Save time and money on your farm by integrating these tried and true irrigation practices.

kbfa-Irrigate Better!
From April to June, we’ve hosted a 4-part series of irrigation best practices. You are able to catch them all on our Youtube Channel!
 
April 28
• “Irrigation Anatomy” introduces the A to Z of irrigation, from intakes and wells, through the maze of components for ideal pressure, flow, and water quality, out to headers, laterals, and emission systems.
View Recording
 
May 12
• “Design Part 1” takes the mystery out of design, with a strong focus on sizing lines and laying out laterals to meet your farm’s needs based on principles of hydraulics.
View Recording
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May 26
• “Design Part 2” looks at delivery equipment, from subsurface drip to wheelmoves to pivots and guns, comparing differences in efficiencies, application rates, uniformity, labour, maintenance, and cost.
View Recording
 
June 9
• “Scheduling” starts with the soil and root systems to calculate how much water you’ll need and when to apply it, followed by an introduction to the basics of automation and soil monitoring to really make the most out of your investment in land, seed, equipment, and your time.
View Recording
 
Up Next…
Join us for a live Q&A session on June 23 at 6:30 (PDT) with irrigation experts Bruce Naka & Andrew Bennett to discuss questions specific to your farm. Bring your questions and get ready for a great discussion. This session will be unrecorded, so don’t miss the chance to get your burning questions answered.
Register here
 
Resources
 
BC Sprinkler Irrigation Manual: Free online resource detailing many aspects of irrigation including selection and design.
 
BC Trickle Irrigation Manual: This manual must be purchased from the Irrigation Industry Association of BC.
 
BC Ministry ofAgriculture Irrigation Factsheets: Free guides detailing determining annual water use of trickle irrigation systems, soil water storage capacity, irrigation scheduling, and more.
 
BC Agriculture Water Calculator: This tool helps agriculture water users in British Columbia estimate the annual irrigation or livestock water demand for a farm.
 
Agricultural Irrigation Scheduling Calculator: This tool uses all the calculations and tables from the design manuals, and the latest weather information from Farmwest, so all you need to do is put in your vital statistics (i.e. spacing and flow of your irrigation system, the crop, and texture of the soil layers).
 
Farmwest: This resource not only has weather station forecasts and historical data, but also lots of pages explaining how it works.
 
These slides from the Allan Fulton, University of California Extension, give a great explanation of the importance of uniformity and how to test it:
 
This article from UCDavis gives concise steps to test the uniformity of sprinkler systems.
 
This article from Michigan State University Extension gives concise steps to test the uniformity of sprinkler systems.
 
Funding for this project has been provided in part by the Columbia Basin Trust and in part by the governments of Canada and British Columbia under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership, a federal-provincial-territorial initiative. Funding is administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC and the BC Agricultural Research & Development Corporation. This project is part of the Regional Adaptation Program delivered by the Climate & Agriculture Initiative BC.

 

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Rachael Roussin

Rachael Roussin

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