FARM DESIGN FOR EFFICIENT IRRIGATION

The development of irrigation on farms in Mid Canterbury has generally been carried out on a paddock basis, as cheaply as possible and with little thought to farm design leading to systems which are labour intensive and do not use the water efficiently. With increasing pressure on our water supplies and the need for farmers to irrigate extra land recent work has been directed towards increasing the efficiency of water useage. It has been found that by increasing the flow of water down the strip from 180 //s to 300 /Is that 11% extra land can be irrigated with the same volume of water, If the border-strip length is shortened from 300 m to 200 m the irrigation rate will increase from 0.73 ha/hour to 0.91 ha/hour when using a flow of 230 /Is and a group of four strips. When the increased flow rate and the decreased strip length are combined there is a greater effect than when the two are applied independently. iAlrtn better layouts and increased watering efficiency greater areas of individual farms are being irrigated and the irrigation level is being reduced. Keywords: Irrigation, border-strip, efficiency, farm irrigation</jats:p