Given a limited availability of land, water for irrigation, crop requirements and grain prices, how do you choose which crop should be irrigated?
How much irrigation water should be applied, and on what area of land to maximise profits and minimise risks?
How can irrigation be applied over the whole-farm, accounting for variation in crop types and irrigation infrastructure across and between paddocks?
How does the type of irrigation system i.e. overhead laterals, pivots, flood irrigation, etc, affect crop gross margins and whole-farm profitability?
What is the risk or likelihood that the projected outcome will occur?
These questions are being addressed in a GRDC-funded project through co-development of a calculator (decision-support tool) called ‘WaterCan Profit’ for irrigation farmers and consultants.
WaterCan Profit has been built through discussions with growers in the Irrigation Groups and using results from the Research Trials conducted in the Optimising Irrigated Grains Initiative.
WaterCan Profit is a farmer-designed phone and web app that helps users identify land areas and water allocations to a range of irrigated and rainfed grain crops that maximise farm profits and minimise risks. The calculator also allows users to contrast long-term investment in irrigation infrastructure (e.g. centre pivot or flood-based irrigation).