With farmers realising the benefits of fast watering, the bay outlets started getting wider.
To further improve OH&S for the farmer we reconfigured our structures with a walkway to allow for safe crossing.
2010 – Walkways on Bay Outlets
2010 – Moira Shire Business Excellence Awards: Winner for Environmental Excellence
Moira Shire Mayor Cr Ed Cox congratulated the nominees for their outstanding achievements and commitment to excellence.
“I would like to congratulate the award winners and acknowledge the high calibre of the nominees. The business awards are an opportunity to celebrate business excellence in the Moira Shire” Cr Cox said.
Nominees have demonstrated innovation, entrepreneurship, leadership and commitment. These businesses and individuals have excelled in trying economic conditions and I once again congratulate them on their achievements,” Cr Cox said.
2009 – The Argentinean experiment
In a proactive attempt to look for new markets as the Millennium drought really put the squeeze on Australian agriculture, Padman Stops went global!
John and Shawn teamed up with John Schofield to setup a plant in the small regional village of BahÃa Blanca, Argentina. While their soils were very porous, they benefited from fast watering from the four different molds we sent over in a shipping container, that was then converted into a concrete curing oven.
Over three memorable trips with lots of fantastic hospitality (they know how to BBQ) and great memories (lost luggage was an interesting one), we continued to supply them with materials and set them up for a thriving business.
As 2010 rolled around we became very busy back home as the drought broke and the eventuation of the on-farm efficiency program, so we left them to it. We suspect the River Diniro irrigation district would have a lot of Padman Stops in it by now!
2008 – Award Winning Innovation
National savewater! awards® Winner: Regional & Rural category
Judge’s Comments:
Padman Stops have been able to increase the efficiency of flood irrigation without increased energy use.
They have shown potential to make significant future improvements in the industry by means of on farm efficiency as well as environmental improvements as a flow on effect.
2008 – Cotton Industry Solutions
While the company continued to innovate and supply the Dairy, Rice & Cropping industries for Victoria and southern NSW, the millennium drought proved a challenge for everyone. During this period, Padman Stops began research and development on irrigators needs further away across the nation and found potential within the cotton industry.
Like many R & D projects before and since, we made a big effort to understand what the farmers needed and set about using our experience to develop products that would improve their farms profitability.
Our products have been well received and we look forward to continuing to innovate to find more efficient ways to conserve water and operational costs for the industry.
2007 – Shawn rejoins the company
As Shawn was in primary school when the company started, he grew up taking an interest and working within the business through his teens and early twenties.
Like many, Shawn traveled the world and put many of these skills to use in a variety of industries and returned home in his late twenties to help as the millennium drought really tested the industry, not to mention the company.
2004 – Fast Watering
Definition of fast watering in 2004:
Surface Irrigation applied faster than 10 ML/day per HA
In 2004, Padman Stops began their “Fast Watering” project, with the aim of creating a high efficiency irrigation system. The theory behind the system was that irrigating faster than the water can soak below the root zone would result in higher effeciency.
John Padman, with this in mind, built a pump with a flow meter that could be used in a trial to measure the effect of “Fast Watering”. Trials conducted have found that the faster the water, the less water is used.
In one trial the application rate of the pump was found to be down to 0.3 mega-litres (30mm application) of water per hectare compared to 0.77 mega-litres (77mm application) per hectare for conventional irrigation.
In recent times, the irrigation industry has been overwhelmed by drought and water restrictions. The aim of the “Fast Watering” project is to reverse this trend.
The findings from three farms that were monitored during the irrigation season between August 2007-2008 are that “Fast Watering” has resulted in water savings of 180.92 mega-litres.
This is the equivalent of approximately 72 Olympic sized swimming pools*.
Water Saving Advantages:
• Additional water can be used to grow more feed or sell.
• Reduced water logging, and soil degradation.
• Increased plant growth, and reduce weed growth.
• Minimize leaching of nutrients.
• Low energy, green irrigation is more carbon efficient.
Keys that control infiltration rate:
• Watering speed
• Soil Condition
• Plant Density
• Soil Type
• Length of Bay
• Slope of Bay
*Calculation based on FINA approved Olympic sized swimming pool of 2.5ML
2002 – MaxiFlow Culvert
As the Padman Stops brand and our flat stops and pipe ends became more popular, we were often asked if we made pipes. With some well established companies making quality pipes that suited our product, we were happy to supply their pipes with our products.
After talking to customers, installers and drivers about some of their pain points with round pipe John went into his shed again and began the design process for the MaxiFlow.
The MaxiFlow is a flat bottomed structure with a high strength arched opening that can be extended with multiple units to make custom width crossings. The ease of transport and installation, minimal silting and high flows have given farmers an alternative to round pipes.
They have become so popular we have setup a new company solely focused on a variation of this product that can cater to different applications across exciting new industries.
2021 will be the year for Padman Quick Culverts! 😉
1999 – Hydraulic ram automation
We designed and installed approximately a dozen Hydraulic Water Ram systems across Victoria between 1999-2004.
Many of these are still working to this day.
1998 – Supplying for Goulburn Murray Water projects
John supplied a dozen Overshot style doors to the Goulburn Murray Water supply scheme, who found them to be an excellent solution for some of their Channel stop applications.
These structures were fitted with a custom automation system supplied by Ken Messner of kMed automation, our specialist electronics contractor of 20 years.
GMW have remained a great client over the decades requesting a range of products for their projects.
1997 – Getting busy
It wasn’t long until the business outgrew the back shed and new sheds and an admin office popped up in the front paddock.
1995 – Overshot Door
It wasn’t long until the demand for deeper doors brought about the ‘B’, ‘C’ & ‘D’ series for the Bay Outlet application.
With water delivery systems requiring even deeper doors, the demand was there for us to create the Overshot, which was the deepest door available at the time and capable of being used as a Channel Stop.
Being 100% watertight and easily transported due to the removable upstream and downstream anti-erosion wings, the Overshot remains a core product to this day.
