2 Description of Property
2.1 LOCATION
The cropping farm selected for this study is Midway Farm, a 164 ha property located 4 km east of Darfield on the Canterbury Plains (see Figure 1) and is owned and farmed by the Van de Klundert family. Approximately 145 ha is used for cultivation of crops and 10 ha of pasture for hay silage and grazing animals. The property is essentially flat with a gradient sloping in the southeastly direction. The property is subdivided into 19 paddocks ranging in size from 2.0 to 16.5 ha.
2.2 SOILS
The soils on the property are described in Kear et al. (1967). These soils are mapped as Lismore stony silt loam soils with water holding capacity ranging from 70-100 mm to a depth of 80 cm. These soils are described as freely draining and subject to droughtiness during summer. They would benefit from irrigation. The optimum depth of water to be applied to these soils per irrigation is in the range of 35-50 mm.
2.3 CLIMATE
Irrigation season rainfall (September – April) for the area averages 513 mm, but can drop to below 300 mm. For a cropping farm, the critical months within the irrigation season that affect yield are November to January when evapotranspiration rates are high. There are often periods of up to a month with little or no rainfall, which means that for irrigation design purposes and determining required system capacity, rainfall should not be considered.
Evapotranspiration, therefore, primarily determines how much irrigation is required. Average monthly rainfall for the Darfield rainfall station (station number H32412) and potential evapotranspiration figures for Lincoln are shown on Table 1.
Table 1: Average monthly rainfall and evapotranspiration data
Month |
Mean Monthly Rainfall |
Mean
Monthly Evapotranspiration (mm) |
| September | 64 | 74 |
| October | 72 | 110 |
| November | 60 | 127 |
| December | 72 | 145 |
| January | 57 | 151 |
| February | 56 | 120 |
| March | 71 | 100 |
| April | 61 | 68 |
| Totals | 513 | 895 |
Figure 1: Location of case study farm
2.4 CROPPING PROGRAMME
A number of cereals, seed crops and green crops are grown on this property. The typical areas of each crop grown are shown in Table 2.
Table 2: Areas of crops grown
| Crop | Area (ha) |
| Brassica seed | 8 |
| Cereals (i.e. wheat and barley) | 41 |
| Clover seed | 12 |
| Grass seed | 41 |
| Peas – process | 17 |
| Peas – dry | 8 |
| Potatoes | 18 |
| Total cropping area | 145 |
The area growing the crops (145 ha) has priority for receiving irrigation water. The area in pasture (10 ha) is only irrigated when there is spare irrigation capacity.
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