Irrigation education a national qualification

Rob Kirk (left) and Will Bragg, from Kirk Irrigation, at an irrigation development.

When Will Bragg left school, all he wanted to do was work with horses.

But he soon realised his first passion was not going to be his fortune. He was working on his father's dairy farm in Waimate in 2014, when his father heard about a possible job at local firm Kirk Irrigation and suggested he apply.

Kirk Irrigation was established in 1999 by Rob and Pam Kirk, following the successful invention and introduction of the K Line irrigation system by Mr Kirk's brother Jon Kirk.

Mr Bragg (25) passed NCEA and got university entrance but was not interested in going to university.

He had always liked the idea of design and engineering and one of the things he excelled at in school was technical drawing.

"I thought, I have no experience in irrigation but what's the worst that could happen? So I went in to see them anyway, and the rest is history," he said.

Rob Kirk said it was obvious from the beginning that Mr Bragg had "huge ability".

"Will was clearly a person of huge potential. He picks things up so quickly. There's a lot of maths and physics in irrigation design. You need to know about computers and hydraulics and soil moisture, among other things, and do all sorts of calculations and modelling."

When the first New Zealand certificate in irrigation design came up, Mr Bragg had been at Kirk Irrigation for 18 months.

Mr Kirk thought it would be "a good thing for Will and a good thing for the company". "He was already way ahead of where I'd expected him to be after such a short time."

He studied for 18 months and graduated in August, along with 14 other students.

New Zealand was the only country to have a national qualification in irrigation design.

Irrigation New Zealand project manager Steve Breneger said the course was very rigorous. It tested the student's ability to not only design the infrastructure but to identify and mitigate any potential impact on the environment.

There was increasing demand for project managers and qualified designers in the industry, particularly with the increasing amount of compliance reporting required to improve freshwater management and monitoring.

Students worked through designing systems from beginning to end, starting with identifying customer needs, environmental impact, integrating technologies then designing a highly efficient irrigation system.

Mr Bragg enjoyed visiting farmers to understand their requirements and see the process through to installation.

He still remembered when his first irrigation system - a small K Line system - went live.

"I got to do the final installation and push the button myself. It was extremely satisfying and everything worked as it was meant to. When I went home, my partner wondered what I was so excited about. Sounds a bit silly really, but I was so excited," he recalled.

Mr Bragg now led projects himself, from start to finish, and Mr Kirk saw "a really good future" for him.