Agriculture Commons^™

Use Patterns And Influencing Factors Of Irrigation Best Management Practices In The Lower Mississippi River Basin, Merri E. Day

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study uses the 2016 Irrigation Survey from Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi to document the use of irrigation best management practices (IBMPs), analyze use patterns, and use quantitative methods to determine factors that influence producers’ decisions regarding IBMPs. IBMPs included in the survey can be grouped as: field management practices (zero-grade leveling, precision-grade leveling, end blocking, warped surface, and deep tillage), water flow control practices (computerized pipe-hole selection, multiple-inlet irrigation, surge irrigation, alternate wetting and drying, cutback irrigation, flow meters, and pump timers), water recovery/storage practices (tail-water recovery system and on-farm storage reservoir), and advanced irrigation scheduling practices (soil moisture …

Flowering Regulation Of Potted Bougainvillea Plants Under Five Water Treatments [Research Note], Kuan-Hung Lin, Jui-Mei Li, Chun-Wei Wu, Yu-Sen Chang

The Philippine Agricultural Scientist

Bougainvillea (Bougainvillea buttiana) is a very popular evergreen landscape plant in the tropical and subtropical areas. The objective of this study was to investigate the growth, flowering, and physiological performance of bougainvillea ‘Taipei Red’ cultivar in response to water-stress conditions that can potentially be used to maximize the economic efficiency and benefits in the development and ACC potential of bougainvillea plants grown in controlled environments. Potted plants were subjected to five different levels of soil VWC: 60% (control), 40%, 20%, 1/3 of leaves visually observed to be drooping (equivalent to 18% VWC), and 2/3 of leaves drooping (15% …

Arkansas Soybean Research Studies 2020, Jeremy Ross

Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Series

The 2020 Arkansas Soybean Research Studies includes research reports on topics pertaining to soybean across several disciplines from breeding to post-harvest processing. Research reports contained in this publication may represent preliminary or only data from a single year or limited results; therefore, these results should not be used as a basis for long-term recommendations. Several research reports in this publication will appear in other University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station publications. This duplication is the result of the overlap in research coverage between disciplines and our effort to inform Arkansas soybean producers of the research …

Evaluating Substrate Stratification Practices For Enhanced Water Resource Management In Nursery Production, Kristopher S. Criscione

LSU Master's Theses

The nursery and greenhouse industries have continued to increase in production and sales over the past two decades. This increase in horticultural production necessitates a greater demand for finite natural resources, specifically water. Sustainable water resource management will be critical to the success and continual growth of the nursery industry. Strategic irrigation scheduling and innovative substrate management practices can improve nursery resource efficiency. Soilless substrates were originally utilized by the industry to increase substrate air-filled porosity, to ensure adequately drained container systems. Thus, the implementation of these soilless substrates can lead to an inefficient use of water and fertilizer. Substrate …

Estimating Irrigation In Rice Fields With A Water Balance Approach, Kristen Trinh

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Global food production must increase to meet the demand associated with increased population growth, so irrigation water use will continue to rise. Therefore, it is important to monitor water usage particularly when an irrigation flowmeter is unavailable. A field water balance was created for a selection of rice fields in East-central Arkansas under observation in 2018 and 2019. From those, irrigation inputs are deduced from the water balance alone. First, each field had sensors that collected water table level (WTL) data. Next, other water inputs and outputs such as precipitation and evapotranspiration (ET) were collected from two modeled sources. The …

The Influence Of Peer Irrigators On The Extensive And Intensive Margin Of Irrigation Techniques, Victoria Bailey

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We examine how irrigation techniques in use by family and friends influence the use and share of land utilizing different irrigation techniques by Arkansas producers. A bivariate sample selection model simultaneously estimates how farm characteristics determine the use and explain the share of a farm that utilizes an irrigation technique. We find that the irrigation techniques in use by family and friends do affect the irrigation techniques a producer uses and the share of acres utilizing different irrigation techniques. A producer with a family or friend that uses end-blocking irrigation is 41% more likely to use end-blocking themselves. Having a …

Irrigation Management In High Tunnels, Dan Drost, Brent Black, Melanie Stock

All Current Publications

High tunnels provide season extension for various high-value horticulture crops in a diverse range of climates. These large, plastic-covered structures modify the environmental conditions of the covered area. Temperature management is commonly the focus when growing in high tunnels as this may be the key factor limiting plant growth during much of the year. While high tunnel temperature management is important, growers also need to address water management to ensure plants are not water-stressed. Common mistakes are underestimating water needs, which stresses plants or creates conditions favoring plant diseases and nutrient leaching from overwatering. Knowing when to irrigate and how …

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, Meredith M. Guthrie

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 …

The Role Of Peer Irrigators On The Choice And Intensity Of Use Of Irrigation Techniques, Noah Hayward, Kent Kovacs

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

The use and the proportion of farmland that uses prominent irrigation practices in Arkansas were evaluated. A bivariate sample selection model evaluated the determinants of the share of irrigated land in a farm that uses each practice. In addition, the relationship between the irrigation practices a peer uses and the use and intensity of five common irrigation practices was evaluated. If a peer of an Arkansas farmer used center pivot irrigation, this increased the probability that the farmer used center pivot irrigation by 66 percentage points. A peer that used pivot irrigation decreased the proportion of irrigated land that used …

Prospects For Solving The Problem Of Rational Use Of Water Resources Using The Tiiame-1 Sprinkling Machine, M.Kh. Khamidov, A.R. Muratov

Irrigation and Melioration

The information published by the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage, and the intermediate results of many years of research carried out by scientists from TIIAME on the development, research and implementation of water-saving technologies in agriculture are presented. The acute shortage of water resources in Central Asia, the problems of increasing the efficiency of the use of water-saving technologies around the world have led to the careful use of available water resources in the region, including the prospects and advantages of using irrigation of crops by sprinkling, as well as the design and technical parameters of the sprinkler developed …

Technology And Technical Device Used In The Efficient Use Of Water Resources In Irrigated Agriculture, А.U. Аtajanov

Irrigation and Melioration

The economical use of water resources, the improvement and development of new technology and technical means for its implementation, ensuring the saving of irrigation water is one of the most important issues of today. This article is devoted to the issues of improving the technology of irrigation of furrows and the creation of technical means,also recommended technology and using from created technical device in selected per experiment fields and analyzing their results.

Drought- Conditioning Of Quaking Aspen (Populus Tremuloides Michx.) Seedlings During Nursery Production Modifies Seedling Anatomy And Physiology, Joshua L. Sloan, Owen T. Burney, Jeremiah R. Pinto

Aspen Bibliography

In the western US, quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) regenerates primarily by root suckers after disturbances such as low to moderate severity fires. Planting aspen seedlings grown from seed may provide a mechanism to improve restoration success and genetic diversity on severely disturbed sites. However, few studies have examined the use of container-grown aspen seedlings for restoration purposes from both the outplanting and nursery production perspective. Thus, the purpose of this novel study was to examine how alterations in irrigation levels during nursery production across three seed sources would impact seedling performance attributes on harsh, dry outplanting sites. Irrigation …

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 …

Apple Orchard Drip Irrigation Conditions Of The Tashkent Region Of Uzbekistan, Sardor Gulyamov, Bakir Serikbaev, Anvar Sherov

Irrigation and Melioration

The article presents the results of many years of theoretical experimental field research on drip irrigation of the apple orchard of the Golden variety in the conditions of the Tashkent region. Based on the analysis of climatic, soil, hydrogeological, geological, hydrological and economic conditions of the experimental plot, as well as biological features of the garden, the values of total water consumption, water consumption deficit, irrigation, irrigation rate and the number of irrigation by the bioclimatic method are determined.

Chemigation Guide, Matt Yost, Grant Cardon, L. Neil Allen, Bryce Sorensen, Kyke Egbert, Earl Creech, Corey Ransom, Ricardo Ramirez

All Current Publications

This guide discusses general principles that apply to most types of chemigation applications.

Hydrogen Peroxide: A Grower’S Best Friend?, Mitchell Eicher-Sodo

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) is an oxidizing agent used to disinfect irrigation systems (e.g. nutrient solution and equipment) used in controlled environment plant production and produces no harmful by-products. The action of H₂O₂ is non-selective, and therefor H₂O₂ will oxidize all components of the irrigation water as well as tissues from the greenhouse crops being irrigated. The phytotoxic effect H₂O₂ has on common greenhouse crops is not well understood, requiring detailed characterization and determination of threshold concentrations. Thresholds within the thesis were based on applied H₂O …

Drivers Of On-Farm Performance Of Irrigation Water Management Practices: Empirical Evidence From Eastern Arkansas, Jacob Askey

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Unsustainable agricultural practices are putting a strain on freshwater supplies in many parts of the world. More efficient irrigation techniques are going to be critical to feed a growing population. Data from the 2016 Arkansas Irrigation Survey was used to assess the adoption of three Irrigation Water Management (IWM) practices: multiple inlet rice irrigation, tailwater recovery, and storage reservoirs. Results indicate that these practices do not always lead to reported pumping time reductions, a proxy for water use savings. Large variations in pumping time reduction are observed across producers for all three practices. A Tobit model was used to examine …

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 United States 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 Nebraska. 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 …

2019 Costs And Returns For Non-Irrigated Safflower, Northern Utah, Michael Pace, Clark Israelsen, Ryan Larsen, Jacob Hadfield

All Current Publications

This fact sheet presents a sample budget for costs and returns for non-irrigated safflower in northern Utah.

Fertigation Facts, Kyle Egbert, Matt Yost, Bryce Sorensen, Grant Cardon, Niel Allen, Ryan Larsen

All Current Publications

This fact sheet provides general information on forms of fertigation for primary plant nutrient, fertigation timng, and fertigation economics.

Mobile Drip Irrigation For Pivots And Laterals, Matt Yost, Jonno Holt, Chad Reid, Dean Winward, Niel Allen, Earl Creech

All Current Publications

This fact sheet is base on four irrigation demonstration/research trials conducted during 2018. It is part of ongoing research.

4r'S Of Irrigation Management, Matt Yost, Niel Allen, Grant Cardon, Earl Creech

All Current Publications

This fact sheet introduces the concept of the 4'R's of irrigation management and discusses some factors to consider in each of the 4R's, right source, right rate. right time, and right place.

Defense Against Drought, Matt Yost, Bryce Sorensen, Earl Creech, Niel Allen, Ryan Larsen, Ricardo Ramirez, Corey Ransom, Chad Reid, Jody Gale, Boyd Kitchen

All Current Publications

This fact sheet outlines six tools that can be used to help alleviate some of the negative impacts of drought and help improve returns to crop production.

Producer Preferences For Alternative Irrigation Practices In The Arkansas Delta, Robert Edward Rosene

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We use a bivariate sample selection model to address peer network effects on participation in and/or intensity of use of land being irrigated by alternative irrigation practices in the state of Arkansas. As groundwater in the state becomes more limited, the use of scientific scheduling, flowmeters, and more efficient row crop water application systems will allow producers to better manage water resources. We find relatively large, positive relationships between belonging to a peer network of the same irrigation practice and participation in that practice. Intensity of use of alternative irrigation techniques is mostly influenced by which crop type the practice …

Approaches To Evaluating Grower Irrigation And Fertilizer Nitrogen Amount And Timing, Tsz Him Lo, Daran Rudnick, Charles Burr, Matt Stockton, Rodrigo Werle

West Central Research and Extension Center, North Platte

Diversity in the knowledge, mindset, strategies, and tools that growers use to manage irrigation and fertilizer nitrogen culminates in diversity in profitability and environmental impact among farms. As growers, academia, and industry strive together to tackle the technological and non-technological challenges impeding better irrigation and fertilizer nitrogen management, a science-based evaluation of grower input amount and timing becomes an important initial step in the process. Providing such valuable feedback to growers is a high-priority objective for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Testing Ag Performance Solutions (UNL-TAPS) farm management competition. In this competition, each team of mostly growers made management decisions for …

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 …

Utilization Of Various Methods And A Landsat Ndvi/Google Earth Engine Product For Classifying Irrigated Land Cover, Andrew Nemecek

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Methods for classifying irrigated land cover are often complex and not quickly reproducible. Further, moderate resolution time-series datasets have been consistently utilized to produce irrigated land cover products over the past decade, and the body of irrigation classification literature contains no examples of subclassification of irrigated land cover by irrigation method. Creation of geospatial irrigated land cover products with higher resolution datasets could improve reliability, and subclassification of irrigation by method could provide better information for hydrologists and climatologists attempting to model the role of irrigation in the surface-ground water cycle and the water-energy balance. This study summarizes a simple, …

Crop Water Stress Index Of An Irrigated Vineyard In The Central Valley Of California, John H. Prueger, Christopher K. Parry, William P. Kustas, Joseph G. Alfieri, Maria M. Alsina, Héctor Nieto, Tiffany G. Wilson, Lawrence E. Hipps, Martha C. Anderson, Jerry L. Hatfield, Fen Gao, Lynn G. Mckee, Andrew Mcelrone, Nurit Agam, Sebastian A. Los

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

Water-limiting conditions in many California vineyards necessitate assessment of vine water stress to aid irrigation management strategies and decisions. This study was designed to evaluate the utility of a Crop Water Stress Index (CWSI) using multiple canopy temperature sensors and to study the diurnal signature in the stress index of an irrigated vineyard. A detailed instrumentation package comprised of eddy covariance instrumentation, ancillary surface energy balance components, soil water content sensors and a unique multi-canopy temperature sensor array were deployed in a production vineyard near Lodi, CA. The instrument package was designed to measure and monitor hourly growing season turbulent …

An Assessment Of The Greatest Impacts On Distribution Uniformity For Drip And Micro Irrigation, Brooke Ashley Worden

Master's Theses

Using the Cal Poly Irrigation Training and Research Centers (ITRC) drip/micro evaluation program, global, or system, DU_lq is computed by combining the component DU_lq values of: pressure variation, uneven spacing between emitters, unequal drainage and “other” causes. “Other” causes include plugging, wear and manufacturing coefficient. The program also computes what percentage of the non-uniformity is due to each component. Burt (2004) showed that over 95% of the non-uniformity is due to “Other” causes and pressure differences. This thesis looks at what specifically in those components is driving the non-uniformity by analyzing various equipment and field practices and their …