Minnesota/Wisconsin Engineering Notes

May 2003 Should You Be Your Own General Contractor? Bunker Silo Facer—Why Invest? Making Educated Decisions to Keep Children Safe on Your Farm Sustainable Agricultural Program Calls for Grant Preproposals Checking Frozen Septic Systems to Prevent Future Problems Odor Issues with Onsite Sewage Treatment Systems Daily Crop “ET” Info Available on the Internet Computer Spreadsheet Available for Irrigation Scheduling Resources Calendar

Computer Spreadsheet Available for Irrigation Scheduling Jerry Wright, Minnesota Extension Engineer A simple, user-friendly spreadsheet style computer program is now available to assist you in planning your next irrigation event and keeping a daily record of your precipitation and irrigations amounts and estimated daily soil water status throughout the growing season. The beta version of the software can be used to monitor daily soil water status for alfalfa, corn, soybeans, potatoes, dry beans, wheat and sugar beets. The software creates a spreadsheet-like working file for each field that reflects the soil types and depth, available water holding capacity, crop type and emergence date. The software generates a 30-day soil water depletion graph for each field for any date, which is easily printed to take to the field or to file with other annual information pieces on performance and input records. After an initial file setup and an in-field soil moisture estimation, the user needs to enter the daily maximum air temperature, rainfall amounts, and irrigation depths for each respective event. If the day’s air temperature is not entered, a historical maximum temperature is already assigned based on the nearest historical weather site that is incorporated into the software. The software lists several regional weather stations around Minnesota and North Dakota. Once the daily inputs are updated in the spreadsheet for the specific field, a new estimated soil water depletion status is calculated for each day (expressed in inches of water depleted and also percent deficit). This estimate should be cross-checked every five to ten days with an in-field soil water assessment. If differences are found, a correction can be made to the spreadsheet estimate. The program is designed to run on IBM-compatible computers with Windows 3.1 or higher operating systems. The software requires 5 MB of memory and 5 MB of free hard drive space. The program works best on faster processors and operating systems. A copy of the software and operating manual can be obtained by sending a $30 check made payable to University of Minnesota to: West Central Research & Outreach Center University of Minnesota Attn: Jerry Wright, Extension Engineer PO Box 471 Morris, MN 56267 Tom Scherer and Dean Steele, North Dakota State University Irrigation Engineers, and Jerry Wright, University of Minnesota Extension Engineer, developed the software program. The software was field tested with about a dozen farmers and crop consultants in Minnesota during the summer of 1999 and revised in 2000. The software is based on the concepts used in the University of Minnesota Extension Service bulletin #1322, Irrigation Scheduling: Checkbook Method, which can be viewed at http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/cropsystems/DC1322.html or purchased with a credit card by calling 800-876-8636 or 612-624-4900. For more information contact Jerry Wright, Extension Engineer at the West Central Research and Outreach Center in Morris, MN at 320-589-1711 or jwright@umn.edu.

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