From Sensors to Knowledge Products: Sentek Technologies
Sentek sensors installed in a field.
Sentek users consult data on a tablet.
S
entek Technologies is an Australia-based irrigation solutions company active around the world. While sensor technology is its mainstay, Sentek’s broader offerings fall into the category of knowledge products. Knowledge products include data analysis and recommendations that help answer substantive questions like how deep to irrigate or how to space one’s crops. In this interview, Sentek cofounder Peter Buss tells Irrigation Leader about the company’s origins, its products, and trends in the irrigation management world today. Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about your background.
12 | IRRIGATION LEADER | June 2020
grown, similar to the case in California. We have a lot of visits from Californians and vice versa. I started an irrigation management service using a portable device called a neutron probe. It was labor intensive to collect data with this instrument. You had to have all sorts of security training, and you had to wear radiation badges. You would take readings by lowering the radioactive probe into an aluminum access tube that was installed in the ground, pressing a button, waiting 16 seconds for the reading, and lowering it to the next soil depth level. It sounds low tech, but in 1986 it was revolutionary, and the growers I worked with started to appreciate it. A lot of areas were severely overwatered. We had water tables at 1 meter, and a lot of money was spent putting drainage systems in. That’s all gone today: Hardly anybody is using drainage systems anymore because of how fantastic a job irrigation scheduling did. Today, using the same amount of water they did in 1986 on a regional basis, growers can irrigate a significantly larger orchard area. irrigationleadermagazine.com
PHOTOS COURTESY OF SENTEK.
Peter Buss: I was born in Germany and migrated to Australia in 1986. I studied tropical agriculture in Germany, specializing in irrigation management and plant nutrition in Australia. When I arrived in Australia, I was offered a job in the Australian Department of Agriculture to set up a commercial irrigation scheduling service. In Australia, citrus, almonds, and vines are the main crops
Sentek’s fully encapsulated Drill & Drop probe, installed in the ground.
