Workshop held 19-20 July 2022

In July 2022 the Australian Almond Board and Agriculture Victoria delivered a Drip Management Workshop in Yenda and Myall Park, NSW.

This workshop was available to any almond growers and irrigation workers and was attended by about 25 people from across the Riverina, either irrigation workers, irrigation managers and farm managers.

The workshop consisted of both indoor theory and information presentations plus 2 in-field sessions at a nearby almond orchard.

Topics covered:

  • Soil water principles
  • Irrigation drainage plans
  • Soil Pits
  • System specifications and system monitoring
  • System maintenance
  • In field system monitoring
  • Irrigation Scheduling
  • Data collection and analysis.

The workshop was presented by Jeremy Giddings of Agriculture Victoria and Peter Henry of Netafim, with inputs from Josh Felke from the Almond Board & Robert Hoogers – NSW DPI.

The soil pit inspections and field sessions were carried out on Select Harvests’ orchard at Myall Park. After being inducted by the farm manager, the students were allowed to get muddy and safely examine the newly dug soil pits.

The soil pit sessions consisted of inspecting the pits, dug in between Non Pareil trees, and evaluating the soil to determine soil characteristics such as Water Holding Capacity, pH, Soil structure, Soil texture, Root depth and Carbonate class.

The system maintenance session involved the students measuring dripline output and pressure and determining if the system was performing within specifications or if more investigation was needed (the system did perform within the recommended specifications with respect to both pressure and output).

The indoor sessions comprised a combination of presentations on each of the subjects plus the students were required to do some calculations, such as Mean Application Rates, understanding Dripline technical data, calculating correct chemical treatment rates, and the water holding capacity of the soil recently inspected.

The workshop was ideal for the new irrigation workers and managers and a good refresher for the experienced workers and hopefully the skills learnt can be applied on farm to improve almond irrigation efficiency.

Peter Reynolds
Senior Horticulturalist