Years of investment in irrigation equipment pays off for Western Victorian dairy farming team

Sustainability-focussed dairy farmers who have invested for years to prepare their Western Victorian property for changes in weather and a host of changes affecting the dairy industry are now harnessing the benefits of their investment to benefit current and future generations on the property.

Shane and Raina Bushell along with their son Sam and long-term team members Justin Chalmers and his partner Kara have been driving to future-proof their property in Nullawarre, Victoria, against climate pattern changes that can compromise the quality of their product, which won a 2024 Dairy Australia Gold Medal for milk quality.

With a focus on no-nonsense simple farming, the Bushells and their team have invested in a range of new equipment for the farm including a disc mill, feed pad, silos, and sheds to protect machinery and hay which have been important investments. With a string of tough seasons and long hot summers, Shane believes the best investment he has made in recent years is in three new T-L centre-pivot irrigators specified in partnership with national irrigation specialists, Water Dynamics.

The Nullawarre home farm of 120ha is located 240 km west of Melbourne on the Great Ocean Road and now has about half of the farm under irrigation. Shane Bushell and his wife Raina have been improving their Nullawarre farm for more than 20 years, initially as share farmers with Raina’s parents Sid and Janice Couch before buying the farm. Everyone shares in decision-making on the farm but with drought conditions and the prospect of high bought in feed prices, Shane is happy to have the three T-L pivots growing his own grass on farm.

Hydrostatically powered, T-L systems are designed to deliver continuous movement. Gearbox wear is drastically reduced due to the absence of electrically driven system’s stop-start operation. In addition, water and chemicals are evenly distributed over the crop. T-L systems deliver the best, most consistent water pattern available. T-L planetary gears are totally enclosed, and they are coupled directly to the hydraulic motor, eliminating centre drive gearbox and conventional U-joints. T-L continuous move hydraulic drive motors and planetary gear drives are easily accessible in the event that service is ever required. Pictured is a T-L centre pivot overhang with hydraulic drive boosted end gun sprinkler

The new pivot is a four-span, 224 metre T-L hydraulic centre-pivot irrigator – specified in partnership with Water Dynamics’ Mt Gambier branch, headed by Sam Work. “The Agsense technology allows the user to remotely monitor and control irrigation systems from their phone which saves time for our customer because they don’t have to drive out to manually start their pivots,” Sam says.

“Shane and his team are the ultimate hands-on operators,” said Sam, who first met with them back in 2019. “Back then, the Bushell’s only had one old electric drive pivot that was regularly breaking down, making it unreliable and unable to apply enough water for their irrigated summer pasture. In 2019, the Bushell’s drilled a new water bore and installed their first T-L pivot fed by a new American made Verti-Line turbine electric water pump. Everything worked so well that they installed another T-L system in 2020 to replace their old electric drive pivot.

Concerned about recent poor autumn breaks, the Bushell’s installed a third T-L pivot system in 2024 to prepare for what could be a tough start to 2025. “They drought-proof the property and guarantee grass when you haven’t got rain,” said Sam Bushell.

Their latest T-L Pivot addition is designed to be the most reliable in service and simple in operation. Water Dynamics Mount Gambier have the ability to support their customers in both South Australia and the western district of Victoria because they have a service department with over 20 fully trained and experienced service technicians that have a range of skills to fix any water related problem.

The T-L’s hydraulic operation eliminates the cost and safety hazards of electric drive systems. Constant movement hydraulics eliminates the uneven ‘spoking’ effect caused by the stop-start movement of an electric pivot. T-L’s centre pivot drives use the same hydraulic components farmers are familiar with in other farming equipment, so they don’t require specialists to maintain them.

The features Shane and his team have built into their improvements are designed so the system’s operators spend less time on control and maintenance, freeing them up for other productive work on the farm.

Nelson All-Flo pressure regulators, left, are critical to achieving uniform and efficient sprinkler irrigation, maintaining constant outlet pressure to provide uniform depth of application. With S3000 spinner sprinklers, right, with D8 yellow plates to provide gentle, rain-like droplets for sensitive soils and crops.

Water Dynamics Contact

Kandy Nguyen
Marketing Coordinator
Water Dynamics (part of the Envirada Group)
T 1300 797 246
E: [email protected]
W: www.waterdynamics.com.au | www.envirada.com