Soil moisture technology is a powerful tool in the hands of irrigators, but harnessing its full potential is an art in itself.
Which is why a series of soil moisture monitoring workshops later this month will provide irrigators with the opportunity to deep dive into soil moisture monitoring.
Agriculture Victoria irrigation regional manager Jeremy Giddings will be at Robinvale on November 27 and Mildura the next day – with Adam Brown from CropX – with half day workshops designed for people interested in soil moisture monitoring data and how to use it to optimise their irrigation needs.
Mr Giddings said a lot of people had made the significant investment in the monitoring equipment but many of them were not getting the maximum out of the data generated.
He said the suppliers did not offer a lot of practical after-sales support in the field, which was what had prompted the workshops, which he had been running in other locations as well.
“I am always amazed at these workshops how people don’t fully understand what they are working with and what it can do for them,” Mr Giddings explained.
“So our workshops have been set up to help them to better interpret the data they are creating on their properties.”
The workshop will start with soil water principles such as the active rootzone and ideal depth for irrigation and we will use capacitance probe data from a range of monitoring systems to demonstrate this.
The course content is applicable to all capacitance probe systems.
“If your data is cloud based, we encourage you to bring your login details and have the data interpreted, to help you get the most out of the session,” Mr Giddings said.
“At some of our workshops we have found the most effective part of the day is when people let us put their data up on the screen and we give them a real-time analysis of what they are looking at and what it can tell them.
“We will also walk through understanding graphs, including summed and split-level graphs, how to set refill and fill points, graph responses, integration and data presentation.
“It also lets people go home and go back through their historical data and see how they can match their responses with ours.
“This is not cheap technology, so you really want to get the most out of it once you have it up and running and I can say that after each workshop we have run, just about everybody goes away thinking they will be a little, or a lot, better at it now – it’s very much an awareness factor because we have met people who for years haven’t recognised reasons for certain responses they have received.”
The soil moisture workshops will run from 9am to 11am at the following locations:
• Robinvale, Wednesday, November 27 at the Robinvale Hospital Conference Room, 128 Latje Rd, Robinvale.
• Mildura (Irymple), Thursday, November 28 at the Agriculture Victoria office, corner Koorlong Avenue and 11th St.
Workshop places are limited, so interested irrigators should contact Jeremy Giddings on 0427 102 285 or at jeremy.giddings@agriculture.vic.gov.au for details and to book a spot.
