Irrigators can now make better use of trickle irrigation systems to water and fertilise their crops with the release of a new irrigation tool Wetup.

'There has been a lot of pressure, particularly in the current water debate, for farmers to switch to trickle irrigation. In the right conditions trickle irrigation systems are great, but they are not always viable, productive or even more efficient in terms of water use,' said Chair of Land & Water Australia, Bobbie Brazil.

'This research, and Wetup in particular, means that those irrigators who invest in trickle systems, will be better placed to implement efficient and sustainable systems', said Ms Brazil.

Developed by CSIRO and theCRC for Sustainable Sugar Production, with funding from Land & Water Australia's irrigation program, Wetup allows growers to program their trickle systems according to local conditions.

'Irrigators know there is huge variation in soils and crop water use. The challenge has been to understand this variation and work with it rather than against it', says CSIRO Land and Water researcher Dr Keith Bristow.

'By probing the soil and measuring soil water behaviour at different depths and in different soil types, we've identified the soil properties controlling wetting. Going one step further, to make this information readily available to those who need it, we have developed a software tool Wetup to show irrigators how variable wetting in soils can be'.

'The result is a software package for irrigators, to help them understand how important it is to customise the design of trickle systems for specific paddocks', said Dr Bristow.

Wetup, which is available for download athttp://www.clw.csiro.au/products/wetup/will help irrigators understand more about their soil. The package is capable of illustrating wetting patterns for 29 individual soils, covering a wide range of textures and soil hydraulic properties.

'For trickle irrigation systems to deliver water and nutrients more efficiently, distance between emitters and emitter flow rates must be matched to the soil's wetting characteristics, and the amount and timing of water to be supplied to the crop', said Dr Peter Thorburn from CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems.

'Broad soil texture ranges are usually the only information related to soil wetting used in current trickle system designs. However, this information is inadequate. Soil structure, which is not represented by these broad textural ranges, can dominate water movement, and site-specific information about soil structure and its impact on water flow is required.'

The Wetup product is the result of collaboration betweenCSIRO Sustainable EcosystemsandCSIRO Land and Water, and theCRC for Sustainable Sugar Production. The research was funded by Land & Water Australia'sNational Program for Irrigation Research and Development.

ENDS

For more information or interviews:

Dr Keith Bristow, CSIRO Land and Water 07 4753 8596 or 0408 468 941

Dr Peter Thorburn, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems 07 3214 2316 or 0417 073 173 (until Fiday January 10)

Media Enquiries:

Tim Lester, Land & Water Australia on 02 6263 6021 or 0438 925 146

The WetUp software package is available for download fromhttp://www.clw.csiro.au/products/wetup/