Learning with the Fang

I was driving home from the Coonawarra and saw a number of irrigation pumps like this:

One was pumping what seemed like a lot of water into an open canal that ran around the outside of a paddock.  I noticed one pumping flat out as we drove into the region on Saturday morning and when we drove home on a rather hot Sunday afternoon it was (still) going.

I got to thinking about my dead front lawn and the fact that I had just missed another weekly window of opportunity to water it in this season of strict water restrictions.  Then I noticed the rows of vineyards with their dripper systems and got to wondering:

• What is going on with those big open canal pumps?
• Is it as inefficient as it looks?
• What is best practice for the type of crop being grown in a region like this?

I’d sure appreciate any input from anyone who knows about this stuff.

Fang – Mike Seyfang

Tags: waterweek, pitchfest, litfuse