2002 Annual Report
Extension and Outreach
Irrigation Water Management
Jerry Wright, Associate Professor
and Extension Engineer, West Central Research and Outreach Center, Morris,
MN
East Otter Tail, Hubbard, and Wadena Counties SWCD and Extension Staff
Mark Seeley, Professor and Extension Climatologist, Soil, Water, and Climate
Bill Bland, Professor, Department of Soils, University of Wisconsin
Objective
- Enhance irrigator and crop advisor skills in soil-water management and understanding of decision tools including real-time crop-water use (evapotranspiration, or ET).
- Increase irrigator awareness of the potential impact of irrigation
practices on degradation of water quality in aquifers underlying sandy
outwash soils.
Program Description
Regular soil-water monitoring of an irrigated field is necessary to assure
that a crop receives moisture on a timely basis and to prevent over-watering,
which can cause leaching of some agrichemicals into groundwater. This
program provides a variety of educational opportunities for producers
and crop advisors (meetings, tours, news releases, crop ET reports, and
farm demonstrations) to learn about soil-water monitoring options such
as the Minnesota Checkbook, daily ET phone messages, the world wide web,
resistance blocks, etc.
Outcomes
We updated the Extension bulletin Irrigation Scheduling by the Checkbook
Method (AG-FO-1322) and placed it on the web. A computerized checkbook
scheduler program was developed in collaboration with NDSU irrigation
extension engineers after pilot testing with 20 Minnesota farmers; we
are currently working on updating the Checkbook method bulletin for internet
access. The program also provided irrigators and crop advisors the opportunity
to learn about irrigation management tools through Extension workshops.
We continued collaboration with the University of Wisconsin in maintaining and promoting ET information at http://www.soils.wisc.edu/wimnext. Daily crop ET data from two Soil Water Conservation District (SWCD) sites (East Otter Tail and Hubbard Counties) were disseminated via phone answering machines. Two to five calls per day were received at each site. The program supported East Otter Tail SWCD weekly soil-water update service using the SCS-Scheduler and assisted Wadena SWCD in piloting a weekly update service with five farmers. The West Central Research and Outreach Center office produced a weekly ET report via e-mail and letter. Several crop advisors accessed the daily ET information and have indicated they use the information and management techniques with their clients.