Future of Farming

The Total Eden Group recently designed, supplied and installed a 1.2 kilometre lateral move irrigator on the Rockliff family’s “Windermere” property not far from Dalby, in Queensland’s Darling Downs region.  

Noel and Greg Rockliff, who primarily grow winter cereals and cotton, state that it is “difficult not to be overawed by the newcomer to the property,” which is one of Australia’s largest. “But it well worth it,” they advise of the system.  

Overnight, the lateral move system has raised the value of their property by turning more of their dry-land cropping acreage into a highly productive irrigation set-up. “Previously, one 90 hectare section of flood irrigation used to take us five days to water, but now we have been able to water about 100 hectares of wheat in about 25 hours,” Noel said.  

The Rockliff’s say they applied only 30 Ml with their lateral irrigator, compared to nearly 100 Ml when flood irrigated – a saving of almost 70 Ml. The brothers agree the “worst thing about flood irrigation” is trying to get the water to run evenly across the paddock.

“It used to flow across the paddock at a right angle, making it impossible to get an even application across the crop.” “Now, all 1.2 kilometre is being watered at the same time, given us even looking crops and significant labour savings. This irrigator’s all about the future of farming and using your water more efficiently and effectively,” Greg Rockliff said, “and we couldn’t be more happier with the Total Eden Group, who designed, supplied and installed the system.”