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
Sonia Jacobsen, Engineer, USDA-NRCS – Minnesota office
Gerald Breid, Central Minnesota Irrigators Association
Mark Seeley, Professor and Extension Climatologist, Soil,
Water, and Climate
Bill Bland, Professor, Soil Science, 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.
Need or Impact
Irrigation scheduling is an important tool for
site managers to use to optimize a crop production system
and reduce the risk
of leaching crop chemicals into the groundwater. Two irrigation
scheduling extension bulletins are maintained by the University
of Minnesota Extension distribution center website.Program
results have encouraged some farmers to use their local ET hotline
or
the Wisconsin-Minnesota Daily Crop ET web site (http://www.soils.wisc.edu/wimnext/).
East Otter Tail SWCD has set up a irrigated soil water monitoring
program for producers, and in 2005 they worked with 30 producers
and 70 individual fields using the Checkbook system and local
weather station ET estimations. One hundred and twenty farmers,
crop advisors and agency personnel received half-day training
on using the Checkbook system.
Status
Ongoing.
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