IRRIGATION RESEARCH & EXTENSION UPDATES

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Thomasine Richard
5 years ago
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1 IRRIGATION RESEARCH & EXTENSION UPDATES Jonathan Aguilar, PhD Asst. Professor/ Water Resource Engineer K-State Southwest Research Extension Center Garden City, KS Danny Rogers, Isaya Kisekka, Dennis Tomsicek, Jaylen Kohen, Kent Shaw, Bruce Niere, Tobias Oker, and Gia Nguyen

2 OVERVIEW Water Technology Farms Mobile Drip Irrigation Irrigation Scheduling and Planning Tools Opportunities and Events

3 Myth: Irrigation efficiency is a fixed value Fact: It is affected by a number of factors including application depth

4 Irrigation System Capacity (GPM) Required to Supply 0.25 inches/day at Various Efficiency and Acreage Irrigated System Efficiency Acres Irrigated % % % % % %

5 Example of effect of application depth on efficiency Water Loss Component 1 inch applied 1 inch applied 0.75 inch applied 1.25 inch applied Air evaporation and drift Net canopy evaporation Plant interception Evaporation from the soil Small Small Small Small Deep percolation None None None None Run off None 0.10 None None Total Water Loss Efficiency %

6 0.17 in OFF

7 Hatcher and Circle C Farms

8 Yield (bu/ac) Numer of Plants Circle C Farm bubbler iwob Spray bubbler iwob Spray

9 Circle C Farm Combine (and Hand-harvest) Data Circle 2 = 249 (282) bu/ac Circle 5 = 224 (259) bu/ac Hand-harvest Data Per System Bubbler = 272 bu/ac I-Wob = 272 bu/ac Spray = 269 bu/ac

10 Circle C Farm 2017 Water Use 871 AF 99.6% of yearly WCA average allocation of 875 AF OR 19.9% of 5-year allocation

11 YIELD (BU/AC) Long Water Tech Farm Average of Adj. Yield Average of plants LEPA mdi Spray LEPA mdi Spray gpm 500gpm 2018

12 MDI Research at SWREC Garden City Spray stem for germination, and fertilizer and herbicide incorporation Guide wires tied to UV PVC drops 1/4 gauge wire anchored at wheel tower and between truss rods Flexible tube to help with reversing High rate (1 & 2 gph) pressure compensating emitters

13 What we know so far Application and Water Use Efficiencies Management Suitability Cost Longevity

14 Better than Spray (LESA and MESA) BUT not as good as Subsurface Drip Irrigation (SDI) Efficiency

Soil water evaporation under LESA and MDI Efficiency Soil Water Evaporation (mm/day) 5 4 3 2 1 In-canopy Spray Nozzles Mobile

15 Soil water evaporation under LESA and MDI Efficiency Soil Water Evaporation (mm/day) In-canopy Spray Nozzles Mobile Drip Irrigation (MDI) a b 0 Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Total Percent difference in soil water evaporation ~35% Before the canopy closes

16 MDI 2016 Results Efficiency Simulated well gpm on 125 ac Drip 2 gpm 245 b 271 a 243 ab Drip 1 gpm 294 ab 263 a 268 a Bubbler 275 ab 256 a 239 ab Spray 265 a 240 a 212 b Irrigation (in) At very low well capacity, highly efficient irrigation systems are inevitable Rainfall May to October: 14.8 inches

17 Management Less critical than SDI BUT more involved than Spray (MESA/LESA) MDI vs Spray on Circular vs Straight Planting

18 Suitability May have an advantage in some: locations (e.g. flat) conditions (e.g. limited capacity) situations (e.g. preventing wheel track rutting, avoiding salt on leaves) crops (e.g. better for low profile crops)

19 Low height crop MDI system

20 Cost More expensive than spray but a lot cheaper than SDI > Other conditions may help justify the cost

21 Longevity Longevity depends on management (e.g. circular planting, grazing on field) field (e.g. better on flat than undulating field) crop (e.g. better on short crops) who you ask

22 Future Research on MDI / Other unanswered questions - How will fertigation affect the management and crop performance? - How do we capitalize on the reduced soil water evaporation? - Are there other benefits and improvements that we could still identify on this technology?