Grant helps boost cotton farm water efficiency and sustainability

Danni Ingram’s work as an agronomist put her in a great position to manage water issues on her farm in Emerald, Queensland, and with the help of the Fitzroy Basin Association and myBMP accreditation, the water efficiency gains remain impressive.

A willingness to innovate and trial new technology has always been at the forefront of the Ingram’s farming strategy and the myBMP process meant the family was already following many of the processes for efficiency anyway. With that background and knowledge, the decisions have been easy to invest time in worthwhile projects.

“We’ve taken quite a few projects with the reef grants, mainly revolving about water. So, with those grants we have implemented six moisture probes and a weather station and this allows us to ensure we are getting the optimal moisture and water usage out of our fields,” said Danni.

The Ingrams have worked with the Fitzroy Basin Association on several occasions and utilised grants for various projects, all aimed at extracting the maximum efficiencies out of sustainable land and water management.

“One of the first projects we did was helping to put in a dam at the bottom of one of our farms,” said Danni.

“The recycling dam allowed us to catch more of our runoff and contain it on farm; that’s one of the environmental things we have been able to do with one of our projects.

“There’s always room for improvement, but where we are at the moment - we’ll probably continue with what we’re doing in continually improving our water usage.

“I don’t believe a lot of farmers have a choice these days. Inputs are so expensive that no-one can afford to waste anything off their farm.

“We want to keep our farms for generations to come. A lot of family farms invest in their children taking over one day, so if we don’t put environmental sustainability first, then there’s not going to be anything for them to take over.”