Measuring and Building Soil Health

This fact sheet provide facts about soil health and will help land managers understand what soil health is, how to measure it, and how to potentially build it on their soils

AGU hydrology days 2008

2008 annual AGU hydrology days was held at Colorado State University on March 26 - March 28, 2008.Includes bibliographical references.Burgeoning populations are increasing municipal water demand in the West, a phenomena that is changing rural and urban economies. Agricultural water is a preferred source for meeting growing demands, but transfers often require formerly irrigated land to be fallowed removing a key base industry from rural regional economies. It is no surprise that large scales transfers are greeted with highly-charged, emotionally contentious debates. One alternative to 'buy and dry' strategies is gaining interest. The alternative allows farmers to lease a portion of their water portfolio to cities. Leased water is generated as farmers reduce the consumptive use of their cropping operations by limiting irrigation. Examples of limited irrigation strategies include timing irrigations during vegetative growth and adopting innovative crop rotations. Importantly, the limited irrigation cropland remains in production so that rural economies suffer reduced effects vis a vis buy and dry activity. But will farmers adopt limited irrigation strategies if water lease markets materialize? This research examines producers’ potential adoption of limited irrigations strategies and their perceptions of lease arrangements. Potential adoption is gauged from a producer survey of South Platte River Basin farmers in Colorado, a basin experiencing significant population growth in the midst of significant agricultural production. More than 60% or respondents indicate a willingness to lease garnering between 50,000 and 60,000 acre feet of potential water supplies

AGU hydrology days 2008

2008 annual AGU hydrology days was held at Colorado State University on March 26 - March 28, 2008.Includes bibliographical references.As competition builds for water resources in the Western U.S., limited irrigation strategies for crop production are emerging to conserve agricultural water for other uses or as a way to continue to produce crops under reduced water allocations. Alfalfa is a crop with potential for water savings in a limited irrigation system. The objective of this study was to evaluate potential water saving strategies for alfalfa on the Front Range of Colorado. A field study evaluated four irrigation strategies: Full Irrigation (FI), Stop Irrigation After 2nd Cutting (S2), Spring and Fall Irrigation (SF), and Stop Irrigation After 1st Cutting (S1). Changes in yield, consumptive water use (ET), water-use efficiency (WUE), stand density, and forage quality were measured. Results of the study showed that yield decreased with ET in a fashion similar to previous research. Over the two year period, average yields were reduced by 3.1, 3.5 and 6.5 Mg ha-1 compared to the FI treatment for the S2, SF, and S1 treatments, respectively. Average ET was reduced by 28.2, 27.2, 48.2 cm compared to the FI treatment for the S2, SF, and S1 treatments, respectively. WUE increased as irrigation decreased with an average WUE of 0.251, 0.327, 0.311, and 0.351 Mg ha⁻¹ cm⁻¹ for the FI, S2, SF, and S1 treatments, respectively. Also, the number of crowns m⁻² was higher in the S2 and S1 treatments compared to the FI and SF treatments. Finally, forage quality increased as ET decreased, which may help economically offset the reduced yield. The limited irrigation of alfalfa is an approach to conserve agricultural water to meet changing water demand while still keeping an irrigated agricultural system in production