Border irrigation is still the most widely surface irrigation technique used for watering row crops worldwide, including the Padana Plain where it is mainly used to irrigate forage crops. Observations in the Lombardy Padana Plain show that a considerable amount of water, up to 3000 m3/ha, is used during each irrigation event, often resulting in excessive irrigation. This practice is unsustainable in the long term due to declining surface water supplies. Research suggests that improved management of irrigation timing and land preparation can lead to significant reductions in water use. This work investigates the potential water savings that could be achieved by optimising land preparation on a 2 ha irregular boundary field traditionally irrigated at 2300 m3/ha per irrigation event. Using detailed topographic data and the IrriSurf2D model, scenarios such as using laser levelling to improve slopes, introducing ridges and adjusting irrigation timing were investigated. The results showed that effective land preparation could save up to 47% of water per irrigation event. These results show how it is possible to increase the sustainability of border irrigation while keeping this technique alive in the Padana plain.