Irrigation allows almonds to grow in an ideal place

When Century Orchards Pty Ltd selected a site and planned its layout using the most advanced irrigation system available it started out on the right foot.

Establishment included investigation and mapping of soils with the intention of using moisture monitoring and precision irrigation on a large scale. Information collected through the almond plantings would be relayed to the management office to assist decision-making.

Their first plantings, on land near Loxton, were 140 hectares in 1998, expanding to current plantings of 481 hectares (around 125,000 trees) of five varieties, namely Nonpareil, Carmel, Price, Peerless and Monterey.

Today the system, which includes application of all fertiliser through the irrigation lines and calculation of water application by crop growth stage and environmental factors, ensures there is operational efficiency. The water used daily at any location can be checked and all valves can be remotely operated for programming shifts.

Soil moisture data from capacitance probes is downloaded to the office. This, plus readings from evaporation pans, assists scheduling in combination with crop factors.

Managing Director of Century Orchards, Geoff Ablett, says that apart from good planning and use of technology, the hot and dry environment suits almond growing. It allows irrigation and nutrient management to drive production, giving management a great deal of control.

An important result is high yield while retaining quality.

Achievement of the goal of operational efficiency is illustrated by employment of only 17 full time equivalents with up to just 10 extra employees at harvest. This efficiency backs up an in-demand commodity. About 55% of Australian almond production is exported.

The most viable properties, however, are in the inland irrigation districts where scope for irrigation efficiency improvement has been fully explored. At Century Orchards isolated patches have had yields approaching 5 tonnes per hectare and there is an average yield of 4 tonnes through application of 13 to 14 megalitres of water per hectare through the year. This represents a value of product per megalitre of water that is high by national standards and which declines disproportionately with reductions in amount applied.

If the water required to achieve this efficiency is not able to be sourced the choice will be to reduce the area that is managed rather than the amount per tree.

A third of the 481 hectares of almonds is drip irrigated and the remainder has low level under-tree sprinklers. Irrigation is generally set around achieving desired yields, which is assisted by avoiding stress that can arise from having the soil profile too wet for too long or through being too dry.

The Century Orchards property has been the site for several research studies, including investigation of crop factors and remote sensing for irrigation scheduling, and a salinity project. The company has also conducted its own investigations such as assessment of the suitability of subsurface drip systems (which in present form do not seem to suit almonds at this site having a limited effective lifespan). Meanwhile, the business presents a good example of modern irrigated production.

Caption: Geoff Ablett (left) is pictured with the company’s Water Manager Jason Garvie.

Citation

Land & Water Australia. 2010. Irrigation allows almonds to grow in an ideal place. [Online] (Updated November 29th, 2010)
Available at: http://lwa.gov.au/node/3792 [Accessed Thursday 1st of March 2012 07:28:35 AM ].