In June 2014, irrigation researchers met in Narrabri for IrriCOMM. This workshop arose from discussion

between CSIRO, CRDC and NSW DPI about irrigation research. The tools that irrigators are using to

manage their irrigations have not changed dramatically over the last 20 years – despite investment in, and

resulting advances to, R&D. The dominant tools being used by irrigators are capacitance based soil

moisture measurement devices, and, more often than not, growers are making irrigation decisions based

on their experience: years of irrigating and knowledge of their irrigation system, field, and soils, and most

appropriate time to irrigate that crop under those specific circumstances.

Researchers have been developing weather and plant based scheduling methods, however, uptake of these

technologies by growers has been limited due to a lack of local readily available evapotranspiration data,

suitable crop coefficients, and the complexity of plant based methods when applying this to large scale

broad-acre cropping systems in a highly variable climate.

The IrriCOM workshop enabled researchers to interact and discuss these issues, gaining a better

understanding of current and future technologies and tools for irrigation management in cotton. It was

found that significant progress has been made with a variety of irrigation technologies and that much of

the research was at a point where it was needing to be extended to the wider cotton community – hence

the 2015 Cotton Irrigation Technology Tour evolved.

The purpose of the 2015 Cotton Irrigation Technology Tour was to showcase the latest irrigation

scheduling and automation field scale irrigation research. New irrigation research is offering

opportunities for growers to improve water use efficiency and yield through more precise

scheduling and application technology.

The tour was comprised of three field days: one at Emerald in Central Queensland; one at Moree in

the Gwydir Valley; and one at Nevertire in the Macquarie Valley.