Sydney | Reuters — A pioneering Australian scheme to improve the management of water in the world’s driest inhabited continent is facing its first real test as an intensifying El Nino threatens crops and builds tensions between farmers and environmentalists. The three-year old management plan for the Murray-Darling basin, an area twice the size of […] Read more
Drought exposes cracks in Australia’s acclaimed water market
Study says irrigation delivers big dollars to Alberta economy
Study also finds irrigated crop and livestock production have created 38,000 direct jobs and another 17,000 ones in food processing
Reading Time: 2 minutes Every cubic metre of water delivered for irrigation creates $3 to the province’s GDP and $2 in labour income. This is one of the key conclusions in a study funded by the Canada-Alberta Growing Forward 2 program and commissioned by the Alberta Irrigation Projects Association (AIPA). The study also shows that for every dollar of […] Read more
Both pros and cons to tile drainage
Being able to remove excess moisture is a big plus, but there are a lot of factors to take into account
Reading Time: 3 minutes It wasn’t long ago that if you asked most Alberta producers if they used tile drainage, they likely wouldn’t know what you were talking about. A common practice in Ontario and the U.S. Midwest, it’s only in recent years that Alberta growers have warmed to this system in which subsurface tubes remove excess moisture from […] Read more
California curtails some senior water rights due to drought
Los Angeles | Reuters — California’s water board curtailed senior water rights on Friday in the state’s Delta, San Joaquin and Sacramento regions due to drought, in the first move of its kind during the current drought, officials said. The curtailment affects more than 100 senior water rights holders, with most of those located near […] Read more
Drought prompts cuts to farm irrigation in California, Oregon
Portland | Reuters –– The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will cut the amount of federal irrigation water available to farmers along the Oregon-California border to half the annual norm as it grapples with a fourth year of regional drought, the agency said on Friday. Though the roughly 1,200 affected farms in the Klamath Basin had […] Read more
Variable-rate irrigation on the rise in Alberta
Not everyone is convinced the technology is where it needs to be, but advocates say ‘interest is growing exponentially’
Reading Time: 3 minutes Southern Alberta’s irrigation system is on the cusp of going very high tech. Now that crop yield monitoring is commonplace and variable-rate crop-input technology making inroads, ag equipment companies and early adopters of advanced technology are setting their sights on micromanaging irrigation. “Variable-rate irrigation (VRI) is certainly here to stay,” said Jeff Bronsch, president of […] Read more
The big two irrigated crops seeing some competition
Forages and cereals still dominate irrigated acreage, but oilseeds and specialty crops are growing in popularity
Reading Time: 3 minutes Each year, Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development publishes a compilation of all 13 of the province’s irrigation districts’ data for the previous year. The latest figures show cereals and forages (pasture, hay and silage crops) still account for two-thirds of the 1,390,000 acres in the districts, but the trend is clear — forage production isn’t […] Read more
Irrigation investments, programs playing a big part in water conservation
A soon-to-be-published study estimates 170 million to 200 million cubic metres were saved from 1999 to 2012
Reading Time: 3 minutes Alberta producers and irrigation districts are making great strides toward conserving water, with both grants and individual investment producing tangible water and energy savings. Those efforts produced overall water savings of 170 million to 200 million cubic metres in Alberta’s 13 irrigation districts from 1999 to 2012, said Rod Bennett, director of Alberta Agriculture and […] Read more
Record gift boosts irrigation program at Lethbridge College
Gift of $3.1 million from the estate of Lloyd and Dorothy Mueller to fund irrigation program and research chair
Reading Time: 2 minutes Agricultural programming at Lethbridge College will benefit from a record-setting $3.1-million gift from a family whose Alberta roots go back to the province’s earliest days. The gift from the estate of Lloyd and Dorothy Mueller will be supplemented with $1.9 million from the college to establish the Mueller Program in Irrigation and the Mueller Applied […] Read more
Don’t cut corners on irrigation savings
Reducing water pressure when the corner arm isn’t needed can cut energy costs by 30 per cent or more
Reading Time: 2 minutes Producers with corner arm centre pivot irrigation systems can reduce their energy consumption by 30 to 40 per cent if a variable frequency drive (VFD) is added to the motor used to power the water pump, according to an Agricultural Technology Centre study. “Corner arms on centre pivots swing out to water corners and are […] Read more
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