Naming a volume
One of the few farm decisions you cannot undo.
A scheme nomination fixes both a capital contribution and an annual charge that is payable whether you use the water or not, usually for the life of the scheme. Nominate short and you cannot top up later at foundation prices. Nominate long and you pay every year for water you never draw.
Most growers arrive at their figure the same way, by looking at what they currently apply. That is a reasonable instinct and it is usually wrong, for a reason set out below.
We model the demand from your actual enterprise mix, crop by crop and stage by stage, price each candidate volume against the scheme’s own terms, and put a recommended figure in writing under the name of our agronomist. You get the working model as well, so you can move an area and watch the answer change.
Who it is for
Four decisions, one question underneath.
Scheme nominations, licence applications, water purchases and property purchases all turn on the same number: what does this place actually need to grow what you intend to grow.
You have already nominated
More than a hundred growers signed on as foundation customers of the Lockyer Valley and Somerset scheme. Most named a figure without a farm-specific model behind it. There is still a decision point ahead, and it is worth knowing whether your number holds before you commit more capital to it.
You are still deciding
Not all of the scheme’s capacity has been taken up. If you are weighing whether to come in, and at what volume, the question is the same: what does your enterprise mix actually require, and what does each option cost you every year from here on.
You are buying or expanding water
Bore licence applications, allocation purchases and converting dryland country to irrigation all turn on the same number. The modelling does not care where the water comes from.
You are buying a property with water attached
An entitlement that looks generous on the contract can be short for what you intend to grow. We can run this alongside a pre-purchase due diligence assessment so the water and the country get checked together.
Why your own figure probably runs low
What you apply is not what the crop needs.
Nominate off constrained historical use and you lock the constraint in
permanently.
In a district where water has been tight, the volume you have been putting on is a record of what you could get, not what the crop wanted. Every dry season you have managed around a shortfall is baked into that number.
The gap is not small. Published figures put actual irrigation of lucerne and cereal hay in the Lockyer at between 1.3 and 2.7 megalitres a hectare. Measured water requirement for lucerne at the nearest research station, roughly forty kilometres away, is 4.7 megalitres a hectare in an average rainfall year and 6.3 in a dry one. Vegetables show the same pattern.
On our first assessment of this kind the grower was contemplating 65 to 80 megalitres. The modelled requirement at full production was 90. That is the difference between an entitlement that carries the farm and one that constrains it for decades, at prices that do not come round again.
What the assessment covers
Every enterprise, every stage, fully sourced.
The model is built from your enterprise mix, not from a district average, and every rate in it traces to a published source.
- Enterprise water demand. Each crop, pasture and livestock class on the place, on the right basis for that enterprise. Tree crops are modelled per hectare or per tree depending on how they are planted. Vegetables are modelled per crop cycle, because a block that runs three crops a year needs three times the water of one that runs a single crop, and that is the most commonly missed figure in the whole exercise.
- Demand as the farm develops. Orchards and vines do not draw their full requirement for years. We model establishment, developing and mature demand separately, so you can see what you will actually use in year two against what you are paying for.
- A low, middle and high case. Areas you have not settled on and rates that carry genuine uncertainty are shown as a band, not hidden inside a single confident number. Where a figure has no published regional source, we say so on the face of the model rather than burying it.
- What each volume costs. Capital contribution staged as the scheme stages it, the annual fixed charge, the variable charge, and the effective cost per megalitre while your plantings are still establishing. That last figure is usually the one that changes minds.
- Existing on-farm storage. Dams measured off current satellite imagery and assessed for whether they are a genuine buffer or simply stock water. A dam that is dry or vegetated on this year’s imagery is not storage until someone has walked it.
- Water quality against your crops. Whether the supply on offer suits what you intend to grow, tested against published salinity and stock drinking thresholds, with the caveats stated plainly. Recycled and treated supplies need their full ionic analysis, not just a headline salinity figure.
Service and fees
Start with the number. Plan around it after.
Most growers only need the first one. The development plan is there for when a volume has to become a farm layout that actually uses it.
Water Demand Assessment
For anyone naming, reviewing or defending a volume- Intake session and enterprise mapping
- Full demand model, sourced rate by rate
- Establishment, developing and mature demand
- Low, middle and high case band
- Costings against each candidate volume
- Existing storage assessed
- Agronomist sign-off
- Written recommendation, and the working model to keep
Whole-Farm Development Plan
For turning a volume into a farm layout that uses it- Layout and grazing system. Land use allocation, paddock subdivision, laneways and fencing, carrying capacity, pasture species and establishment, stock water reticulation. Includes a full day on farm. $5,900 + GST
- Orchard layout. Block layout, row orientation and spacing, integration with grazing, planting sequence against expected first water, and engagement of a horticultural specialist for cultivar selection. $3,250 + GST plus the specialist at cost
- Irrigation design brief and tender. A written brief from your demand model, storage strategy, connection requirements, put to designers and installers, with their responses compared in plain English. $5,250 + GST plus the designer paid direct
Soil characterisation of proposed planting sites is available as an add-on at $160 per site for sampling and $160 per site for written interpretation, with laboratory analysis at cost and no travel charge if it is done during a scheduled site visit.
How it works
From first call to a figure you can defend. Four steps.
Allow around two weeks from the intake session. If you are working to a lodgement deadline, say so at the first call.
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Intake.
Half an hour on the phone or at the farm. Enterprises, areas, planting intentions, stock, existing storage, and how you lodge. We will ask for a range rather than a single number wherever you are still deciding.
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We model it.
Every rate traced to a published source, with the ones that carry real uncertainty flagged on the face of the model rather than smoothed over.
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Agronomist sign-off.
The planning values and the recommended volume are reviewed and adopted by our agronomist before anything reaches you. The recommendation carries his name.
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Your recommendation.
A short written summary with the recommended volume, what it costs staged, what the annual charge means at full use and while you establish, and the working model so you can test your own scenarios.
Whose side we are on
We advise on your farm, not on the scheme.
Schemes have their own consultants, and their job is the scheme. Ours is your property. We hold no reseller ties and take no product commissions, and we are not paid on the volume you nominate. If the modelling says you need less than you thought, that is what the report will say.
Common questions
Frequently asked questions.
I have already nominated. Is it too late to be useful?
No. Scheme contributions are usually staged, so there are further decision points ahead of you, and each one is a moment to confirm the commitment still makes sense. Knowing whether your figure is sound before you pay the next instalment is worth more than knowing after. If you nominated high, there are trading provisions in most schemes. If you nominated low, you want to understand that now rather than in year eight.
Why would your figure be higher than what I currently use?
Because what you currently use reflects what you have been able to get. In a constrained district those are different numbers, sometimes by a factor of two or more. We model the crop’s requirement, then show you the gap against your actual use and explain it, so you can judge it rather than take it on faith.
What does the annual fixed charge actually mean?
On most schemes it is payable on the volume you nominated regardless of how much you draw. That makes under-use expensive in a way growers routinely underestimate. On our first assessment, a 90 megalitre nomination carried a fixed charge of $45,000 a year, which worked out at roughly $1,200 per megalitre actually used while the plantings were establishing, against $538 at full production. It is a real cost of a staged development and it belongs in the decision.
How much water does an average farm need?
There is no useful average, which is the point. Demand is driven by what you grow and how intensively. A hectare of strategically irrigated pasture might need 2.5 megalitres a year. A hectare of salad vegetables triple cropped can need twelve. Two neighbours with the same area can differ by an order of magnitude.
Do you size pumps and design the irrigation system?
No, and we will say so plainly rather than take the work. Hydraulic design, pump and filtration sizing and certification are done by a qualified irrigation designer. What we do is specify the job properly, put it to the market, and make sure what you are sold matches what the property actually needs. The designer is paid by you directly. The same applies to cultivar selection, where we engage and manage a horticultural specialist rather than guess.
Is recycled or treated water safe for my crops?
Usually the headline salinity figure is fine, and that is not the whole question. Chloride, sodium and the sodium adsorption ratio are the real damage vectors for tree crops, and a salinity-only specification does not show them, so we ask for the full ionic analysis. Low-calcium water can also affect infiltration on clay soils, which is a soil structure question we can advise on directly. Where no published standard covers an intended use, we tell you that rather than imply a clearance we cannot give.
How long does it take?
Allow around two weeks from the intake session, longer if we need to research a crop we do not already hold a sourced water use figure for. If you are working to a lodgement deadline, tell us at the first call, and tell us your agent’s cut-off rather than the scheme’s, because agents usually want the paperwork several days early.
What do you need from me to start?
The lot and plan for the property, your enterprise areas and planting intentions, stock numbers, a rough idea of your existing dams, and any scheme documentation you have been sent. If you have been keeping water use records, bring those too. They will not set the answer but they are a useful cross-check.