Sorting summer watering with smart irrigation

As Marlborough’s water access starts to diminish over summer, the usage of the water supplied to the region’s vineyards becomes critical needing efficient usage.

Through real time precision irrigation systems, climate and soil analysis, Southern Water Engineering’s irrigation reduces unnecessary watering, evaporation, environmental impact and related water costs. It’s well suited for Marlborough vineyard’s dry and windy summers. With data-driven water management thanks to their precision irrigation model, vines are delivered the water they need, when they need it, at the most efficient times and levels.

“Winegrowers will naturally have wet and dry areas in their vineyards, but put the same amount of water on them,” says automation engineer Mark Fairhall.

“Wet areas of vineyards obviously don’t need as much water for plants to thrive so it’s all about implementing technology to have more detailed monitoring and adjusting irrigation schemes.”

“I think a lot of the data is already there, but there’s a lot of platforms people use so we think there is a missing efficiency gap, so we know how much we’re pumping into places it’s not needed, to save for when it’s actually needed.”

Due to their real time analysis, the team say that as conditions change throughout vineyards, so do their irrigation levels.

“It comes down to the industry wanting to use that technology to actually monitor their water better and the mindset that we’ve been trying to change is getting people to use technology to make data-driven decisions when and where to supply water,” adds applications engineer Bradley Duncan.

“Our system asks: “Do your plants need the water they think they do and are you using the critical, diminishing resource when you should while using it efficiently?”

“Last season for example, the Awatere had a very dry year, the river that was off for ages, and dams were empty, while the Wairau was relatively fine.  But back four or five years it was the opposite, so keeping aware is really key for future-proofing vineyards”.

And with a mobile platform for irrigation analysis in its infancy, the team say they believe they can help vineyard owners now, and into the future, with saving both water and money.

“From the design process, we’re constricted by resource consents as are farmers, so it’s just trying to make sure every last drop of that water really counts and is used efficiently,” says projects division manager Nick Allen.

“There’s a lot of data out there collected by the wineries, but there’s still plenty out in the vineyard to be gathered, especially around irrigation data where they don’t know how to analyse it so our expertise can simplify real time decision making.”