It’s true that precision irrigation isn’t the most affordable method. It does however ensure higher yields and a better-quality crop - every season, in a range of challenging environments, using minimal resources.

As lucerne is such a thirsty, sensitive crop you’ll want to avoid wasting water and nutrients through methods such as flood or pivot irrigation. Not just because those methods deplete your resources – it also throws them on the soil without directing them to plant roots, which jeopardises the uniformity of your crops.

The price depends on three aspects.

First, how you’ll get water from the source to the field.

Second, peak crop water demand, which is governed by climate conditions and crop canopy cover.

And finally, soil type, which will determine emitter spacing.

To give you a quote for cost per unit area, our agronomists would need to assess these factors, among others. Get in touch so we can get started.

Subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) systems are most suitable for lucerne production.

Compared with on-surface systems, SDI delivers additional benefits such as lower labour requirements, protection from machinery interference, and enhanced water-use efficiency.

SDI systems also favour modern tillage practices such as no-till or minimum tillage.

Definitely. While having ample rainfall is obviously a huge advantage, the major disadvantage is that rainfall doesn’t allow you to control and optimise nutrient delivery.

With precision irrigation, nutrient delivery is targeted, dosed in controlled quantities according to the plants’ needs, to maintain consistent crop health and quality throughout.

The concept is called ‘precision Nutrigation™’, and it’s a core feature of every precision irrigation system.

Precision irrigation works just as well on uneven topographies.

All you need is to install pressure-compensated (PC) dripperlines in the system, so water and nutrients are delivered to each plant with uniform flow rates – across the entire field.