Long Rail Gully Wines in Murrumbateman, NSW, is the first vineyard in Australia to install the new Toro Tempus® Ag wireless battery central control system. Growing various wine varieties on 165 acres, owners Richard and Petra Parker got in contact with Toro Australia after seeing information on the new Toro Tempus Ag LoRa (Long Range) battery control system on LinkedIn.
The Parkers 25-year-old vineyard control system had all of its under-ground wires destroyed by wombats and they were quoted over $25,000 to trench and wire a new system.
After reading that the new Toro Tempus Ag control system could be set up and installed in a few hours and would cost 2/5 the cost of a new system the Parkers decided to get in contact.
Michael Lenehan, Toro’s Commercial Irrigation Sales Manager in NSW completed an audit on the vineyard’s existing system. Richard really liked that the Tempus Ag system could be run via his PC, phone or tablet. The software and Tempus Ag App were easy to use and with the in-field battery controllers having an 800m radio radius back to the Wi-Fi Gateway in his office, all his valves were quickly communicating.
Michael Lenehan commented that the Tempus Ag automation system can help growers be confident that they will spend less time setting up and maintaining their irrigation system and more time growing a healthy crop.
Twelve Tempus Ag 1-station LoRa radio battery controllers were placed at twelve 50mm field valves with DC coils. One Tempus Ag battery controller is connected to a flow meter and another is connected to a fertigation pump. A Tempus Ag latching pump relay is connected to the vineyard's variable speed pump.
A single Wi-Fi gateway is used for communications to the LoRa Tempus Ag in-field battery controllers and the whole system can be run through the phone app or computer. This is a major advantage to the Parkers as they are able to use their system from the comfort of the office or from anywhere in the world.
Irrigation supply was through Toro dealer Nutrien Water in Bomaderry, NSW.