Hose runner saves time and effort
Rakaia-based equipment manufacturer Pluck’s Engineering will soon start production of a new machine designed to simplify the deployment and retrieval of temporary water troughs used in winter break feeding.
The app is an irrigation efficiency tool that has been used thousands of times to determine application depth, rate and how uniformly water is being applied during an irrigation event. The simple method is based on collecting irrigation water in strategically placed buckets and measuring water collected over a period of time.
The app is used to collate this data and walks you through the steps to collect all relevant inputs, then provides the results instantly to your phone or smart device and e-mails a summary report.
“The Bucket Test app is another addition to the CropX toolkit,” explains Eitan Dan, managing director of CropX New Zealand.
“We’ve seen farmers in many countries crying out for an accurate way to measure irrigation efficiency, so the app offers a ready-made solution that we can now bring to them.”
The Bucket Test works well alongside CropX’s patented Soil Sensor which is embedded with their sophisticated, yet easy to use digital platform.
Eitan acknowledges that as environmental legislation and consumer expectations are tightening the screws on New Zealand farmers, there is an urgent need to measure environmental impacts and increase efficiency.
Having originally developed the app with Regen, Irrigation NZ is excited to work with CropX to further develop the tool.
“We’re very proud of the work we’ve done with Regen to develop a tool that takes the guesswork out of assessing irrigation infrastructure performance,” says Vanessa Winning, chief executive of IrrigationNZ.
“It’s been used thousands of times since development with great outcomes. CropX’s expertise means we will be able to improve the app even further and deliver greater value to our members,” says Winning.
