Irrigation scheduling: a soft adaptor to weather uncertainties and irrigation efficiency improvement initiatives
type: CreativeWork
description: Expanding dairy farming around the world including the Canterbury region of New Zealand is causing increasing demand for irrigation, placing more pressure on already stressed water resources. The challenge for New Zealand dairy farming is to maintain an appropriate equilibrium between pasture production and environment protection, achievable through the proper management/utilization of agricultural water, for which application and expansion of carefully identified and evaluated irrigation scheduling can play a key role. The focus of this research was, therefore, to contribute to the development of irrigation scheduling to determine the irrigation range within the soil water holding capacity taking into consideration precipitation (P), evapotranspiration (ET), plant available water (PAW) and crop coefficient (Kc). This was achieved through estimating Kc of pasture at different grazing rotations by field measurements and analysing irrigation and deep percolation under a range of PAW-based irrigation triggers by applications of mathematical modelling of irrigation scheduling. A farmers’ survey has been carried out with 32 dairy farmers in Canterbury, New Zealand to collect information on current irrigation practices, particularly in relation to PAW and grazing rotation. The experiments were conducted at Lincoln University Dairy Fram (LUDF), South Island, New Zealand during the period August 2014 to March 2016. A network of 20 non-weighing lysimeters and an Aquaflex installed on LUDF were utilized for the study. Pasture height, precipitation, irrigation application, deep percolation and change in soil moisture in the lysimeters were measured throughout the study period. Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR) probes with 200, 500 and 900 mm lengths were installed vertically adjacent to the Aquaflex and lysimeters for improving soil moisture determination in the lysimeters without disturbing natural water flux inside the lysimeters. To account for climatic variability, available…
abstract: Expanding dairy farming around the world including the Canterbury region of New Zealand is causing increasing demand for irrigation, placing more pressure on already stressed water resources. The challenge for New Zealand dairy farming is to maintain an appropriate equilibrium between pasture production and environment protection, achievable through the proper management/utilization of agricultural water, for which application and expansion of carefully identified and evaluated irrigation scheduling can play a key role. The focus of this research was, therefore, to contribute to the development of irrigation scheduling to determine the irrigation range within the soil water holding capacity taking into consideration precipitation (P), evapotranspiration (ET), plant available water (PAW) and crop coefficient (Kc). This was achieved through estimating Kc of pasture at different grazing rotations by field measurements and analysing irrigation and deep percolation under a range of PAW-based irrigation triggers by applications of mathematical modelling of irrigation scheduling. A farmers’ survey has been carried out with 32 dairy farmers in Canterbury, New Zealand to collect information on current irrigation practices, particularly in relation to PAW and grazing rotation. The experiments were conducted at Lincoln University Dairy Fram (LUDF), South Island, New Zealand during the period August 2014 to March 2016. A network of 20 non-weighing lysimeters and an Aquaflex installed on LUDF were utilized for the study. Pasture height, precipitation, irrigation application, deep percolation and change in soil moisture in the lysimeters were measured throughout the study period. Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR) probes with 200, 500 and 900 mm lengths were installed vertically adjacent to the Aquaflex and lysimeters for improving soil moisture determination in the lysimeters without disturbing natural water flux inside the lysimeters. To account for climatic variability, available…
author: KC, Birendra
language: en
keywords: crop coefficient, crop rotation, pasture, Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR), Aquaflex, soil moisture, available water capacity, irrigation scheduling, rainfall, ANZSRC::0905 Civil Engineering, ANZSRC::090509 Water Resources Engineering, ANZSRC::070108 Sustainable Agricultural Development
license: https://researcharchive.lincoln.ac.nz/pages/rights
date published: 2016-05-27
date modified: 2026-07-24T02:50:54Z
provider: Lincoln University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Lincoln University

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/10182/7702