The power of technology on a farm is in full force at the Soil Wealth Integrated Crop Protection (ICP) Koo Wee Rup demonstration site in Victoria.
Koo Wee Rup is a family farm in Gippsland currently involved in vegetable cropping, and one of a number of Soil Wealth ICP demonstration sites across the country. Work at Koo Wee Rup is exploring the application of precision agriculture in vegetable production systems.
The aim is to improve nutrition management, irrigation and drainage management, along with insect pest and beneficial monitoring, as a basis for soil and crop health. To achieve this, the team is using technology including EM38 mapping, gridded soil sampling, variable rate fertiliser spreading, remote monitoring insect pest and beneficial identification traps with cameras, as well as drones.
While checking on progress of the precision agriculture trial, Soil Wealth ICP team member Carl Larsen recorded a short video to share how a remote weather station and attached soil moisture probes are providing practical insights to inform irrigation scheduling decisions for the farm’s crops.
The video is just one of a series available on the Soil Wealth ICP website, with other topics including soil sampling, cover crops and reduced tillage, managing saline/sodic soils, and the use of recycled organics compost.
While focussed on vegetable production, these resources provide valuable information relevant to all horticultural production.
Access the remote irrigation monitoring video here and the entire series of Soil ICP resources videos here.
This resource has been produced by the Hort Innovation-funded Soil Wealth and ICP project – jointly delivered by RM Consulting Group and Applied Horticultural Research.
