Canterbury farmers win with Watermetrics™

Canterbury farmers now have access to expertise and equipment that puts them at the forefront of water consent monitoring and irrigation technology, thanks to an alliance of specialists that includes WaterMetrics.

WaterMetrics NZ is one side of a triangle of irrigation expertise, under the Hydrocom alliance. This brings together the hydrological skills of Boraman Consultants, Soil moisture sensing and telemetry expertise from Aquaflex NZ, and WaterMetrics NZ water meter technology and project management.

“The concentration of irrigation expertise in the Canterbury region today gives farmers’ access to state of the art technology that helps optimise water use, coupled to individuals who are leaders in their fields,” says WaterMetrics manager Andrew Neill. He also believes the alliance helps put some silver lining in the cloud of compliance ultimately affecting all Canterbury irrigators.

“Putting in water metering equipment will bring real savings on farm as farmers build up a history of their application patterns. Couple this to data like weather and growth rates with Aquaflex technology, that compliance requirement instead becomes a management benefit. It provides a lot of information that will save energy and water use to grow grass and crops more efficiently,” he says.

Hydrocom is one of only two companies to gain ECan “preferred provider” status for Water meters in the Rakaia - Selwyn area

The opportunity for using the technology on effluent systems, metering flow rates, coupled to Aquaflex moisture probes will ensure application will only occur when soil moisture is not too high, avoiding run-off and ponding. The technology is an easy management tool for ensure compliance for this process, particularly with telemetry networks in place.

“We now have a large number of farmers operating on this network system, who now fully appreciate the ability to manage their water consent and know they are compliant, and are realising the full potential of active management their water use on a daily basis. It is simply easier to manage and saves money and time.”

The beauty of the telemetry system is the ease of creating a compliance report at season’s end to fulfil their consent obligations, says Andrew.