Irrigators doing it right
Tim and Sally Watson live their philosophy: ‘Do it once, do it right’.
In fact, they have done it so well that they were recently awarded the overall winner of the Irrigation Research and Extension Committee’s (IREC) 2006 Irrigated Farm Competition.
Tim and Sally operate three properties at Hillston in southern NSW and produce a variety of crops including cotton, sweet corn, maize, seed sorghum, seedless water melons, pumpkins, faba beans and winter cereals.
To top it all off they also run a few cattle. And while they have a diverse cropping rotation, this doesn’t mean that their crops lack quality. Tim and Sally won the ‘Cotton Grower of the Year in the Lachlan and Murrumbidgee Valleys’ in 2005 and also won the 2004 Irrigated Wheat Crop.
This year’s IREC Irrigated Farm Competition focussed on seven main aspects of irrigated farming operations in the Riverina including farm and business planning, agricultural management, irrigation and drainage management, water use efficiency, education and natural resource management.
The competition is designed to recognise those irrigators in the community who are achieving in the industry and the five judges of this year’s competition recognized the Watsons as doing exactly that. They were awarded the irrigation management and water efficiency award and the overall winner of the competition.
Tim and Sally have made the most of technology by tailoring both their irrigation systems and management tools to meet the natural resources that they manage.
They currently operate conventional furrow irrigation, centre pivots and a large drip irrigation system. Farm manager Paul Cleton explained that each of the three systems have been designed to meet the soil and water constraints of the various properties while providing maximum return from the crops they grow.
Farming doesn’t finish at the farm gate for the Watsons either who are heavily involved in marketing their products across Australia. Their crop diversity, access to markets, variety of irrigation systems and water supplies all help to spread their risk and maintain the security of their farming operation.
Former winner of the IREC Irrigated Farm Competition and judge of this year’s competition, Terry McFarlane, says that Tim and Sally’s system is “brilliant”.
“Tim and Sally show how irrigated agriculture should be; their attention to detail and management put them among the leaders of the irrigation industry. The way they plan, manage and operate their irrigation systems is a credit to them and leaves a clear example for other irrigators to follow,” Mr McFarlane said.
Tim and Sally’s achievements were recognized at a Gala dinner held in Griffith in July.