Tandou Farm, 142 km southeast of Broken Hill, in what was once a vast ephemeral lake bed has been developed into some of Australia’s most productive irrigated cropping land.  Lake Tandou is a virtually flat, 17,000 hectare basin of deep cracking, self mulching grey clay of which 14,000 hectares is fully developed for irrigation.  Self mulching soils, unique topography, the local climate combined with water from the nearby Menindee Lakes Scheme make it ideal for low cost, highly productive irrigated cropping.  Tandou Farm is irrigated mainly by an innovative gravity fed furrow system designed specifically for the local conditions.  Tandou has more land under subsurface drip irrigation than any other farm in Australia.

Around Tandou Farm, there is ample evidence of our commitment to innovation, diversification and conservation.  In addition to our main crops of upland and pima cotton, durum wheat and malting barley is grown in rotation to facilitate sustainable soil management and long term cotton production.  Subject to market forces most summer row crops including sorghum, corn, soybeans, sunflowers and additional winter crops including chickpeas and canola can be grown or added to the rotation programme.  Tandou Farm's irrigated fields are designed to take advantage of the unique natural land form of the lake and where appropriate additional levelling using the latest laser based technology is conducted.  The use of laser levelling and the custom designed irrigation system results in Tandou operating irrigation fields that irrigate at above industry best practice standards.  Crops are cultivated, fertilised, managed and harvested with the aid of satellite based global positioning system (GPS) technology, information gathered using these systems allows Tandou to improve crop management on a continuous basis.

We rely on advanced computers and software to obtain vital information on crop progress and ensure the best yields from our crops.  Weather and soil moisture data is gathered on site and logged to computer systems which are integrated to irrigation systems to ensure crops receive the correct amount of precious irrigation water.  Tandou regularly conducts plant variety, nutrition and management trials which are essential elements in our progressive cropping strategy.  Tandou’s rotation policy coupled with permanent beds, reduced tillage, full crop residue retention and compost addition is increasing soil carbon levels to and above original levels, thus creating a more robust cropping system.

Tandou is Australia’s largest producer of the high value, long staple cotton species known as pima cotton.  Tandou’s pima cotton is processed on site and marketed direct under long-term relationships to European and Asian spinning mills.  As part of Tandou’s value-adding strategy, we are one of only three cotton growers in Australia with ginning facilities for pima as well as upland cotton.  Further to Tandou’s ability to respond to market requirements is our ability to store up to 30,000 tonnes of grain on site providing market flexibility.

Water use

All of our land holdings are in semi arid regions and these climates and geography provide unique advantages for low risk, irrigated cropping.  They are ideal for a grower whose core strength is sound water management.  Tandou Farm is in an area that has the lowest rainfall of any Australian region with a reliable water source, the Menindee Lakes Scheme.  The average annual rainfall is low, however the catchment area is large and water can travel 2,000 km before being stored in the Menindee Lakes providing an extensive, secure base water supply.

The unusual topography of Tandou Farm (a virtually flat basin with low hills to the north and east) and its soil have facilitated development of an advanced and low cost gravity fed irrigation system.  The unique swelling and sealing properties of the farm's clay soil allow highly efficient furrow irrigation. Tandou Farm’s irrigation area is a closed system, protected from flooding by a 1 km levee bank which also prevents drainage of tail water into local creeks and rivers.  The system is designed to allow storage, re-circulation and reuse of all the water that passes through the levee bank onto Tandou Farm.  Cotton provides a higher return per megalitre (ML) of water than any other broad acre crop grown under irrigation in Australia.  The Murray Darling Basin Commission statistics state that growing pasture requires double the quantity of water as cotton to generate the same profit.

Innovation

Tandou has the largest subsurface drip irrigation developments in NSW and it uses technology from Israel, one of the most water efficient countries in the world.  The subsurface drip irrigation allows Tandou to optimise the application of water and fertiliser to high yielding annual row crops such as pima and upland cotton, wheat and barley. The system is utilised to deliver water and nutrients direct to the root zone of the crop saving 20% of the water used to grow conventionally irrigated crops.

Tandou composts all of the waste products from the cotton ginning process, using a process that takes approximately 12 weeks to turn gin trash into valuable compost that improves soil health.  Once the composting process is complete, a large custom built spreader is used to return the compost to the fields of Tandou Farm.

Tandou employs a skilled team of agronomic specialists to monitor and manage the crop production. This team has many years of experience in producing crops in this environment.  The team plans detailed crop rotations, monitors crop growth and development, optimises pest control, monitors irrigation decisions and manages the harvest process.  One of the greatest tools the Tandou agronomy team has to enable it to effectively manage the valuable water resources of Tandou Farm is the water monitoring system.  This water monitoring uses advanced systems such as continuously logging flow devices, soil moisture probes and weather stations.  Much of the water monitoring system at Tandou is connected to radio and telephone systems to allow information to be gathered, accessed and actioned around the clock.