Australia's largest lateral irrigator, which probably can cut it on the world stage, too, has begun trundling to and fro across an equally giant paddock that was specially landscaped to maximise its potential.
Located at Windermere, near Dalby, Qld, the Rockliff family concedes they are still learning the ropes with respect to their 'new baby', but say they are mightily impressed with its performance after just two waterings.
This is no ordinary irrigator since its specifications have a mouth-watering dimension, starting with the working width which is a staggering 1.2km from end-to-end.
Noel and Greg Rockliff say the necessary earthworks and fuel involved in the venture totaled about $70,000, the new lateral some $330,000, when the Australian dollar was soaring towards US parity earlier this year, translating into a $400/acre investment.
Overnight, it has raised the value of their property by turning more of their dryland cropping acreage into a highly productive irrigation system.
To accommodate the Reinke irrigator they knocked down the existing ridge and furrow infrastructure, laser-levelled paddocks, and put in a massive channel that satisfies the irrigator's thirst when put to work.
The main 6m (19ft) wide channel has been layed down the centre of the paddock, being fed by an 1800ML ring tank which either pumps out water, or relies on gravity discharge, depending on the level contained within the storeage.
Essentially, the new irrigator has two massive arms – each 600m in length – extending out from the heart of the system which revolves around a four-wheeled 'cart' that houses a John Deere 6081H diesel engine powering a 10RB Cornel pump.
The new channel allows the irrigator to travel 3.2km before being halted, ready to make a return pass.
At this point it’s worth mentioning the Rockliff’s irrigator is the first and largest Reinke unit to use a 40cm (16in) diameter suction probe for syphoning water out of the channel at rates that approach a staggering 300L/second.
It's all about improving water use efficiency, according to Noel Rockliff.
"Previously, one 90ha section of flood irrigation used to take us five days to water but now we've been able to water about 100ha of wheat in about 25 hours," Noel said.
The Rockliff’s say they only applied 30ML with their lateral irrigator compared to nearly 100ML when flood irrigating – a saving of a precious 70ML.
The brothers agree the "worst thing about flood irrigation" is trying to get the water to run evenly across the paddock.
"It used to flow across the paddock at an angle, making it a really taxing job to move the pipes around," Greg Rockliff said.
"Now, all 1.2km is being watered at the same time, giving us even-looking crops."
* Extract from a full report to appear in Queensland Country Life, October 23 edition.
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