Investing in improved irrigation scheduling to increase pasture growth in northern Tasmania

Improved irrigation scheduling was implemented on a centre pivot that irrigated a 141ha area of pasture for dairy production at Meander in Tasmania. Improved irrigation scheduling provided benefits with pasture growth rates being approximately 20 kg DM/ha/day higher on the case study farm than the nearby farms (this was estimated to produce an additional 3.6 t DM/ha over the 180 day period). Investing in improved irrigation scheduling was a very profitable option for this site, even if an extra 0.5 t DM/ha of pasture is consumed.