Irrigated dairying is a major farming activity in the Murray Valley Irrigation Area (MVIA), in north-east Victoria, contributing greatly to this State's economy. Most of the dairy farmers in this area flood irrigate their pastures. For better pasture quality and quantity, efficient irrigation is vital. The project entitled "Establishing a Process to Improve Irrigation Automation," realising the importance of irrigation for the dairy industry, has defined some key best irrigation management practices for the area. The practices followed by farmers in regard to these locally identified best irrigation practice benchmarks were assessed during 1995, before the implementation of the project and again re-visited during 1998, after the implementation of the project. The comparative results during the two study periods are presented