From a Technical Perspective

By Larry Peach

With the rapid rising cost of farm production, such as, fuel, fertilizer, power and water, farmers are looking at various methods to reduce costs. These methods include the use of no-till farming or reducing trips across the field, increasing fertilizer efficiently through soil and tissue analyses, and improving irrigation management, irrigation water management being the most important. Improper irrigation management can limit crop yields to a greater degree than any other production factor. Without a good water management program you can’t achieve good fertilizer management.

Good irrigation management results in the replacement of moisture within the active root zone. As a rule, a crop is irrigated when the soil moisture is 50 to70% depleted in the root zone. One of the most practical ways to determine when to irrigate is to feel the soil, or use devises to measure soil moisture. Because this is time consuming, soil moisture often goes unchecked. If soil moisture is monitored, it is usually only done with a shovel and at the top few inches of the root zone, while better than nothing, soil moisture needs to be monitored throughout the root zone of the growing crop. If you allow the lower root zone of the crop to become too dry or depleted, it can cause crop stress and yield loss. With some irrigation systems you don’t have the ability to catch up once you get behind. By contrast, over irrigation can case a multitude of problems, including high water table, yield loss, disease and weed problems, and nutrient loss, not to mention increased pumping and irrigation cost.

There are several different soil moisture monitors available, from the inexpensive models, which are read by the grower in the field, to the expensive Cadillac version that transmits the information to your home computer screen. Still a grower must get out and check his fields at intervals to see if the information he is receiving from his monitor is accurate.

The NRCS is currently offering a cost share on various types of soil moister monitoring equipment. This could be a valuable tool for our growers. The only requirement is, you must record and return your irrigation water management records to the NRCS for the first year.