Water security focus in Canterbury

Secure supply and efficient management of water is the development priority for MyFarm syndicates in the Canterbury region this year.

Over the past 18months MyFarm Farms general manager, Gareth Evans has overseen conversion of three syndicates from border dyke to spray irrigation via centre pivot and rotorainer.

“With irrigation our overriding goal is to stabilise the milk production curve through optimal pasture growth. Border dyke or flood irrigation is inefficient because you apply a lot of water in a short period of time. Spray irrigation is more water and labour efficient delivering increased pasture production per unit of water applied.”

In two of the conversions water use is being further optimised with the construction of large water storage dams. These are fed by the local water schemes, but give the farms up to 14 days storage, meaning that irrigation can continue at times of low water flows.

“These projects are a major capital investment at $2/m³ of water storage. But when we did the cost-benefit analysis with shareholders we looked at historical information about water flow and assessed the risk of water deficits and potential impact on milk production.”

The largest pond about to be built at Sakura Pastoral is 8.6 hectares and will provide up to 19 days' storage.