Irrigation Water Management for the Next Decade

Irrigation water management is becoming more important as irrigation competes for limited water supplies and energy, and as lands throughout the world degrade and decline in productivity because of poor water management. This paper discusses the state-of-the-art of irrigation water management and its effects on water and energy conservation, current trends and new developments in on-farm irrigation systems, recent developments in water use-crop production technology, new irrigation scheduling technology, and lists expected changes in technology

Discussion: Irrigation Requirements of Lawns

Engineers must estimate consumptive use although, in many cases, only limited supporting data are available. T. Quackenbush and J. T. Phelan have presented a method for estimating water requirements of lawns based on a modified Blaney-Criddle formula. They have stated that the irrigation water requirements can be computed using the modified formula and that they believe that reasonable estimates can be made for lawn grasses. However, no tangible evidence was presented that confirms or supports these statements. The modern practicing engineer is aware that estimating procedures do not yield precise answers. The engineer must know the confidence limits to be expected of an estimating procedure, i.e., will the calculated monthly consumptive use values be within ± 10% or ± 15% of the actual consumptive use most of the time? A comparison between calculated consumptive use using the proposed procedure and accurate lysimeter data not used in the original development of the empirical procedure would provide this information. At the least, a comparison between calculated values using the proposed procedure and the original data from which the procedure was derived would indicate its reliability

Advances in Conserving and Recycling Water

Major efforts to conserve water are most evident in areas where water supplies now limit crop production, or where available supplies can be expected to decrease severely in the near future. Use of water-conserving practices in these areas may be stimulated by legal actions that prohibit irrigation tailwater from entering barrow pits along roadways, because of expensive silt removal, or from entering shallow lakes where water may be wasted through evaporation

Irrigation Scheduling for Farm Crops

This paper summarizes the needs of managers of modern irrigated farms and the status of a user-oriented irrigation-scheduling computer program designed to provide managers with estimates and predictions required for optimum irrigation water management

Discussion: Estimating Evaporation from Insolation by R. K. Lane

Formula and notes to estimate evaporation from insolatio

Changes in Nitrate-Nitrogen Concentration in Sugar Beet Petioles as Influenced by Irrigation and Fertilizer Practices

Sugar beets must be properly irrigated and fertilized to maximize sugar production. Both yield and sugar content can be materially altered by water or fertilizer deficiency or excesses (4, 5). Farm operators must carefully manage fertilization and irrigation to obtain the greatest net return from sugar beets

Performance and Design of Border Checks on a Sandy Soil

LEVEL and low-gradient border checks for irrigating field crops are used where irrigation water is limited, where periodic leaching of salts is required, and where maximum use of rainfall is desired. Level basin irrigation has been used for centuries, especially for rice irrigation. In northern Italy where rice is one crop in the rotation, level basins are used for irrigation of other farm crops. These systems briefly described by Mead (5) * are still in use today. Petrov (7) described similar systems on natural slopes in the Golodnaya Steppe where land slopes range from 0.05 to 0.25 percent

Solar Reflectance from Soil and Crop Surfaces

Solar reflectance from soil and crop surfaces was measured with two Eppley pyrheliometers, one mounted upward and the other downward. Periodic measurements of one to several days' duration were taken over corn, sugar beets, alfalfa and barley at various stages of growth during the growing season. In addition, reflectance values were obtained for bare soil (Fort Collins clay loam), both wet and dry, and for other cultural variations including irrigation, cultivation, crop removal, etc. Results are expressed as the ratio of reflected to incoming short-wave radiation for a solar day

Effects of Alfalfa, Crop Sequence, and Tillage Practice on Intake Rates of Pullman Silty Clay Loam and Grain Yields

The High Plains of Texas is one of the largest irrigated areas in the United States. Most of the 5.7 million acres irrigated in Texas (1959 census) is concentrated in the High Plains. The area is unique because most of the irrigated land is of one soil series-Pullman. Pullman soils represent over 5 million acres of the “hardlands” in the Southern High Plains of Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. The term “hardlands” is used extensively when referring to the High Plains because of the soil characteristics of the area. The soils are mostly clay loams and silty clay loams. The have low intake rates, are dense, and become very hard and difficult to till when dry. The differences between the clay loams and silty clay loams are minor. The physical characteristics of a given layer of these Pullman soils are very uniform over large areas, some as extensive as several counties

Predicting the Nitrogen Needs of Sugar Beets by Petiole Analysis

Sugar beets are grown extensively in areas where fertilization and irrigation can be regulated to maximize sugar production and net returns per unit area. The yield and sugar content of sugar beets can be materially affected by either deficiencies or excesses of water and fertilizer. Nitrogen, in particular, has a great effect on yield and sugar content of beets. Inadequate nitrogen limits root yield. On the other hand, excess residual or applied nitrogen stimulates top growth and reduces root sugar percentage