Southern Valley irrigators recently sought funding to assist with an education and outreach program to assist with two issues which had been identified in their region. The two issues chosen to tackle were:

1. Spray drift – this is a very topical issue throughout the cotton growing regions and therefore thought it would be beneficial to continue the education process throughout the southern valleys.

2. Irrigation – Water as the most precious resource, and labour one of the most expensive inputs into production systems was considered to of great benefit for growers. The plan was to expose growers to a range of irrigation management plans and farm setups in an aim to showcase efficiency gains that could be made within their own businesses.

A series of workshops were co-ordinated to educate growers and industry about spray drift. These workshops were rolled out in Deniliquin, Griffith, Barellan and Lake Cargelligo. A total of 183 participants attended.

In collaboration with IREC, a bus trip to Queensland was arranged. The tour north was an opportunity for people both from the cotton industry, as well as other irrigated enterprises to go and look at other farming operations. This allows growers to take ideas that may be applicable to their situations at home to help improve their production systems and ensure tlong term sustainability and profitability.