Rubicon Water has secured the Australian master distributorship for AquaSpy products. The deal brings together two of Australia's most established leaders in irrigation technology and means Rubicon can now offer integrated irrigation automation solutions from the dam to right through to the plant root zone.

AquaSpy designs, manufactures and distributes industry-leading soil moisture sensors, monitoring software and associated radio technology for the irrigation market. The technology provides irrigators with real-time information on plant water use, enabling them to time their irrigations to maximise plant growth and minimise water use.

Rubicon Water is recognised the world over for its unique water control gates, flow meters and automation of irrigation water supply systems. The company is currently automating the Goulburn- Murray Irrigation District, Australia's largest irrigation district. Rubicon has developed the same technology to provide an industrial grade on-farm irrigation automation solution called FarmConnect and the AquaSpy range will closely compliment it.

Rubicon Water CEO Bruce Rodgerson said the deal would strengthen the FarmConnect offering and create Australia's most advanced automated irrigation scheduling and control solution.

"Over the years Rubicon has worked very closely with AquaSpy, having integrated their soil moisture technology right at the early stages of the FarmConnect development process. They are a leader in the on-farm market and it was obvious that our FarmConnect offering would benefit greatly from closer integration with their technology, as well as their unrivalled experience at delivering irrigation technology to the farm." Rodgerson said.

FarmConnect provides farmers with smart technology that enables dramatic improvements in water use efficiency. Not only does the technology enable reduced water use but with precise plant management and irrigation control, farmers can produce better quality crops while maximizing yield.

FarmConnect achieves these gains by combining a solar-powered wireless farm network with sophisticated software to enable computer monitoring and control of farm devices such as bay outlets, pumps, valves, moisture sensors and weather stations.

By incorporating AquaSpy's technology into FarmConnect, Rubicon now offers farmers a new kind of irrigation automation - a single, industrial quality end-to-end solution that is designed to last.

FarmConnect also integrates with a wide range of third party devices to create a truly flexible solution.

Peter Moller, formerly AquaSpy's Business Development Manager will be joining Rubicon to head up its FarmConnect division. A qualified irrigation agronomist, Moller has a wealth of international irrigation management experience, having worked in the Australian, North and Latin American, Middle East, South African and Southern European markets.

Moller said the deal is an exciting development for AquaSpy dealers and end users.

"While it is business as usual going forward, the AquaSpy offering will now be backed by Rubicon's substantial experience in the automation of large-scale irrigation systems as well as their ongoing investment in research and development in this area. We can offer customers the ability to develop their existing systems beyond soil moisture monitoring. With FarmConnect they can build in powerful scheduling software and remote control of field devices to provide full irrigation automation. This will give farmers everything they need to see substantial gains in irrigation efficiency, leading to reduced costs and improved productivity". Moller said.

For more information on FarmConnect contact Peter Moller peter.moller@rubiconwater.com