Farmers with irrigation urged to plan promptly

With El Nino bearing down on New Zealand and another dry summer predicted, Strowger and others are urging farmers with irrigation to double check their plans.

"What I always say is water is a lot like a person's bank account," says Strowger, who farms and works as a farm consultant, south of Oamaru.

"Once you have used it all there's no going back. It's all gone and there's nothing you can do about it. So yes, farmers at this time of the year should be looking and planning how to get through those peak months of December, January and February because the entire east coast of NZ is dry."

IrrigationNZ sounded the alarm bells last week when it issued a statement saying seasonal irrigation volumes as a severe El Nino arrives mean farmers run the risk of running out of water if they don't plan well.

IrrigationNZ chief executive Andrew Curtis says: "Timing is everything in a marginal season."

"Irrigation scheduling is central to this, particularly now irrigators are limited in the water they have through seasonal volumes. With water meters in place, irrigating farmers should be keeping a close eye on what they are using, regularly reviewing soil moisture levels and crop requirements and applying water as efficiently as possible. Off the back of another dry winter there's no room for wastage or poor performance as every drop will be needed this summer. We recommend sitting down and planning your water budgets so you know exactly where you are."

Strowger says it is a "really serious" issue.

"You can't afford not to plan well as you can't play catch-up when you get behind in your irrigating. If you get behind and need to top-up then it is like an ever decreasing circle. So the best way is to plan well and make sacrifices now, and make a list of priorities.

"Most farmers will know what they can and can't afford to irrigate in a really dry spell and that will mean, for example, perhaps deciding not to irrigate a paddock of winter feed, and waiting till autumn when there's more moisture about to revisit those things and make a recovery plan from there."

Strowger says it is a common to see on the farms he visits farmers taking care of their units, making sure leakages are kept to a minimum and the correct nozzles being used.