Australia’s cotton industry is considered the most water-efficient in the world. Water use efficiency has doubled in the last 25 years, with plans to double it again in the next decade.
Currently, Australia’s cotton growers produce three times the world’s average yields. Despite operating in a global market against heavily subsided nations, Australian growers remain highly competitive due to their efficiencies and produce some of the highest quality cottons in the world.
Appropriate varieties, a massive research effort, access to the latest technologies and cutting edge on-farm practices all combine to produce an Australian natural fibre that is farmed with less water per hectare than ever before.
Water use efficiency is underpinned by the industry’s Best Management Practices “Land and Water Management” module. This provides a practical framework that irrigators can use to achieve best water practice and includes:
- Maximising storage and distribution efficiency
- Maximising application efficiency
- Monitoring water use and calculating efficiencies
- Achieving uniform application
- Planning, installing and operating alternative irrigation systems (where applicable)
Australia’s cotton growers are constantly looking for new ways of producing cotton with less water. Some practical approaches on the modern cotton farm are:
- Zero and minimum till farming to help retain soil moisture
- Capacitance probes set up to monitor and transmit soil moisture data from the field to a central computer to help schedule irrigations
- Thermal imaging to identify “leaky” dams, pipes and channels so they can be repaired
- Deepening farm dams to reduce evaporation (losses can be between 15% and 45%)
- Using new, more efficient methods of irrigating such as overhead irrigators and bank-less channels
- Growing cotton varieties that are suited to regional conditions and use less water
- Mobile electromagnetic meters (following several years of cotton research) for easy and rapid assessment of soils for their suitability for irrigation construction
- Holding water on farm for shorter time periods to reduce evaporation
- Laser-levelling to ensure uniform, well drained fields using GPS guidance equipment
“Bullamon Plains” is particularly focussed on minimising evaporative losses. Techniques include the installation of short supply channels, water storages centrally located to reduce travel distance, deep storages with high walls and investments in bank-less channels.”
Bullamon Plains
2006 Cotton Grower of the Year
