WATERpak provides technical information and practical advice to help irrigators improve irrigation practices, minimise environmental impacts and increase farm profits from irrigated cotton crops.

Water is the major limiting factor of cotton and grain production in Australia and efficient water management is paramount for cotton and grain growers to achieve high yields and profits. An unpredictable climate coupled with a range of soil types forces farmers to make management decisions in a complex and variable environment.

The challenge for irrigators is to find the balance between the higher costs of improved water use efficiency and environmental stewardship and the maintenance of farm profits.

WATERpak provides technical information and practical advice to help irrigators improve irrigation practices, minimise environmental impacts and increase farm profits from irrigated cotton crops.

For the first time, WATERpak brings together in one place the many years of irrigation research conducted by a variety of organisations in the Australian cotton and grains industries.

The easiest gains to improve farm water use efficiency are within the field: minimisation of tailwater losses, drainage and the potential improvement in yield through the reduction of waterlogging effects. Put simplistically, by ‘applying the right amount of water at the right time in the right place’.

Harder to achieve but very significant in terms of water use efficiency, gains exist in the control of evaporative and seepage losses from storages and

channels. This is where most water is lost on broadacre irrigation farms and it is essential that researchers and growers combine forces to address evaporation, seepage and drainage losses.

This third edition of WATERpak brings together best practice for irrigation management in the cotton and grains industries, whether as part of an integrated farming system or as separate enterprises.

ISBN: 1 921025 16 6