Winegrapes: Irrigation Benchmarks

Irrigation Benchmarks and Best Practices for Winegrapes

This report presents some of the outcomes of the Wine-grape Irrigator segment of the Murray Darling Basin Commission, Investigation and Education Program, Project Number 16010, "Benchmarking and Monitoring Irrigated Horticulture".

The project was carried out at Primary Industries and Resources South Australia's Loxton Centre, by officers of the Irrigated Crop Management Service, and also included technical and directional assistance from officers of New South Wales Agriculture and the Victorian Department of Natural Resources and Environment. The project aimed to benchmark the performance of irrigators relative to a range of appropriate irrigation performance indicators, and to identify the best practices used by the top performers within the industry.

The wine-grape industry is one of the principal horticultural industries in the Riverland and Sunraysia region, with an annual production from the area between Morgan and Swan Hill of around 420,000 tonnes per annum, worth an estimated $185 million per annum at the farm gate (1995/96 figures, taken from South Australian Grape Advisory Committee and Phylloxera and Grape Industry Board of South Australia (1996) and Murray Valley Wine-grape Industry Advisory Council (1996)). Recent development activity is increasing the production and value of the wine-grape industry in the region at a very rapid rate. The wine-grape industry is also one of the principal water users within the region, and the opportunity for savings in water use, as well as improvements in productivity through improved management are substantial. The project also investigated international benchmarks and best practices, and some information is presented on winegrape irrigation performance from South Africa.

The figures demonstrate some of the indicators used, and the way in which the data was presented. Figure 1 shows the range in Water Use Efficiency (tonnes of fruit per Megalitre of irrigation water applied). Figure 2 shows the range in Gross Return per Megalitre of irrigation water applied.

Water Use Efficiency Graph

Figure 1

Gross Return per Megalitre Graph

Figure 2

 

A key finding of the project was that more sophisticated irrigation systems and scheduling tools do not necessarily lead to better irrigation performance. The key determinant of irrigation performance appears to be the management skill of the property manager. A set of Irrigation Best Management Practices is presented, as a guide to appropriate irrigation management.

 

 

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