Irri Sat SMS Satellite and SMS Irrigation Scheduling

Irri. Sat. SMS Satellite and SMS Irrigation Scheduling Service John Hornbuckle, Nick Car & Evan Christen

Irri. Sat. SMS - Satellite and SMS Irrigation Scheduling Service • Aims to overcome the costs and complexities of irrigation scheduling • Capturing the bulk of the ‘market’ and providing them with a tool for assisting these decisions can deliver real water savings • The system provides irrigation scheduling information specific for a farm at an extremely low cost, directly to their mobile phone, taking into account the latest weather conditions and their crop needs ensuring decisions on irrigation are made with the best available information

How does Irri. Sat. SMS schedule ? • Using the FAO 56 approach Reference water use – weather station ETc = ETo x Kc Actual water use of crop Coefficient – relates your crop to the reference crop

Gaining individual crop coefficients • Multi-spectral (Spot, Landsat, Iknonos) satellites cover MIA approx. every 7 -14 days • Images of everyone's individual crop • Can this information can be used for gaining the crop coefficient

USDA – Trout, Ayars

Determining Kc from NDVI - grapevines Kc = 2. 26 x NDVI – 0. 4352

How does the Irri. Sat. SMS schedule ? • Using the FAO 56 approach Actual water use of crop ETc = ETo x Kc . . But still in a format that’s not much use!

Making the scheduling information useful Irrigation Rainfall

Overview of Irri. Sat. SMS Satellite Measurements Satellite images used to determine plant performance of an irrigators crop Incorporates management/soil/water/salinity constraints On Ground ETo from Weather Station or SILO Determination of a crop coefficient (Kc) from satellite image Representing Individual Paddocks ETc = ETo X Kc Potential Evaporation based on Atmospheric Demand Crop water use determined and irrigation requirement Daily irrigation scheduling information delivered to irrigators through SMS

Benchmarking and auditing

Try a Demonstration Now! SMS demo run times to 0416 905 013 and you’ll receive a demonstration SMS reply for grapevines in Griffith, NSW

Future efforts/issues

Understanding and irrigating for spatial variability – making use of RS data

Rastus – spatial soil, water, plant model

Future efforts/issues • RS for assessing crop/plant stress i. e. LWP from RS – implementing RDI, SDI irrigation strategies for monitoring water stress for improved quality – a simple thermal type approach • Soil moisture – deeper and with greater resolution • Linking RS data with irrigation management models Future Campaigns • Large group of irrigators which we have real time water use and soil moisture monitoring (60+) senteks/cprobes • Heavily instrumented field sites EB, SM, ET, T, etc • Very interested in being a part of any future campaign

Thank you Contact Us Phone: 1300 363 400 or +61 3 9545 2176 Email: enquiries@csiro. au Web: www. csiro. au