FarmConnect has been used to automate 105-hectares of cotton at Waverley, a large cotton farm near Wee Waa, north-west New South Wales. The solution utilises the farm’s existing furrow layout, with the addition of a secondary channel running along the field side of the existing head-ditch and permanent 75mm siphons installed every two metres along the channel bank.

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So far, the property has seen a massive reduction in the amount of labour required to irrigate the field. The University of Southern Queensland’s National Centre for Engineering in Agriculture are also heavily involved with the site to conduct research focusing on delivering water from the pump to the plant in a fully automated environment. CottonInfo and the Cotton RDC organized a Field Day earlier in the year and another day is likely to be scheduled in the coming months. FarmConnect will be on show at Elmore Field Days in Victoria, Australia on 7, 8 and 9 October. New products on display will include a manual version of the BladeValve, an all-in-one BayDrive and an advanced form of automation called Adaptive Control.

The manual BladeValve provides customers with the flexibility to spread the cost of automation over several seasons or stages of development. Once the manual valve has been installed, the automation components can be retrofitted at a later date. The BayDrive All-in-one is an actuated bay outlet gate that comes complete with concrete emplacement, rubber flap, CableDrive actuation and wireless communications system, removing the hassle of integrating different components from different manufacturers. Adaptive Control uses real-time flow rate information from a smart meter connected to the customer’s service point, along with wetting front information from a FloodTech sensor to dynamically calculate irrigation run-times for improved application efficiency.

If you’re heading to Elmore, the manual BladeValve, Adaptive Control and the full range of FarmConnect products and solutions can be found at Site 312. Rubicon Water has launched a FarmConnect mobile website optimised for smartphones and tablets, in a move that makes remote irrigation management even easier and more flexible. Users will find the site fast to use, as we've used the latest technologies to allow content to be downloaded quicker, while also ensuring the site is functionally rich.

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The site retains all the core functions of the desktop site, so users can check their soil moisture status, manage alarms and remotely control devices without being tied to the farm. The mobile site will automatically be displayed if the user accesses FarmConnect from a smartphone or tablet. The site is compatible with Apple iOS and Android devices. FarmConnect users can reach the site by typing into their smartphone or tablet browser.