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The future of irrigation: An interview with Greig Graham
Staff writers
We recently spoke with Greig Graham, Managing Director of Rivulis Irrigation for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, about the state of the irrigation industry in Australia, the impact of drought and what the future of irrigation looks like with the integration of digital technology.
While some may assume that Australia’s far-flung location – an incredible distance from the technological hubs of Europe, the Middle East and North America – means we lag behind our competitors in foreign markets when it comes to innovation in irrigation, that is simply not the case.
Our unique and unforgiving climatic conditions mean that Australian farmers and irrigators have had to be agile and innovative in order to squeeze efficiency and productivity out of every last drop of precious water. Coming from a company that has offices around the world and its headquarters in the noted agricultural innovation hub of Israel, Greig Graham has a truly global perspective on this.
“I’ve worked in and managed factories and business units across a number of different countries and Australia is considered one of the most agriculturally advanced in application of drip irrigation or irrigation in general,” says Greig. “From an Australian farmer’s perspective, we can share a lot of what we have done in terms of irrigation.”
And in a country that is experiencing one of its worst droughts in the last fifty years, conditions force us to assess our water use and innovate even further – especially in times of stress.
“The drought should drive us to look at heavy users of water such as flood-irrigated crops and figure out how the technology needs to evolve to address current and ongoing water management issues,” says Greig. “That’s where technology around drip irrigation can come in – to look at these intensive water use crops and use affordable and adaptable technology to ensure we use water more efficiently.”
With recent advances in digital technology starting to find applications in Australian agriculture, buzzwords like the ‘Internet of Things (IoT)’ and ‘big data’ are on everyone’s lips. However, Greig is cautious of over-promising and advises farmers to ensure the solution matches their needs before they rush to embrace the latest ‘sexy’ pieces of agtech.
“The digital agtech space has moved pretty quickly in the last five years and will continue to do so, however it’s still very niche and crop specific, and is dependent on a business model that can support a high-end solution,” says Greig. “These solutions become more affordable over time, but they are still constrained by the fact only certain agribusinesses can invest the money on integrated systems and see a worthwhile return.”
“The challenge for big data is to go from big data to usable data. The grower is looking for simple tools he can have faith in that tell him what his crops need. Companies are investing to make sure the devices are accurate enough to deliver on this faith, because the risk is the farmer discards the technology and goes back to digging holes in the ground to check moisture levels.”
Rivulis is cognisant of this delicate balance and has instead focused on solutions involving out-of-field technology such as satellite imagery, rather than hardware on the ground such as sensors and soil probes.
“This gives the farmer a whole picture of the health of their crop over a large land area rather than specific sensors on individual plants, and we have developed algorithms that utilise ‘big data’ from many inputs to recommend irrigation scheduling and water application,” says Greig. “We see this kind of technology as having a broader application for the farmer who doesn’t have the capacity for large-scale, technology-intensive solutions and just wants something that can be can easily accessed on the phone or computer.”
Many farmers across the country are no doubt currently considering ways to improve their irrigation and water management practices during the drought in order to improve crop outcomes. It is therefore vital – both now and into the future – that solutions providers work closely with these farmers to develop irrigation systems that are not only efficient, but affordable and relevant as well.
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Trace minerals are required for optimal growth, reproduction, and immunity. Optimising trace mineral status relying solely on oral supplements across a herd may fail because of variation in individual intake and reduced absorption due to antagonism of other ration components and minerals. The use of injectable trace mineral supplements has been associated with positive reproductive outcomes including improved conception rate, increased odds of pregnancy and greater final in calf rate. A study conducted on 2,168 dairy cows, administered injectable trace minerals, four weeks prior to calving and again four weeks prior to the start of mating showed treated animals had a 3.3 per cent greater final in-calf rate, and a reduced time from start of mating to conception, compared to control animals 1 . The Importance of B12 Dr Carl Eden, Technical Services Veterinarian with Boehringer Ingelheim says “Vitamin B12 is sometimes referred to as a ‘super vitamin’ because it is only required in very small amounts but vital to many essential metabolic pathways. However, demand for B12 can vary considerably during the year and we see serum levels of B12 fall at critical times, such as the first few months after calving.” Vitamin B12 contains cobalt, so deficiency in cobalt can lead to deficiency in vitamin B12 because ruminants get most of their B12 as a byproduct of ruminal fermentation where the bacteria in their rumen assemble B12 from cobalt for use by the cow. Sub-optimal trace mineral and vitamin B12 status at calving, mating, and drying off has been shown to negatively impact growth, reproduction, and immunity. Using a trace mineral injectable containing vitamin B12 can improve trace mineral and vitamin B12 status at these critical times. Marks-Min with Vitamin B12 – The Evidence In the largest trace element study to date, Marks-Min Injectable Trace Mineral with Vitamin B12 demonstrated remarkable results when compared to a reference trace mineral injection. “Given the differences between Marks-Min and other products on the market, we wanted to generate a compelling data set to demonstrate how effective it was compared to the pioneer product. We entrusted this work to a third-party research company” says Dr Eden. “We chose farms that were at the top of their game from a reproductive perspective. We made sure that the farms had no evidence of trace element or vitamin B12 deficiencies or excess.” Across all outcomes of interest, Marks-Min demonstrated clear non-inferiority when compared to the reference product. Outcomes measured included submission, pregnancy and conception rates, and six week in-calf rate. Marks-Min demonstrated it is highly suited as an alternative treatment to the reference product. Reference: 1. Hawkins, D., and B. V. S. Franklin. New Zealand Dairy Veterinarians Newsletter 24 (2007): 12-16 Company website: livestockfirst.com.au Company email address: CustomerCare.Australia@boehringer-ingelheim.com Company video: https://vimeo.com/1138807630?fl=pl&fe=cm
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