Valley

Making the most of scant environmental flows

Presents findings from a Land & Water Australia PhD study undertaken on the Lower Murray Valley floodplain in South Australia. Primary study sites covered the region from Morgan in the west to Chowilla on the NSW border.

Coordinating Deep Drainage Research in the Northern Darling Basin - Final Report

A key issue identified by the research community working with the cotton industry was the lack of understanding and acceptance of the concept of deep drainage. Deep drainage is defined as the part of the water (applied to the surface and as rainfall or irrigation) that moves past the rootzone. In general the existing paradigm was “cotton soils don’t leak”. However, the research community related to the Australian Cotton CRC (ACCRC) (more)...

Improving water use efficiency by reducing groundwater recharge under irrigated pastures

Approximately 65% of water extracted for irrigation in Northern Victoria and over 30% in the NSW Murray Valley is applied to pastures. In 1996, Murray Irrigation Limited (MIL) introduced a Total Farm Water Balance Policy which aimed to limit farm water use to sustainable levels and hence to reduce groundwater recharge to the district watertable. The dairy industry had some concerns with the original limit of 4 Ml per hectare and initiated discussions (more)...

Waterwheel Newsletter 12

Establishing a process to improve irrigation automation

Irrigated dairying is a major farming activity in the Murray Valley Irrigation Area (MVIA), in north-east Victoria, contributing greatly to this State’s economy. Most of the dairy farmers in this area flood irrigate their pastures. For better pasture quality and quantity, efficient irrigation is vital. The project entitled "Establishing a Process to Improve Irrigation Automation," realising the importance of irrigation for the dairy industry, has defined some (more)...

Use of saline water in rice based farming systems