‘Nanobubble’ trial trims irrigation water usage
North Canterbury dairy farmer and recently-elected deputy chair of DairyNZ, Cameron Henderson, is enjoying a huge reduction in irrigation water use after converting a pivot irrigator to drag perforated drip tubes across the ground instead of elevated sprinkler heads.
The conversion is part of a ‘nanobubble’ oxygenation system produced by the Nanobubble Agritech company, which Henderson is trialling.
The nanobubble idea comes from hydroponic practise, where the roots of plants are constantly immersed in nutrient solution. Injecting very tiny bubbles of oxygen into the water, small enough to stay in suspension without dissipating, is used as a means of keeping the roots oxygenated despite being submerged.
Henderson is trialling the system to see whether the claimed benefits will translate to improved grass growth in a pastoral system. But while the jury is still out on that, he is already pleasantly surprised by a big reduction in water use.
Henderson recently hosted a field day on his farm near Oxford, which he converted from sheep in 2011.
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“I’m certainly not going to stand up here and say ‘buy the system’. That’s not my job. We’re here just trying to understand what might work for our system firstly.
“But the nanobubble stuff, we’ll see after the summer what the difference might be. We’ve got control sections out there to try and understand that.”
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