Water savings from crop residue in irrigated corn

Presented at the 15th annual Central Plains irrigation conference and exposition proceedings on February 4-5, 2003 at the City Limits Convention Center in Colby, Kansas.Includes bibliographical references

G84-690 Estimating Soil Moisture by Appearance and Feel

This NebGuide provides a guide to determining how much mositure is in different soil textures, and where it is located in the soil profile. Evaluating soil moisture is one of an irrigator\u27s most important management tools. Determining the status of the soil moisture reservoir guides the decision of not only how much to irrigate, but also when to irrigate. The appearance and feel method of monitoring soil moisture using a soil probe is still a valid procedure no matter how sophisticated the irrigation scheduling system. A measurement of soil moisture is essential to update knowledge of the need for and timing of irrigation, and the appearance and feel method can be used to obtain that information. In addition to indicating how much moisture is in the soil, this method also reveals where that moisture is located in the profile. This information is important to the irrigator as well as the dryland farmer. The depth of water penetration from irrigation or rainfall is useful in planning and making management decisions. For example, problem areas with compacted soil layers that restrict water penetration may be detected with the soil probe

G85-753 Irrigation Scheduling Using Crop Water Use Data

This NebGuide describes using the checkbook method to schedule irrigations based on crop water use data. Irrigation scheduling determines when and how much water to apply to meet crop demand. Soil water status and current crop water use are key factors for scheduling irrigations. Field observations and crop growth stage are important, but scheduled irrigations result in better rainfall use while avoiding crop water stress or excessive irrigation

Proceedings of the 24th annual Central Plains irrigation conference

Presented at Proceedings of the 24th annual Central Plains irrigation conference held on February 21-22 in Colby, Kansas.Includes bibliographical references

Proceedings of the 21st annual Central Plains irrigation conference, Colby Kansas, February 24-25, 2009

Presented at the the 21st annual Central Plains irrigation conference on February 24-25, 2009 in Colby, Kansas.Includes bibliographical references

Surface Cover from Corn Residue on Sandy Soils

Corn residue left as surface cover after land preparation and planting by various combinations of tillage implements and surface planters, respectively, was measured on four research/ demonstration sites with sandy soils in Nebraska. Surface cover ranged from 51 to 80% for the no-till treatments to 14 to 53% for the twice-disked treatments. The wide range in cover was due to the amount of antecedent residues from the previous crop and the soil type which ranged from sandy loam to tine sands. Other tillage implements included a rolling cultivator, sweep-plow, and mulch-treader

Corn and grain sorghum response to limited irrigation, drought, and hail

A field study was conducted for eight years in southwest Kansas near Garden City to measure the response of corn and grain sorghum to limited irrigation in the region. An irrigation variable was imposed on each crop, with six irrigation treatments from full irrigation scheduled to minimize soil water deficits to minimal or no irrigation. To create differences in the amount of irrigation across treatments, the time between 25-mm irrigation events increased as irrigation decreased. A historic drought occurred during 2011 and 2012 when cropping season precipitation, the precipitation occurring from the harvest of the prior crop through the harvest of the next crop, was 60% of the 30-year average. Except for 2008, average cropping season precipitation was 8% above average during the prior six years. Linear regressions of corn and sorghum grain yields (GY) and dry matter yields (DMY) versus crop evapotranspiration (ETc) from all years combined, except hail damaged sorghum in 2005, produced R2 values from 0.71 to 0.79. One hailstorm during 2005 damaged sorghum to the extent that yields did not vary with respect to ETc or irrigation. Hail events in 2005 and 2006 occurred at nearly the same growth stage for corn caused lower leaf area and yields than during other wet years with no hail. Using quadratic regressions, corn yields during wet years with no hail, wet years with hail, and dry years had distinctly different dependence on irrigation. Although sorghum yields during wet years tended to increase as irrigation increased, sorghum’s response to irrigation was less than for corn during the same years. During dry years, sorghum and corn were highly dependent on irrigation. Net economic returns (NR) of continuous corn, continuous sorghum, cornsorghum, corn-wheat, and sorghum-wheat rotations were each higher with a year receiving average precipitation (460 mm) than a year receiving 60% of average precipitation (280 mm). The NR of continuous corn dominated the rest of the rotations when irrigation was more than 230 to 330 mm in the dry year and 90 to 180 mm in wet year. As farmers choose crop rotations, they need to consider management factors and crop tolerance to soil water stress in addition to potential NR

Irrigation management strategies for corn to conserve water

Presented at the Central Plains irrigation conference on February 17-18, 2004 in Kearney Nebraska.Includes bibliographical references

Proceedings of the 24th annual Central Plains irrigation conference

Presented at Proceedings of the 24th annual Central Plains irrigation conference held on February 21-22 in Colby, Kansas.Includes bibliographical references