Application performance of travelling irrigators

Abstract

The primary aims of this work were two-fold. Firstly, to evaluate the application performance of a cross-section of travelling irrigators available within New Zealand. The performance characteristics investigated were uniformity of application depth and the extent to which surface redistribution of applied water occurred due to mismatch between application rates and soil infiltration rate. The second main aim was to propose design techniques and guidelines which will help designers and farmers choose the most suitable machine(s) for specific situations. To this end, the application performance of eleven large travelling irrigators was measured using a sophisticated monitoring system designed and built by NZAEI.