|
A successful irrigation water management program optimizes water availability, while ensuring the best crop yield and quality at the lowest cost to the producer. Here at Agro Engineering, we assist farmers and water user organizations in developing irrigation scheduling programs to assure proper timing and amounts of water delivery and applications. The programs involve system evaluations for the assessment of crop water needs and recommendations on timing and amount of irrigation throughout the growing season. Links to a local weather station, computer reporting of daily crop water use for each crop, and a weekly field visit assess the current soil moisture and the crop water needs based upon the crop growth stage. A weekly irrigation schedule is then provided to farm clients, with predicted times and amounts for irrigation and suggested adjustments for variations in weather.
For the 2001 growing season, we've expanded our iwm program to include a daily crop water use summary for our clients. The summary is e-mailed to clients and includes an update of yesterday's weather, evapotranspiration (ET) specific to each client's fields over the past seven days, and forecasted weather and ET for the next seven days. Also included in the summary is a graph comparing historical forecasted ET and actual ET, along with disease models and a summary of today's weather. For an example of a crop water use summary, click here.
|
|
