Project title
Toenepi Catchment Effluent Irrigation Calibrations
Project Funding
MAF Sustainable Farming Fund
Dairy New Zealand
Project Status
Completed 2009
Purpose
As part of a whole catchment study, Page Bloomer Associates were commissioned to help farmers complete on-farm evaluations of land based application of dairy effluent by travelling irrigators in the Toenepi Catchment in Waikato.
A secondary aim was to test the IRRIG8Quick method of effluent system calibration with farmers, and to enable them to experience calibrating their own systems.
Approach
The IRRIG8Quick method was introduced at an on-farm field walk, and a summary of farm dairy effluent system evaluations was presented.
A short workshop was held several weeks later, with the participants using the IRRIG8Quck method to calibrate the travelling irrigator on one of the farms. Farmers were supplied with Guidelines, Worksheets and two dozen 9 litre buckets to take away and use to calibrate their own systems.
Two weeks later a follow up workshop day was held and the farmers presented their results. These were entered into a spreadsheet to graph results for discussion.
Results
Interpretations and discussions were enlightening. Some systems were applying greater than expected depths of effleunt, and most were not as uniform as perhaps the farmers anticipated. Pressure was inadequate in a number of cases.
The collector buckets and special pressure test fitting were last seen disappearing on utes, apparently returning to the farms so additional checks could be completed.
Downloads
Please note: The results in the downloadable reports were processed using a prepared spreadsheet (IRRIG8Lite) to generate graphs for discussion at the workshop. The IRRIG8Quick guidelines were used to collect the information from the farms.