Research & Extension
Irrigation Farmers Network partner with leading organisations to deliver high quality research and extension to provide local relevant information for growers.
Key projects include:
- Variety Trials - Fully irrigated wheat, barley, canola and faba bean trials, funded by seed companies and plant breeders for members
- Optimising Irrigated Grains with FAR Australia, funded by GRDC
- Irrigated Discussion Groups, funded by GRDC
- Fodder for the Future, led by Murray Dairy and funded by the Federal Government under the Murray–Darling Basin Economic Development Program
- SNSW Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub Knowledge Broker, led by Charles Sturt University and funded by the Future Drought Fund
- Improving canola heat tolerance, led by University of Western Australia and funded by GRDC
- Increasing soil carbon to ameliorate compaction in irrigated soils - Goulburn Broken CMA and the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.
- Irrigation insights, an annual, cross-industry event building connections and synergies across irrigated agriculture.
- Smarter Irrigation for Profit - Phase 2 - Wheat Demonstration, Funded by Rural Development Corporations (grains, rice, cotton, dairy and sugar), through funding from the Australian Government Department of Agriculture
- Plan2Farm - farm business planning, in partnership with North Central CMA and funded by the Future Drought Fund, an Australian Government Initiative
Resources
To irrigate or not?
Handy spreadsheet to help growers calculate the gross margins of watering different crops at varying water prices.
Correct Crop Sequencing - Decision Support Tool
The tool aims to provide an easy way for farmers to assess the gross margin outcomes for different rotations, water prices and customise the output
High yielding Wheat
Handy tool to help growers to work out the optimal time to irrigate to maximise wheat yields.
Irrigation Scheduling
Handy guide to help growers to monitor soil moisture and irrigated on time.