Avoid Aerating Grain During Warm Weather
Storing Shelled Corn in Silage Bags
Response to Children's Deaths and Injuries in 2000
From the Farm Safety and Health Program Mailbag
Milkhouse Wastes: Handle with Care
Creating Fuel from Manure is a Hot Topic--Again
New Information Regarding Intermittent Aeration in Liquid Swine Manure
Optimizing the Mower-Conditioner for High-Quality Forage
Performance and Feasibility of Subsurface Drainage in Northwestern Minnesota
Irrigation Scheduling Software Available
Jerry Wright, Minnesota Extension Engineer
Simple user-friendly software is now available to assist you in planning your next irrigation event and keeping a record of your precipitation amounts and estimated daily soil water status throughout the growing season. 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 work document for each irrigated field that reflects the soil types and depth, available water holding capacity, crop type, and emergence date. The user is required to input the maximum daily air temperature, daily rainfall amounts, and irrigation depths for each irrigation. If the day’s air temperature is not entered, a historical average maximum temperature is assigned based on the nearest historical weather site that is incorporated into the software. The software lists several regional weather stations from around Minnesota and North Dakota.
From these inputs, a field’s estimated soil water depletion status (expressed in inches of water depleted and also percent deficit) is calculated for each day. 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 software generates a 30-day soil water depletion graph (Figure 1) for each field after it is updated, which is easily printed to take to the field or to file with other annual information pieces on performance and input records.
Figure 1. A sample soil water depletion graph.
The program is designed to run on IBM-compatible computers with Windows 3.1 or higher operating systems. The software requires 5 MB of RAM 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
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.