Agriculture Commons^™

Mosaic Agriculture: A Guide To Irrigated Crop And Forage Production In Northern Wa, Geoff A. Moore Mr, Clinton K. Revell Dr, Christopher Schelfhout Dr, Christopher Ham Mr, Samuel Crouch Mr

Bulletins 4000 -

The Bulletin is a comprehensive guide for pastoralists, agronomists, agribusiness and the broader community on the growing of irrigated crops and pastures within a rangeland pastoral setting.

Dispersed irrigation developments on stations throughout the northern rangelands (sometimes referred to as mosaic agriculture) has created opportunities for the introduction of more productive forage species and pastoralists can now grow high quality forage for 12 months of the year. This can help to overcome the key constraint of traditional pastoral systems, the low quality of the feed over the dry season that typically results in stock losing condition.

Evaluation Of Soil Moisture Sensing Technologies In Silt Loam And Loamy Sand Soils: Assessment Of Performance, Temperature Sensitivity, And Site- And Sensor-Specific Calibration Functions, K. Sharma, Sibel Irmak, M. S. Kukal, M. C. Vuran, Amit J. Jhala, Xia Qiao

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Reliable soil moisture information is vital for optimal irrigation management, farm-level agronomic decision-making, hydrologic studies, and cropping systems modeling. A wide range of soil moisture sensing technologies is commercially available, but their performance must be evaluated for diverse conditions of use. In this research, we investigated nine soil moisture sensors based on time-domain reflectometry, capacitance, and electrical resistance principles in production field conditions with two installation orientations, i.e., vertical (V) and horizontal (H), in two soils (silt loam and loamy sand) and two growing seasons (2017 and 2018). Performance parameters deduced from the 2017 datasets revealed that sensor type and …

Increasing Groundwater Recharge Activity In The San Joaquin Valley Of California, Jacob Willhite, Jacob Willhite

Agricultural Education and Communication

Over the past several decades, groundwater has become a primary source of water used for agriculture in California. Surface water available for agricultural use has depleted due to declining rain totals and reallocation to environmental purposes. As a result, groundwater overdraft has become a severe challenge, especially in the San Joaquin Valley of California. This excessive overdraft causes a plethora of issues, one of the most serious being land subsidence (Faunt, Sneed, Traum, & Brandt, 2016). Studies suggest some areas of the San Joaquin Valley have experienced more than a 28-foot drop in the land level since the 1970’s (Alley …

Effects Of Different Water And Nitrogen Regimens On Yield Of Winter Wheat Produced In Nebraska, Joseph Emory Davis

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Wheat is the 3rd most prominent crop in the USA and approximately 50% is exported annually. Nebraska wheat production is 11^th in the country, and it plays a major role in the state's agricultural economy, especially in western NE. Generally, wheat is grown under dryland conditions and the region grows much more wheat on unirrigated land than it does on irrigated. However, deficit irrigation has shown great value in producing high yielding wheat with much less water than needed for other crops. Finding new ways to leverage irrigation in wheat production may help address the need to produce food …

Benchmarking Irrigation Water Use In Producer Fields In The Us Central Great Plains, Katherine E. B. Gibson, Justin E. Gibson, Patricio Grassini

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Efficient use of freshwater resources is necessary to balance food production and long-term sustainability of irrigated agricultural systems. Here we developed a framework to benchmark irrigation water use relative to crop yield for individual fields based on site-specific weather and soil. Subsequently, we used the framework to diagnose on-farm irrigation management, in relation to crop production, in maize and soybean producer fields in Nebraska (USA).We found actual irrigation to be similar to estimated irrigation water requirement in about half of the fields (i.e. small water surplus). Remarkably, these fields attained yields similar to fields where actual irrigation exceeded water requirements …

Landscape Foundations: A Practical & Technical Guide To Landscape Maintenance, Marco Crosland

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Many homeowners struggle to maintain healthy landscapes. Often, they simply don’t understand basic principles that, if followed, would make a significant difference in the health and appearance of their landscape. The hope of Landscape Foundations is to help homeowners maintain healthy and excellent landscapes by teaching these “correct principles”.

What makes Landscape Foundations different than other landscape guides is that it brings in current research and explains it in a simple way. This guidebook provides pictures and additional resources to explain landscape maintenance principles. It teaches both the practical and technical sides.

Landscape Foundations is written for both beginners and …

Empowerment And Tech Adoption: Introducing The Treadle Pump Triggers Farmers’ Innovation In Eastern Ethiopia, Shimelis Beyene, Teshome H. Regassa, Belaineh Legesse, Martha Mamo, Tsegaye Tadesse

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

In 2013, thirty-eight treadle pumps (TPs) were installed as low-cost technology introduction for small-scale irrigation in eastern Ethiopia. This pilot project also trained six farmers on tube well excavation, as well as the installation and maintenance of pumps. In June 2015, researchers visited nine of the thirty-eight TP villages and found only two TPs functioning as originally installed. The rest were replaced with a new technology developed by the trained farmers. Farmers, empowered by training, gained more control in developing technology options tailored to local needs and conditions of their communities. Adopters of the new technology stated that the limited …

Long-Term Winter Wheat (Triticum Aestivum L.) Seasonal Irrigation Amount, Evapotranspiration, Yield, And Water Productivity Under Semiarid Climate, Koffi Djaman, Michael O'Neill, Curtis K. Owen, Daniel Smeal, Margaret West, Dallen Begay, Samuel Allen, Komlan Koudahe, Suat Irmak, Kevin Lombard

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

A long-term field experiment was conducted from 2002 to 2014 for the evaluation of yield and water productivity of three winter wheat varieties—Kharkof, Scout 66, and TAM107—under sprinkler irrigation at New Mexico State University Agricultural Science Center at Farmington, NM. Winter wheat daily evapotranspiration was estimated following the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization FAO crop coefficient approach (ETc = Kc ETo), and crop water use efficiency (CWUE), evapotranspiration water use efficiency (ETWUE), and irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE) were estimated for each growing season. There was inter-annual variation in seasonal precipitation and irrigation amounts. Seasonal irrigation amounts varied from …

Assessing Explanatory Factors For Variation In On-Farm Irrigation In Us Maize-Soybean Systems, Katherine E.B. Gibson, Haishun S. Yang, Trenton E. Franz, Dean E. Eisenhauer, John B. Gates, Paolo Nasta, Bhupinder S. Farmaha, Patricio Grassini

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Irrigation exhibits large variation across producer fields, even within same region and year. A knowledge gap exists relative to factors that explain this variation, in part due to lack of availability of high-quality irrigation data from multiple field-years. This study assessed sources of variation in irrigation using a large database collected during 9 years (2005–2013) from ca. 1400 maize and soybean producer fields in Nebraska, central USA (total of 12,750 field-year observations). The study area is representative of ca. 4.5 million ha of irrigated land sown with maize and soybean. Influence of biophysical (weather, soil, and crop type) and behavioral …

Nitrogen And Water Effects On Canopy Sensor Measurements For Site-Specific Management Of Crops, Nicholas C. Ward

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Water and nitrogen (N) are undoubtedly the two largest agricultural inputs globally. Coupled with advances in site-specific management technology their integration into production agriculture will allow for the most efficient use these crop input resources. Active canopy sensors offer the ability to measure biophysical plant traits rapidly and make assessments about plant status. Specifically, optical sensor measurements of light reflectance assess plant N status allowing for in-season and on-the-go N recommendations and applications; while infrared thermometers (IRT) measurement of canopy temperature can be used a tool for irrigation management. To evaluate how these technologies work among different plant stress environments …

Efficient Irrigation For Recreational Turfgrass In New England: Evapotranspiration And Crop Coefficients, James W. Poro

Masters Theses

As water demand increases it will become more imperative for golf course superintendents, landscape managers, and other industry professionals to improve water use efficiency in the management of recreational turfgrass. Scheduling irrigation according to actual turfgrass evapotranspiration rates (ET_T) is an integral component of efficient irrigation practices. Impracticality of field derived ET_T for industry use, however, directs the need of weather station derived reference (predicted) evapotranspiration (ET₀). To accurately predict (estimate) ET_T of turf and other crops, scientifically derived landscape (crop) coefficients (K_c values) are used in conjunction with mathematical models that incorporate …

Soil And Crop Response To Stover Removal From Rainfed And Irrigated Corn, Ian Kenney, Humberto Blanco-Canqui, Deann R. Presley, Charles W. Rice, Keith Janssen, Brian Olson

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Excessive corn (Zea mays L.) stover removal for biofuel and other uses may adversely impact soil and crop production. We assessed the effects of stover removal at 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100% from continuous corn on water erosion, corn yield, and related soil properties during a 3-year study under irrigated and no-tillage management practice on a Ulysses silt loam at Colby, irrigated and strip till management practice on a Hugoton loam at Hugoton, and rainfed and no-tillage management practice on a Woodson silt loam at Ottawa in Kansas, USA. The slope of each soil was <1%. One year after removal, complete (100%) stover removal resulted in increased losses of sediment by 0.36–0.47 Mg ha-1 at the irrigated sites, but, at the rainfed site, removal at rates as low as 50% resulted in increased sediment loss by 0.30 Mg ha-1 and sediment-associated carbon (C) by 0.29 kg ha-1. Complete stover removal reduced wet aggregate stability of the soil at the irrigated sites in the first year after removal, but, at the rainfed site, wet aggregate stability was reduced in all years. Stover removal at rates ≥ 50%resulted in reduced soil water content, increased soil temperature in summer by 3.5–6.8 °C, and reduced tem-perature in winter by about 0.5 °C. Soil C pool tended to decrease and crop yields tended to increase with an increase in stover removal, but 3 years after removal, differences were not significant. Overall, stover removal at rates ≥50% may enhance grain yield but may increase risks of water erosion and negatively affect soil water and temperature regimes in this region.

Grain Sorghum Yield Response To Water Availability, J. P. Broeckelman, G. J. Kluitenberg, K. Roozeboom, I. A. Ciampitti

Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Reports

Yield effects of irrigation on sorghum and corn were compared, focusing only on the grain sorghum phase. Average water use for irrigation was 22 in., and dryland sorghum used 17 in. Average yields based on 12.5% grain moisture for dryland and irrigated sorghum were similar, with 138 bu/a for the irrigated and 142 bu/a for the dryland environment. Irrigated sorghum yields were similar, but in dryland, the Pioneer 84G62 hybrid yielded 149 bu/a, a 10 bu/a increase over Pioneer 84Y50 and DKS 53-67 hybrids, which yielded 139 bu/a and 138 bu/a, respectively. Although there was a difference in the yield …

Grain Sorghum Yield Response To Water Availability, J. P. Broeckelman, E. A. Adee, G. J. Kluitenberg, I. A. Ciampitti

Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Reports

Yield effects of irrigation on sorghum and corn were compared, but this report is merely focused on the sorghum phase of the crop rotation. Mean yield for irrigated sorghum was 168 bu/a, whereas dryland yield was 145 bu/a. The latter represents a yield improvement of 24 bu/a, an increase of approximately 2 bu/a per unit (in.) of water applied (considering a total of 11 in. of water applied in the irrigation block).

The irrigated sorghum used a mean of 7.8 in. more water than the dryland, which suggests that the dryland sorghum consumed 3.4 in. more water from the soil …

Drivers Of Spatial And Temporal Variation In Soybean Yield And Irrigation Requirements In The Western Us Corn Belt, Patricio Grassini, Jessica A. Torrion, Kenneth Cassman, Haishun Yang, James Specht

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Both rainfed and irrigated soybean production are important in Nebraska (western US Corn Belt), accounting for a respective 48 and 52% of the state’s soybean production of 7 Mt on a respective 55 and 45% share of the state soybean area of 1.9 Mha. To date, no assessment of factors that may account for regional and inter-annual variation in yield and irrigation amount has been performed. To accomplish that objective, we evaluated a database containing on-farm field yields and total irrigation amount used in those fields. These data have been collected annually from ca. 1000 soybean fields in six regions …

Native Grass And Forb Establishment In Post-Agricultural Soil, Courtney D. Hall

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Restoration of degraded and abandoned agricultural land in arid and semiarid climates is a global problem. The erratic patterns of precipitation these lands experience makes restoration of a plant community difficult. Application of supplemental irrigation and inoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are two restoration techniques that have been suggested to overcome deficits in natural precipitation. The effects and the interactions of irrigation and seeding date on the ground cover of intended species and unintended exotic species were tested in a post-agricultural restoration experiment in south-central Colorado, USA. The greatest ground cover of intended species and lowest ground cover of …

W283 Should Tennessee Tobacco Growers Invest In Irrigation, Fertigation Or Plastic Mulch?, Brian G. Leib, Eric F. Caldwell, Hubert J. Savoy, John R. Buchanan

Field & Commercial Crops

Version 2.0

2006 Lowbush Blueberry Project Reports, Kristi Crowe, Alfred A. Bushway, Rodney J. Bushway, Vivian Ch Wu, Brian Perkins, Pam Small, Darrell Donahue, Frank Drummond, Judith Collins, Floyd Dowell, Dorothy J. Klimis-Zacas, Mary Ellen Camire, Gordon Starr, David E. Yarborough, S Hoffmann, Daniel J. Bell, Seanna L. Annis, Tamara Levitsky, Loretta Kreider, Kristen Mcgovern, K Frost, John M. Smagula, Qian Wang, Kerry Fl Guiseppe

Wild Blueberry Research Reports

The 2006 edition of the Lowbush Blueberry Project Reports was prepared for the Wild Blueberry Commission of Maine and the Wild Blueberry Advisory Committee by researchers at the University of Maine, Orono. Projects in this report include:

1. Evaluation of Emerging Disinfection Technologies for Wild Blueberry Processing

2. Incorporation of wild blueberry puree into a soy-based burger and its effect on sensory and chemical properties of the broiled burgers

3. Infestation Detection using NIRS

4. Mechanism of Action through which Wild Blueberries affect Arterial Functional Properties in Normotensive and Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats

5. Practical Microbial Control Approach for Wild Blueberries …

2003 Wild Blueberry Project Reports, Alfred A. Bushway, Rodney J. Bushway, Kristi Crowe, Brian Perkins, Mary Ellen Camire, Kathy Davis-Dentici, Michael Dougherty, Beth Bernier, Darrell Donahue, Frank Drummond, Judith Collins, Floyd Dowell, Dorothy J. Klimis-Zacas, Gordon C. Starr, David E. Yarborough, Constance S. Stubbs, Seanna L. Annis, John M. Smagula, Ilse W. Fastook, Kerry F. Lough

Wild Blueberry Research Reports

The 2003 edition of the Wild Blueberry Project Reports was prepared for the Wild Blueberry Commission of Maine and the Wild Blueberry Advisory Committee by researchers at the University of Maine, Orono. Projects in this report include:

1. Factors Affecting the Microbial and Pesticide Residues Levels on Lowbush Blueberries

2. Effect of Blueberry Products on Oxidation in Ground Beef Patties

3. Infestation Detection using Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

4. Whole Wild Blueberries and Arterial Functional Properties

5. Irrigation Water use in Wild Blueberry Production

7. Control Tactics for Blueberry Pest Insects

8. IPM Strategies

9. Biology and Ecology of Blueberry Pest Insects, …

2001 Wild Blueberry Csrees Project Reports, Alfred A. Bushway, Mary Ellen Camire, Kathy Davis-Dentici, Michael Dougherty, Kathleen Buzzard, Rodney J. Bushway, Kristi Crowe, Brian Perkins, Darrell W. Donahue, Frank Drummond, Judy Collins, Rose Mary Seymour, Maya Panangadan, Maribeth Haines, Heather Mclaughlin, S L. Annis, C S. Stubbs, John M. Smagula, Walter Litten, Karen Loennecker, Adam Nielsen, David E. Yarborough, Timothy M. Hess, John Jemison

Wild Blueberry Research Reports

The 2001 edition of the Wild Blueberry CSREES Progress Reports was prepared for the Maine Wild Blueberry Commission and the University of Maine Wild Blueberry Advisory Committee by researchers at the University of Maine, Orono. Projects in this report include:

1. Effect of Wild Blueberry Products on Oxidation in Meat Based Food Systems

2. Factors Affecting the Microbial and Pesticide Residues Levels on Wild Blueberries

3. Determination of Pesticide Residue Levels in Fresh and Processed Wild Blueberries

4. Separation of Maggot-Infested Wild Blueberries in the IQF Processing Line

5. Water Use of Wild Blueberries and the Impact of Plant Water …

1995 Csrees Reports, Alfred A. Bushway, Therese M. Work, Huanli Zhang, Raoul Pelletier, Rodney J. Bushway, Brian Perkins, Mary Ellen Camire, Michael Dougherty, H Y. Forsythe Jr, Judith A. Collins, Frank A. Drummond, Constance S. Stubbs, Paul E. Capiello, John M. Smagula, Youzhi Chen, Scott Dunham, Walter Litten, David E. Yarborough, Timothy M. Hess, John Jemison

Wild Blueberry Research Reports

The 1995 edition of the CSREES Reports was prepared for the Maine Wild Blueberry Commission and the University of Maine Wild Blueberry Advisory Committee by researchers at the University of Maine, Orono. Projects in this report include:

1. Factors Affecting the Quality of IQF Blueberries

2. Preventing the Bleeding of Blueberry Fruit in Bakery Products

3. Removing Water from Blueberries Before Freezing

4. Determination of Pesticide Residue Levels in Freshly Harvested and Processed Lowbush Blueberries

5. Industrial Ingredients from Cull Blueberries

6. Application of Heat as a Method of Controlling Secondary Pest Insects on Lowbush Blueberries

7. The Phenology and …

Maine Blueberry Advisory Committee Research Report, H Y. Forsythe Jr, Judith A. Collins, J Riley, David H. Lambert, David E. Yarborough, E A. Osgood, Frank A. Drummond, John M. Smagula, Delmont Emerson, Warren Hedstrom, Alfred A. Bushway, Mary Ellen Camire, Rodney J. Bushway, Susan A. Ismail, Therese M. Work, Linda J. Irvine, Craig J. Schroeder, Jasotha Kugabalasooriar, Richard J. Rowe, Gilles H. Lemieux, Rene Verrault, Paul E. Cappiello, James D. Leiby, Michele C. Marra, Willem Brutsaert, David Brooks, E R. Huff

Wild Blueberry Research Reports

The 1990 edition of the Maine Blueberry Advisory Committee Research Reports was prepared for the Maine Wild Blueberry Commission and the University of Maine Wild Blueberry Advisory Committee by researchers with the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station and Maine Cooperative Extension Service at the University of Maine, Orono. Projects in this report include:

1. Biology and action thresholds of secondary blueberry pests

2. Control of blueberry maggot

3. Control of secondary blueberry pests

4. Application of steam as a method of controlling secondary pest insects on lowbush blueberry: a feasibility study

5. Pollination of the lowbush blueberry by native bees

6. …