the word about IREC—your organisation—and what it is doing to enhance your business. Remembering that the main drive and inspiration for a lot of our current research has been driven by YOU, our members. IREC is the only overarching organisation for all our single crop organisations, creating strong pathways for collaboration between our research and development corporations (RDCs) to get effective outcomes for you—our members. At the IREC Field Station we are demonstrating a range of irrigation layouts and automated control systems that are already available on a commercial scale. We now have a fully automated recirculation system. I would like to thank Mike Naylor for his design and installation, Bidgee Automation for automating the system and Cotton Reserach & Development Corporation (CRDC) for again funding the latest addition to the IREC site. We currently have a pilot group of irrigators being educated and equipped to fully use the plethora of ‘data’ that we have at our disposal to assist us in achieving a credible ‘precision ag’ approach to our farming system. To date this technology has had a lot of potential but we need assistance to tackle the many ‘blockers’ that prevent progress. We thank Anthony Rudd from I-Ag who is guiding us through this process. Remember, your involvement in IREC is key and will complete the loop by feeding ‘benefit’ directly back to your business. Good luck with the upcoming winter crop season, and I will finish off with a quote from Nelson Mandela. “Everyone can rise above their circumstances and achieve success if they are dedicated to and passionate about what they do.” Contact the author Rob Houghton Telephone: 0428 559 249 Email: [email protected] — 6 IREC Farmers’ Newsletter No. 201 — Autumn 2019 Chairman’s welcome BACK TO CONTENTS PAGE