Bringing Cotton to North Queensland
Dalby business RSA Contractors has partnered with 3rd generation cotton grower Lucas Findley to develop new cotton cropping areas in Julia Creek, North Queensland.
The open, gently sloping black soil in much of North West Queensland paired with The Flinders and Cloncurry River systems makes the region ideal for flood irrigation—a potential Lucas Findley saw in 2019 when purchasing cattle station “Etta Plains” approximately 125km north-east of Cloncurry.
Starting the 8000ha irrigated cotton project in the Etta Plains in 2019, RSA Contractors Project Manager Luke Ostwald continues to manage its development.
“RSA Contractors has a forte in earthmoving for agricultural, feedlots, and irrigation projects like this one,” says Luke.
“We’ve been at Etta Plains since the owner, Lucas Findley, bought the blank site—what was a cattle property—in 2019.
“We offer a turnkey operation. From installing pumps’ pipes to earthmoving for the bankless irrigation channels and fields, when we’re done, you can pull up to the site and irrigate cotton.”
An impressive component of the project has been the structures work, led by RSA's Brian Ostwald, undertaken in a challenging, remote setting; including the installation of seven pumps along the Flinders River bank and six tail water pumps. The river pumps supply the channel that leads from the river back to the two large ring tanks located on high ground for water storage.
These ring tanks will play a pivotal role in irrigating the surrounding fields in what will be a ‘bankless’ (also known as ‘siphonless’) irrigation system.
Heralded as the future of cotton, bankless irrigation is designed to have significant labour savings than conventional flood irrigation by eliminating the need for siphons.
With a bankless irrigation system, a ring tank gate is remotely opened, enabling water to flood down a supply drain. When the water reaches a certain height, it evenly surface floods across the field, resulting in, as some growers have claimed, improvements in water efficiency and water distribution for better yields.
As Luke claims, “Bankless irrigation is more expensive to set up but a lot less labour intensive than conventional flood irrigation. Bankless is the way of the future.”
To enable the accuracy required to landform this monumental project, RSA has trusted Vantage BMS’ range of Trimble Agriculture solutions since the project started.
“We’ve been working with Vantage BMS from the get-go,” says Luke. “We got our first Trimble product from them in 2019 and have been using them ever since.”
RSA is leveraging an array of solutions offered by Vantage BMS, including Trimble’s water management system, VerticalPoint RTK™, FieldLevel™ II, and Trimble base stations for irrigation development, including the ring tank buildings and general field levelling.
“We found GPS on its own to be too unreliable in this hotter climate and so far north,” says Luke. “Trimble VerticalPoint RTK eliminates that.”
VerticalPoint RTK enables the networking of multiple base stations to provide dynamic positioning for maximum vertical accuracy when landforming.
“We use VerticalPoint RTK to get the accuracy we need grading bankless irrigation.”
On their tow behind scrapers, RSA also uses BMS’ Cross Leveller paired with a Trimble FieldLevel™ II system to accurately control the cross slope of the blade based on the detected orientation of the tractor and the field design.
The system automatically levels the scraper to match the earthwork design, resulting in a more accurate finish.
“To make this project a success, we needed accuracy and support we could count on,” says Luke. “From the start, the Vantage BMS Townsville team delivered that.”
“Working with Vantage BMS has been exceptional,” he continues. “In the current environment, skilled personnel are hard to find. The solutions BMS has designed allows for better accuracy even with less experienced staff. It also increases efficiency and reduces costs.”
“The solutions have been reliable, easy to use, and we get good, old-fashioned support. When you need help, you get it.”
“The Trimble projects are so simple and non-fuss. You just get in and go. It’s that simple.”
