WERA_OLD1022: Meteorological and Climate Data to Support ET-Based Irrigation Scheduling, Water Conservation, and Water Resources Management (from WDC18)

(Multistate Research Coordinating Committee and Information Exchange Group)

Status: Inactive/Terminating

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SAES-422 Reports

Annual/Termination Reports:

[08/26/2013] [01/23/2015] [11/25/2015] [10/27/2014] [12/23/2016]

Date of Annual Report: 08/26/2013

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 06/25/2013 - 06/26/2013
Period the Report Covers: 10/01/2012 - 09/01/2013

Participants

Jose Chavez (jlchavez@rams.colostate.edu) - Colorado State University;
Axel Garcia (axel.garcia@uwyo.edu) - University of Wyoming;
Jama Hamel (jhamel@usbr.gov) - US Bureau of Reclamation;
Terry Howell (tah1@att.net) - USDA-ARS;
Thomas Marek (t-marek@tamu.edu) - Texas A&M University;
Ed Martin (edmartin@cals.arizona.edu) - University of Arizona;
Troy Peters (troy_peters@wsu.edu) - Washington State University;
Tom Scherer (Thomas.Scherer@ndsu.edu) - North Dakota State University;
Sean Hill (SEHILL@WSU.EDU) - Ag Weather Net, Washington State University;
Dana Porter (d-porter@tamu.edu) - Texas A&M University

Brief Summary of Minutes

Minutes Attachment:

Attachment

Accomplishments

Accomplishments Objective 1. Coordinate the documentation of crop coefficients used in irrigation scheduling. The crop coefficients used with North Dakota's irrigation scheduling programs were developed based on research performed over 30 years ago. Current research using eddy covariance has the potential to provide updated Kc curves for corn. The Kc formulas for 10 crops grown in ND were sent to the chair of a subcommittee of this committee (Peters) who is assembling a national database. The Kc curves are polynomial equations based on days past emergence (DPE) for use with the Jensen-Haise reference ET equation. Currently, research on water use in tile drainage has produced some estimates of crop coefficients. Research efforts continue on the development of crop coefficients (Kcs) in the Texas High Plains for sunflowers at the USDA-ARS lysimeter facility at Bushland, TX. Agreement with previous literature values validates the derived Kcs for regional applications (production and modeling). Additionally, Kcs for spinach have been determined and published; Kcs for cabbage and artichokes in the Wintergarden region of Texas are being derived. This information will be contributed to support WERA 1022 subcommittee to compile a database of Kc values and their attributes (derivation and application). Objective 2. Coordinate efforts to promote adoption of improved irrigation scheduling technology, including computer models based on crop coefficients and ETref, remote sensing and instrumentation that will help producers more efficiently apply irrigation water. Daily crop water use values are available on the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network (NDAWN) website, http://ndawn.ndsu.nodak.edu/ or in the irrigation scheduling Extension bulletin AE-792 Checkbook Irrigation Scheduling. Analysis of the web access logs for 2012 show that 65 irrigators used the NDAWN based irrigation scheduling program. The NDAWN based program was used to schedule irrigations on over 120 fields containing a variety of crops. This represents about 15,000 to 18,000 acres or about 7 percent of the irrigated acreage in ND. The NRCS requires irrigators to use the web-based irrigation-scheduling program to support the irrigation water management portion of their Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP). Methods of interpolation were evaluated for use in developing interpolated daily ET maps for the Texas High Plains. Commonly used interpolation (inverse weighted, spline, and kriging) methods and one new method (machine learning with optimization algorithm(s)) were evaluated for mapping reference ET in the Texas High Plains. Machine learning increased accuracy of the daily ET maps using optimization algorithms. Decommissioning of several weather stations of the network during the course of the project added challenge and urgency to the task. Machine learning applied to alternative data sources were compared with interpolation techniques in order to help fill spatial gaps in the data. A basic irrigation scheduling tool was created to help farmers evaluate viable options to conserve water in terms of selecting crop types and irrigation systems. I have attached a report on the tool that was developed. This accomplishment aligns with Objective 2. Farmers associated with Central Colorado Water Conservancy District (CCWCD) were educated on the use of the tool to promote its use. CCWCD is now collaborating in another project to demonstrate the tool in conjunction with the use of soil moisture sensors (SMS) to improve irrigation scheduling. In the past they funded a project to evaluate irrigation scheduling using SMS.

Publications

Saleh Taghvaeian, José L Chávez, and Neil C Hansen. (2012). Infrared Thermometry to Estimate Crop Water Use and Stress Index of Irrigated Maize in Northeastern Colorado. Remote Sensing Journal. Special issue: Advances in Remote Sensing of Crop Water Use Estimation. Remote Sens. 2012, 4(11), 3619-3637; doi:10.3390/rs4113619 Chávez, J.L., Gowda, P.H., Howell, T.A., Garcia, L.A., Copeland, K.S., and Neale, C.M.U. 2012. ET mapping with high resolution airborne remote sensing data in an advective semi-arid environment. Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering. ASCE. Vol. 138, No. 5, May 1, 2012. Pp. 416-423. Abhinaya Subedi, José L. Chávez, and Allan A. Andales. (2013). Preliminary performance evaluation of the Penman-Monteith evapotranspiration equation in southeastern Colorado. In Proceedings of 33rd Annual American Geophysical Union (AGU) Hydrology Days 2013 Conference. Fort Collins, CO. March 25 - 27, 2013. Rijal, I., and X. Jia. 2012. Reference evapotranspiration and actual evapotranspiration measurements in North Dakota. ND Water Resources Research Institute Technical Report No: ND12-02. http://www.ndsu.edu/wrri/ Fargo, ND. p30. Rijal, I., X. Jia, X. Zhang, D. D. Steele, T. F. Scherer, and A. Akyuz. 2012. Effects of subsurface drainage on evapotranspiration for corn and soybean in Southeastern North Dakota. J. of Irrigation and Drainage 138(12): 1060-1067. Holman, Daniel, Mohan Sridharan, Prasanna Gowda, Dana Porter, Thomas Marek, Terry Howell, and Jerry Moorhead. 2013. Accurate Estimates of Reference Evapotranspiration for Irrigation Management in the Texas High Plains. [Peer Reviewed] Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Beijing, China, August 3-9, 2013. Porter, Dana, Prasanna Gowda, Thomas Marek, Terry Howell, Jerry Moorhead, and Suat Irmak. 2012. Sensitivity of Grass- and Alfalfa-Reference Evapotranspiration to Weather Station Sensor Accuracy. Applied Engineering in Agriculture. 28(4):543-549. Samui, P., P.H. Gowda, T. Oommen, T.A. Howell, T.H. Marek, and D.O. Porter. 2012. Statistical learning algorithms for identifying contrasting tillage practices with Landsat Thematic Mapper data. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 33 (18):5732-5745.

Impact Statements

The web-based irrigation-scheduling program (part of NDAWN) decreased from 63 users in 2009 to 41 in 2011 the rose back to about 65 users in 2012. 2011 was a "wet" year and many irrigation systems were not turned on, whereas, 2012 was a dry year.
Crop water use maps and numerical tables accessible on the NDAWN website were downloaded extensively. During the 2012 growing season (June, July and August) over 600 maps and about 1000 crop water use tables were downloaded.
The Excel version of the checkbook irrigation-scheduling program can be used in both ND and MN. It is used in the classroom and by individual irrigators. We have distributed many copies plus it can be downloaded from the Web (http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/irrigation/irrigation-scheduling) so we are not sure of the number of users but many copies of the have been distributed throughout Minnesota.
Data from the derivation of crop coefficients continue to provide significant impact within the Texas High Plains region. More data are needed for lesser grown crops, but new crops (without regional Kc validation) are being implemented. Nonetheless, data associated with this project impact the Texas High Plains region an estimated value of $22 million annually in reduced water pumpage and equipment use, which also directly conserves the limited groundwater resources of the Ogallala aquifer.

Date of Annual Report: 01/23/2015

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 09/17/2014 - 09/18/2014
Period the Report Covers: 10/01/2013 - 09/01/2014

Participants

Alan Fulton, University of California
Bart Nef, Campbell Scientific
Camilo Gaitan, Florida Dept. Agriculture and Consumer Services
Chris Henry, University of Arkansas
Dana Porter, Texas A&M
Daniel Ostrum, South Dakota State University
David Sumner, USGS
Edward Martin, University of Arizona (Administrative Advisor)
Jama Hamel, U.S. Bureau Reclamation
Joe Henngler, University of Missouri
Jonathan Aguilar, Kansas State University
José Chávez, Colorado State University (Vice-Chair)
Kati Migliaccio, University of Florida
Michael Dukes, University of Florida (Chair)
Mike Hobbins, NOAA
Peter Robinson, NRCS
Robert Evans, North Carolina State University
Saleh Taghvaeian, Oklahoma State University
Stacia Davis, Louisiana State University
Troy Peters, Washington State University
Wes Porter, University of Georgia/Auburn

Brief Summary of Minutes

WERA-1022
2014 Annual Meeting Minutes
Meteorological and Climate Data to Support ET-Based Irrigation Scheduling, Water Conservation, and Water Resources Management

Meeting dates: September 17-18, 2014
Notes by José L. Chávez (vice-chair, secretary) & edited by Michael Dukes
Meeting location: The Castle Hotel, 8629 International Drive, Orlando, Florida
Meeting organizer: Dr. Michael Dukes (Chair)

1.Introductions of participants. List of participants:

Alan Fulton, University of California
Bart Nef, Campbell Scientific
Camilo Gaitan, Florida Dept. Agriculture and Consumer Services
Chris Henry, University of Arkansas
Dana Porter, Texas A&M
Daniel Ostrum, South Dakota State University
David Sumner, USGS
Ed Martin, University of Arizona (Administrative Advisor)
Jama Hamel, U.S. Bureau Reclamation
Joe Henngler, University of Missouri
Jonathan Aguilar, Kansas State University
José Chávez, Colorado State University (Vice-Chair)
Kati Migliaccio, University of Florida
Michael Dukes, University of Florida (Chair)
Mike Hobbins, NOAA
Peter Robinson, NRCS
Robert Evans, North Carolina State University
Saleh Taghvaeian, Oklahoma State University
Stacia Davis, Louisiana State University
Troy Peters, Washington State University
Wes Porter, University of Georgia/Auburn

2.Ed Martin indicated that reports should match the three objectives. All states should report as soon as possible. Topics such as crop coefficients, to improve irrigation scheduling, cooperation, and on quality control procedures on weather station data are all relevant topics. Dana Porter indicated that a sub-group has been working on ASABE standards (related to weather station data quality control) which can be reported. He reminded us of the importance of crop coefficients to be able to do a good job on irrigation scheduling. The group will be active, with current objectives, through 2017. We can request an extension to continue with current objectives for five more years. Ed indicated that the objectives are appropriate as they are stated.

3.José Chávez is the vice-chair, taking notes at this meeting, and that next year he will be the chair and organizing the next meeting in CO.

4.State reports:

Attached file contains details of the state reports, summary of special presentations and election of new officers.

Minutes Attachment:

Attachment

Accomplishments

Objective 1. Coordinate the documentation of crop coefficients used in irrigation scheduling. Arizona Arizona crop coefficients have been sent to Troy Peters at Washington State to develop a database of Kc’s. California Efforts are underway to evaluate crop coefficients (Kc) and ETc for several major crops such as alfalfa, almond, rice, vegetable crops, walnut, and wine grapes. Varietal and rootstock improvements and modified planting, pruning, other cultural practices, and the growing necessity for effective deficit irrigation strategies motivate the need to re-evaluate Kc and ETc (Fulton, et al., 2013). Progress has been made with the development of an inexpensive Energy Balance (Surface Renewal) technique for accurately measuring in-situ actual ET (ETa) and Kc in major California crops (Johnson, 2014). Missouri Literature regarding Heat Units (HUs) was reviewed to determine accepted methodology to calculate heat units for various crops. There appears to be inconsistency among researchers on how HUs are calculated. Also, literature regarding cardinal temperatures for various crops was reviewed. North Carolina Micro Bowen Ratio systems have been installed on the turf plots to estimate ET via the Bowen Ratio approach. We are trying to ascertain consumptive use and derive crop coefficients for cool and warm season turf by multiple methods for a bit more confidence. Irrigation is applied to warm and cool season variety turf based on Management Allowable Depletion of MAD50 and MAD75. Irrigation is scheduled automatically when MAD thresholds are reached based on soil moisture sensors. Water balances to compute consumptive use (ET) are first conducted during periods of no rainfall and irrigation when drainage is assumed zero, and alternatively computed monthly throughout growing season summing applied irrigation and estimated effective precipitation to obtain ET. Result and Preliminary Conclusions: 1. Difficult to develop reliable crop coefficients for humid climates because effective rainfall is difficult to quantify. 2. From 2013 data, Kc in the 0.5 to 0.6 range. Above normal rainfall in 2014 has resulted in few irrigation events. 3. No difference observed in irrigation applied for warm and cool season grasses when both actively growing during the 21 week study period (173 mm warm, 170 mm cool). 4. MAD75 reduced irrigation annual irrigation amount by about 40% (MAD50 = 215 mm, MAD75 = 132 mm). An ongoing outreach component is planned that will convey results to water management and turf professionals, and local municipalities. North Dakota The crop coefficients used with North Dakota's irrigation scheduling programs were developed based on research performed over 30 years ago. Ongoing research using eddy covariance has the potential to provide updated Kc curves however there are no research projects currently focused on updating the crop coefficients for the 10 most irrigated crops in ND. Currently, research on ET from tile-drained fields has produced some estimates of corn and soybean crop coefficients. Texas Field-based research efforts continue to expand development of crop growth curves and subsequently crop coefficient curves for use with irrigation scheduling tools, including the Texas High Plains Water Management Soil Profile package. Additional analysis of lysimeter data is ongoing to refine and expand Kc curves for additional crops and new varieties of major crops. Washington Kc values from several different sources have been compiled and compared. These include: 1. An old compilation of Kc values used in Washington state irrigation scheduling tool, WISE. 2. Crop coefficients modified to the ASCE Standardized equation from AgriMet 3. Crop coefficients fit to this data. 4. UC Davis crop coefficients modified to alfalfa ET. Conclusions: They are all different! They have different reference equations, different reference crops, different growing seasons, optimized for different climates, and different varieties. USDA-ARS Members of the ARS multi-location research effort, Site-Specific Irrigation Management and Water Use Efficiency Tools (SSIMWUET), met together with Chinese colleagues to discuss irrigation scheduling, crop water use, crop coefficients and methods for improving water use efficiency in a Symposium on Water Use Efficiency, at Northwest Agriculture and Forest University, Yangling, China, Sept. 2014. Members of the team also discussed these topics in a special session (China Ministry of Science and Technology-USDA Water-Saving Technology Flagship Project Workshop) of the 18th World Congress of CIGR (International Commission of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering), Sept. 2014. SSIMWUET team members from Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Missouri, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas were represented. Papers (abstracts) presented are listed. In addition, ARS-Colorado published a journal article on sunflower water use and crop coefficients (Lopez-Urrea et al., 2014). Objective 2. Coordinate efforts to promote adoption of improved irrigation scheduling technology, including computer models based on crop coefficients and ETref, remote sensing and instrumentation that will help producers more efficiently apply irrigation water. Arizona Our program AZSCHED is still available for download online at http://ag.arizona.edu/crop/irrigation/azsched/azsched.html. Although support for the program is not 100% at this time, we still have the capability to answer questions and assist users as needed. Arkansas Tools have been developed for using Atmometers (ET gages) for row crops (soybeans, corn, and cotton). An online version of the Arkansas Irrigation Scheduler has been developed and is available for use in Arkansas. The AIS has a long history of development and use in the state. The online version improves ease of use by automating the acquisition of temperature data for ET prediction. A new state weather station network exists. Arkansas is conducting on farm trials using portable flow meters, computerized hole selection, surge irrigation, and AIS or Atmometers. Soil moisture sensors are also employed to assist in decision making of scheduling. The sensors often are used to troubleshoot issues related to soil sealing and irrigation application amounts. After adjustments are made using set times and surge programming, they can often be used to make scheduling decisions. Research and demonstration use has shown good agreement between Atmometers and proposed Watermark sensor thresholds. California A video series delivers irrigation management information to California farmers who irrigate 9 million acres and over 330 different crops: Insights - Water and Drought Online Seminar Series (URL: http://ciwr.ucanr.edu/California_Drought_Expertise/Insights__Water_and_Drought_Online_Seminar_Series/). It features ET based irrigation scheduling and management considerations under drought and several other complimentary videos on deficit irrigation strategies, soil moisture and crop stress monitoring techniques that support application of ET information. Related free, on-line publications are also available at http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/FreePublications/. A recent example is http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/Details.aspx?itemNo=8503. UC ANR, the California Department of Food and Agriculture, and the California Department of Water Resources are jointly investing in the development and implementation of a web-based irrigation scheduling and nitrogen management application called CropManage. An introduction can be found at: http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=13639. This web-based application was initially developed for lettuce and other vegetables grown in the Salinas Valley of California. Collaborative efforts are underway to expand its application to other major California crops throughout California such as alfalfa, almond, and walnut. Colorado The Crop Water Stress Index (CWSI) method involves simultaneous measurements of air temperature (Ta), canopy temperature (Tc) and vapor pressure deficit (VPD), with thermometers and humidity sensors. Tc increases due to stress and Tc – Ta gradually becomes more positive rises above the baseline. When Tc – Ta deviates from a “baseline” of Tc – Ta vs. VPD the crop is considered to be stressed and it is an ideal time to irrigate. However, the adoption of this simple methodology is hindered by the high cost of accurate (research grade) infra-red thermometers (and loggers). Some farmers in CO have been using commercially available handheld infra-red thermometer guns. These much cheaper devices are not accurate and are affected by heating when exposed to solar radiation when used outdoors. The objective of this study is to evaluate the viability of commercially available handheld IRT (Infrared Thermometers) for use with Crop Water Stress Index (CWSI) to promote the use of the CWSI method and thus help improve the management of irrigation by properly triggering (schedule) irrigations before the plant is water stressed (i.e., at target stress level thresholds). Several handheld IRTs are being tested, including: Fluke 62 Max, Ryobi Tek4, DeWalt, etc. Preliminary results indicate that that raw handheld IRT data are not accurate enough to monitor crop canopy temperature without a proper calibration. In particular, the Ryobi Tek4 sensor was calibrated to approximate readings of a “research grade” Apogee S-111 IRT sensor. A multiple linear regression equation was used for the calibration. Independent variables included: the canopy readings taken with the handheld IRT (e.g., Ryobi), air temperature, wind speed, vapor pressure deficit, short wave incoming solar radiation, and solar zenith angle. Data from 2014 still needs to be processed and incorporated in the analysis. Furthermore, it is expected that the inclusion of vegetation percent cover will further enhance the calibration algorithm accuracy. A spreadsheet tool to calculate CWSI and actual ET values will be developed and made available to the public next year. Given that approximately 54.9 million acres of farm land are irrigated in the United States, widespread adoption of improved irrigation water management (IWM) can have a significant impact on water conservation, prevention of water pollution, and water productivity (crop yield). A key component of IWM is proper irrigation scheduling, which involves application of correct amounts of irrigation water at the right times. There is a need to provide low-cost irrigation scheduling tools that are “smart” (minimize the need for technical knowledge). There is also a need for continual education regarding the benefits of IWM for water conservation and prevention of non-point source pollution. The overall goal of this project is to develop, pilot, and disseminate a scalable device-independent mobile system for improved irrigation water management (IWM). The system will enhance the capacity of stakeholders, including producers and water managers, to determine in real time irrigation water demand for a field or region of interest. The IWM system will be accessible through any Web browser or connected mobile device. The online irrigation water management (IWM) system was demonstrated to more than 100 individuals including farmers, water managers, crop consultants, and agency personnel in Colorado. The stakeholders have learned how irrigations can be scheduled according to daily soil water deficit values automatically calculated by the IWM system. An online irrigation scheduler, Water Irrigation Scheduler for Efficiency (WISE), has been developed on the eRAMS GIS platform (https://erams.com/). WISE automatically accesses field-specific soil characteristics and daily weather data to calculate irrigation water requirements for each field. A prototype mobile app for smart phones is also being finalized. Approximately 10 cooperator farmers, conservationists, and crop industry personnel are testing WISE on their irrigated farms for the 2014 growing season. Florida Irrigation scheduling smartphone apps for different commodities have been developed. To date, we have released citrus, cotton, strawberry, and urban turf. These apps were developed for Florida and Georgia. We continue the development, release, and evaluation (demonstrations and plot studies) of the new irrigation apps using ET-based scheduling. Upcoming releases will be for avocado, vegetable, and peanut. Work continues on the evaluation of commercially available smart controllers such as soil moisture sensor (SMS) and evapotranspiration based (ET) controllers to efficiently irrigate landscapes. A project with 167 single family homes has 132 homes with SMS or ET controllers and 35 comparison homes. All homes have dedicated irrigation meters with hourly data. To date, ET controlled homes reduced irrigation 21-33% and SMS controlled homes 30-44% without reducing turfgrass quality. Georgia The University of Georgia Smart Sensor Array (UGA SSA) is a wireless, low-cost soil moisture sensing system. The UGA SSA provides continuous real-time soil water tension data at three depths (8, 16, and 24 inches) at each sensor node. The data can be used in conjunction with crop growth stage and precipitation forecasts to make data-based decisions on irrigation. The user interface at www.flintirrigation.com now includes an irrigation scheduling tool that recommends irrigation amounts for irrigation management zones Kansas Research on ET scheduling includes generation of heat-unit or GDU based crop coefficients for corn using SDI system as a high level of water control. K-State is comparing full and 75% of ET treatments with both the typical standard fixed Kc values used in past versus those that advance (faster or slower) in relation to the heat units occurring to date. Integration of ET-based irrigation scheduling with plant water status and soil water monitoring as checks to complement ET-based scheduling has been initiated for corn. The goal is to improve reliability of irrigation scheduling and increase its adoption. KanSched, which is K-State’s ET-based irrigation scheduling program that was primarily a stand-alone program, is now available as a web-based (beta version) application. This enable users to access their data from the cloud and use multiple computer devices and OS platforms. Initial arrangements have been made to deliver KanSched as an app for mobile devices. In conjunction with KanSched, demonstration fields installed with different soil moisture sensors were established. These soil moisture sensors have telemetry capability whereby the farmers could access the soil moisture data at the convenience of the computer or mobile device. The aim is to encourage farmers to adopt irrigation scheduling in their management activities using either KanSched or soil moisture sensors or both. Missouri The University of Missouri has moved to make the hourly ASCE Standardized Reference ET using grass reference as their accepted method of calculating reference ET. Weather data for various MO weather stations was synthesized to provide average DOY values for parameters allowing direct modification of Kc values. These polynomial values relate DOY to climatological factors used to locally fit Kc values based on Eq. 62 in FAO-56. Annual Relative HumidityMIN. Annual 2-m wind speed. Annual rainfall frequency. Annual amount received in a rainfall event. The weather data was also used to graphs of annual Kratio (the relationship between alfalfa reference [ETr] and grass reference [ETr] crop coefficient values). Dr. Gene Stevens has developed an app on scheduling for smart phones. Crop coefficient values based on canopy coverage calculated with ?HUs has been developed North Carolina The goal of this project is to develop and test a decision support system (DSS) for scheduling irrigation in humid regions based on four factors: 1) crop growth stage, 2) current soil-water status, 3) weather data, and 4) 7 day weather forecast. Corn is the primary crop of interest, but the DSS could be adapted for various crops. The DSS runs on a daily basis (based on a daily soil-water balance) and returns: 1) whether or not irrigation should occur and 2) if so, how much irrigation. Objectives: 1. Design a “smart” irrigation system to apply irrigation water based on soil water conditions in the root zone, precipitation forecast, and crop growth stage. 2. Investigate the effects of traditional and smart irrigation systems on crop physiology and yield. 3. Investigate the effects of traditional and smart irrigation systems on nitrogen leaching losses to shallow groundwater 4. Conduct a simple economic analysis to assess the feasibility of implementation of the proposed smart irrigation system. 5. Validate and further develop predictive models that can be used for the design and evaluation of smart irrigation systems. This study is in its first growing seasons. The field component is being completed at the Cunningham Research Station in Kinston, NC. Corn was planted on April 14, 2014 on the approximately 7 acres study field, which is divided into 9 plots (3 irrigation treatments, replicated 3 times). The irrigation treatments are: 1) No Irrigation, 2) Routine Irrigation (meant to mimic the schedule a NC grower might currently use), and 3) Smart Irrigation (based on the DSS). Each plot has soil-moisture sensors installed in the plot center. The field is irrigated by a five span Valley linear move system (hose drag). The system was retrofitted in 2013 to be a variable rate irrigation (VRI) system. The VRI system has 15 independently controlled zones, which allow for our multiple irrigation treatments under a single system. The 2014 growing season has been unusually wet. From April through the beginning of September, the site received nearly 40 inches of rain, so the number of irrigation events was low and will not likely provide conclusive results. North Dakota The North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network (NDAWN) is comprised of 74 weather stations located throughout North Dakota with 10 stations in Minnesota, 1 in South Dakota and 2 in Montana. Another 12 will be added in the next year. Since 1995, during the growing season daily crop water use values for the 10 most irrigated crops have been calculated using data from each of the weather stations. The crop water use estimates can be obtained from the NDAWN website, http://ndawn.ndsu.nodak.edu/, back to the year the weather station was installed. Daily crop water use estimates based on maximum daily air temperature and weeks past crop emergence are included in Extension bulletin AE-792 Checkbook Irrigation Scheduling. The Excel version of the checkbook irrigation-scheduling program can be used in both ND and MN. It is used in the classroom and by individual irrigators. Since 2008, a site-specific online irrigation-scheduling program has been available for use by irrigators in ND. It can be accessed through the NDAWN website. The NRCS requires irrigators to use the web-based irrigation-scheduling program to support the irrigation water management portion of their Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP). Texas Efforts to promote improved irrigation management, including ET-based irrigation scheduling, leveraged Internet-based tools; traditional educational venues (workshops, conferences); audience-targeted webinars and publications; and professional/technical venues (conferences, publications). The Texas High Plains ET Network data were used by research programs (Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension, USDA-ARS and others) to support imposed water treatments and to improve interpretation of research results. Data were made available through the Water Management website for the general public for irrigation management and other applications. End-users included agricultural producers, university faculty (Extension and research), and agricultural industry/agribusiness (seed companies, crop consultants, etc.) The Texas High Plains Water Management Soil Profile tool was used by applied research programs to manage irrigation treatments. This and other tools, including KanSched, were promoted with a variety of audiences through meetings and conferences, as well as through external (public and commercial) Internet and print formats (newspapers, etc.) Programs, products and events promoting ET-based irrigation scheduling are listed later in this report. Texas participants in WERA-1022 were highly engaged at the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers conference, “Evapotranspiration: Challenges in Measurement and Modeling from Leaf to the Landscape Scale and Beyond,” held April 7-10, 2014 in Raleigh, NC. Research efforts presented at this conference include the Bushland evapotranspiration and agricultural remote sensing system (BEARS system); Bushland reference ET (BET) calculator; calibration and validation of SWAT evapotranspiration estimates for irrigated crops in the Texas High Plains using lysimetric data; evaluating alternative meteorological data sources for potential use in irrigation management; and applying machine learning techniques to improve interpolation and application of data from alternative data sources. Posters and papers describing this work are listed later in this report. Oklahoma The Oklahoma Mesonet, a state-wide network of standard weather stations, provides a web-based irrigation scheduling tool that can be used at no charge to schedule irrigation events for main agricultural and horticultural crops (17 crops) of the state. This tool, known as “Irrigation Planner,” provides estimates of daily and cumulative ET, precipitation, and soil water deficit since the last irrigation/precipitation event date (entered by the user). Extensive efforts were conducted on promoting the use of soil moisture sensors for improving irrigation management. Over 120 soil moisture sensors were installed at corn, sorghum, and cotton fields of participating farmers across the western Oklahoma. Training on soil moisture sensors was provided to 604 local producers through numerous field days, meetings, personal visits, and conferences. A larger number of audiences were reached by producing short videos clips and uploading them on OSU YouTube channel. USDA-ARS ARS-Colorado and ARS-Texas presented papers on irrigation scheduling using crop coefficients and instrumentation, and a joint paper on the future of irrigation in the Great Plains along with state colleagues (Arkansas, Colorado, Nebraska and Texas) at the 2014 Central Plains Irrigation Conference, Burlington, Colorado (Evett et al., 2014a,b; O’Shaughnessy et al., 2014b; Trout et al., 2014). As part of the SSIMWUET group, ARS-Texas published papers on sensor-based irrigation scheduling of early and later maturing grain sorghum (O’Shaughnessy et al., 2014a); ARS-Colorado published papers on instrumentation and methods to improve irrigation scheduling (Taghvaeian et al., 2014a,b); and ARS-Missouri & Texas published a paper describing Mid South regional challenges to irrigation management (Vories and Evett, 2014). ARS-Arizona presented a paper on cotton irrigation scheduling using remotely-sensed crop coefficients at the 2014 Beltwide Cotton Conference (Hunsaker et al., 2014) and a paper on canopy temperature sensing of wheat and camelina for irrigation management (French et al., 2013). ARS-Arkansas and Missouri published a paper describing termination of cotton in the Mid South. Washington A simple user friendly irrigation scheduler that is designed first for usability has been developed. It works on mobile phones as well as any web browser (http://weather.wsu.edu/ism). There is a full-page version as well as a small screen version for mobile phones. It has a one week forecast. It does push notification (text and email alerts). It works with most all of the weather networks in the Western US to automatically pull ET data, calculate reference ET, and apply the Kc values and compute the soil water balance. There is a functional Android App, and there will be an iPhone app running by next spring. The code is open source (written in PHP and MySQL). The code is available for download at http://irrigation.wsu.edu/Content/ism.zip. There is also a user’s manual at http://weather.wsu.edu/ism/ISMManual.pdf. We will help support the inclusion of additional weather networks. Objective 3. Coordinate the development of quality control (QC) procedures for weather data used for irrigation scheduling. Colorado Both the State (CO) and our agricultural weather network (COAGMET) are adopting the relatively new ASCE EWRI 2005 standardized reference evapotranspiration (ETref) computation methodology. The State is interested in evaluating the accuracy of the new method for Colorado. With funding from CO Agricultural Experiment Station we are evaluating the ASCE EWRI 2005 ETref method using measured alfalfa ET values recorded by large monolithic weighing lysimeters in south eastern CO. Preliminary results: The ASCE ETr equation underestimated ET under unstable atmospheric conditions (MBE=3 %). For stable conditions MBE was -11.7 % In neutral atmospheric conditions there was a general over estimation of 8 % with a large variability in the errors (RMSE = 26.7 %) Note: MBE = mean bias error, RMSE = root mean squared error. Expected outcome: In the next year it is expected that the analysis of four years of alfalfa ET data will derive in the recommendation of an appropriate local calibration and useof the ASCE EWRI 2005 ETref method for the environmental conditions encountered in eastern CO. Kansas A major emphasis of the K-State Weather Data Library (WDL) this year was to upgrade several weather stations across the state through the installation of 30-foot towers to measure two-height wind speeds. The Kansas Mesonet now is providing nearly real-time (5 minute refresh rate), high-quality, and reliable ag-weather information. The WDL has launched their new website (http://mesonet.k-state.edu/) for Kansas citizens through high-quality data and value-added products including evapotranspiration (ET) data. Multi-state ASABE Standard ASAE EP505.1, Measurement and Reporting Practices for Automatic Agricultural Weather Stations At the 2013 Annual Meeting of WERA-1022 in Austin, Texas, WERA-1022 took advantage of an opportunity given by the assembly of a “critical mass” of ASABE SW-244 members - including the task committee appointed to review and revise EP505.1. We made great progress during one evening session, and follow-up edits and revisions through e-mail. Revisions included updates to reflect current practices and equipment. Vote: Re-ballot of X505.1 was approved by members of ASABE SW-244 with 30 votes in favor and none opposed. Minor edits were made in response to follow-up comments during the vote. North Dakota Preliminary QA/QC of the daily NDAWN data is performed by the High Plains Climate Center in Lincoln, NE. After the data are transferred to NDSU, the staff of the ND State Climatologist performs additional QA/QC. NDAWN currently offers 10 minute updated weather information for all stations on the network and is formatted for smart phones. QA/QC, on the 10-minute data, is performed locally on the NDAWN servers. South Dakota South Dakota is unique in that it has a law that prevents water from being mined from aquifers, or annual recharge must exceed annual withdrawal. This limits the amount of irrigation that can be added to areas where shallow aquifers are the main water source. It is important to SD to have accurate ET calculations in order to minimize the amount of water required for pumping through irrigation water management. Any water saved may allow for additional acres to be appropriated for irrigation or other uses. South Dakota State University has an automated weather network across the state that is set up to calculate ET by the Penman Monteith equation. SDSU also has a website (http://climate.sdstate.edu/climate_site/climate.htm) that will display each stations five minute data in real time. An Ag Weather Tool is also available to calculate both alfalfa and grass reference ET as well as ETc for corn and soybeans. Crop coefficients are alfalfa based and taken from the High Plains Regional Climate Center. http://www.hprcc.unl.edu/awdn/et/. The network also has soil moisture sensors on a few stations and we are looking for additional sources of funding to add both additional soil sensors and more station density to the state. The increased resolution of soil moisture monitoring would not only improve ag interest but flood forecasting and USACE runoff forecasts as well. Texas A statewide assessment of evapotranspiration networks in Texas (previously reported) provided an inventory of capabilities of existing weather station networks to address agricultural irrigation scheduling and water planning needs. Operations and management, site and instrumentation issues, data QA/QC and other issues were investigated, and recommendations for improvements in management were provided in a workshop series and in a comprehensive report to the funding agency (Texas Water Development Board). These recommendations have found advocates within the Texas Water Development Board, The Texas A&M University System and other agencies to develop a centrally managed, standardized statewide ET network. This project group assisted in developing a proposal and budget for the expanded effort. To date, stable funding for the network has not been achieved, despite ongoing and coordinated multi-agency efforts. USDA-ARS A paper on quality assurance/quality control of weighing lysimeter data to provide accurate ET data for determination of crop coefficients was published by ARS-Texas (Marek et al., 2014).

Publications

Seminars/workshops/talks Chávez, J.L. 2014. “Implementation of Deficit Irrigation Regimes: Demonstration and Outreach.” Field Day at research and demonstration fields, Greeley, CO, August 8, 2014. Oral presentations at deficit and full irrigated corn plots and posters session, for farmers, conservation and irrigation districts and consultants. Evapotranspiration (ET) and Irrigation Scheduling webinar, Lubbock, TX, June 10, 2014. Webinar training for County Extension Agents. High Plains Irrigation Conference and Trade Show, Amarillo, TX, January 16, 2014. CEUs provided for Irrigation Association (IA) Certified Irrigation Designers (CID), Certified Agricultural Irrigation Specialists (CAIS) and American Society of Agronomy Certified Crop Advisers (CCA). Irrigation Management in Cotton Production Systems, Lubbock, TX, September 15, 2014. Webinar training for County Extension Agents. Irrigation Management in High Plains Cotton Production Systems. Two invited seminars, Lubbock, TX, September 10, 2013 and September 16, 2013. Porter, Dana. 2014. “Crop Water Use Estimates from the Texas High Plains ET Network Water Management Website.” Panhandle Regional Water Planning Group Meeting, Amarillo, TX. May 20, 2014. Porter, Dana. 2014. "Irrigation Technology Decisions: Microirrigation." Texas Panhandle-High Plains Water Conservation Symposium. Amarillo, TX. February 12, 2014. Porter, Dana. 2013. "Agricultural Irrigation Challenges, Opportunities, and Observations." Netafim Global Commodities Conference. Lubbock, TX. September 30, 2013. Publications Aguilar, J, D. Rogers, N. Klocke, L. Stone, D. Porter, and I. Kisekka. 2014. Web-based Planning and Water Management Tools for Producers. [Poster] 2014 Annual Meeting of the USDA-ARS Ogallala Aquifer Program. Lubbock, TX. 03/25/14 – 03/26/14. Bhattarai, N., Dougherty, M., Marzen, L., and L. Kalin. 2014. A simple Landsat-MODIS fusion approach to monitor seasonal evapotranspiration at 30 m spatial resolution" International J. Remote Sensing (in press). Bordovsky, James P., Joe T. Mustian, David Winters, Dana Porter, Calvin Trostle, and Dick Auld. 2014. Cotton Response in Non-Traditional Crop Rotations at Low Irrigation Levels (Results from First Year of a Complete 3-Year Rotation). [Poster] 2014 Annual Meeting of the USDA-ARS Ogallala Aquifer Program. Lubbock, TX. 03/25/14 – 03/26/14. Boyer, M. J., M. D. Dukes, L. J. Young, and S. Wang. 2014. Irrigation conservation of Florida-Friendly Landscaping based on water billing data. Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering 04014037. Bronson, K.F. 2014. Advancing irrigation efficiency in the arid southwest USA. Presented at the special session, “China Ministry of Science and Technology-USDA Water-Saving Technology Flagship Project Workshop”, of the 18th World Congress of CIGR (International Commission of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering), Sept. 2014. Bronson, K.F. 2014. Advancing irrigation efficiency in the arid southwest USA. Presented at The Sino-US Workshop on Water Use Efficiency, Northwest Agriculture and Forest University, Yangling, China, 12 Sept. 2014. Burns, Robert. 2013. Expert: Irrigated crops on the High Plains ‘all over the map’. Texas A&M AgriLife press release July 16, 2013. Davis, S. and M. Dukes. 2014. Methodologies for Successful Implementation of Smart Irrigation Controllers. Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering 04014055. Davis, S. L. and M. D. Dukes. 2014. Irrigation of residential landscapes using the Toro Intelli-Sense controller in southwest Florida. Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering140(3):04013020. Dobbs, N. A., K. W. Migliaccio, Y. Li, M. D. Dukes, and K. T. Morgan. 2014. Evaluating irrigation applied and nitrogen leached using different smart irrigation technologies on bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum). Irrigation Science 32(3):193-203. Dobbs, N.A. , K.W. Migliaccio, M.D. Dukes, K.T. Morgan and Y.C. Li. 2013. Interactive Irrigation Tool for Simulating Smart Irrigation Technologies in Lawn Turf. Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering 139(9):747-754. Dobbs, N.A., K.W. Migliaccio, Y. Li, M.D. Dukes, and K.T. Morgan. 2014. Evaluating irrigation applied and nitrogen leached using different smart irrigation technologies on bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum). Irrigation Science 32(3):193-203. Dobbs, N.A., K.W. Migliaccio, Y.C. Li, M.D. Dukes and K.T. Morgan. 2014. Evaluating irrigation applied and nitrogen leached using different smart irrigation technologies on bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum). Irrigation Science 32:193-203. Evett, S.R. 2014. Enhancing water use efficiency with plant feedback irrigation control: the case for sorghum. Presented at the special session, “China Ministry of Science and Technology-USDA Water-Saving Technology Flagship Project Workshop”, of the 18th World Congress of CIGR (International Commission of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering), Sept. 2014. Evett, S.R. 2014. Water saving technologies in U.S. Irrigation. Presented at The Sino-US Workshop on Water Use Efficiency, Northwest Agriculture and Forest University, Yangling, China, 12 Sept. 2014. Evett, S.R., P.D. Colaizzi, R.C. Schwartz and S.A. O'Shaughnessy. 2014b. Soil water sensing - Focus on variable rate irrigation. Pp. 99-109 In Proc. 26th Annual Central Plains Irrigation Conf., Burlington, CO., February 25-26, 2014. (proceedings) Evett, S.R., P.D. Colaizzi, S.A. O'Shaughnessy, F.R. Lamm, T.J. Trout and W.L. Kranz. 2014a. The future of irrigation on the U.S. Great Plains. Pp. 2-25 In Proc. 26th Annual Central Plains Irrigation Conf., Burlington, CO., February 25-26, 2014. (proceedings) Fox, Adeline. 2013. High Plains Ag Conference: Irrigation efficiency essential. The Cross Section, December 2013. High Plains Underground Water Conservation District, Lubbock, TX. French, A., D. Hunsaker, K. Thorp and J. White. 2013. Monitoring sprinkler irrigated wheat and camelina canopy temperatures with a wireless sensor network. Presented at the session ‘Wireless Technologies and Innovations To Meet Food, Water, and Energy Challenges’: ASA 2013 Annual Meeting, Tampa, FL. Fulton, et. al., Progress with Measuring and Utilizing Crop Evapotranspiration (ETc) in Walnut. January 2014, Walnut Research Reports, California Walnut Board. Ghali, I.E. , G. L. Miller, G. L. Grabow, and R. L. Huffman. 2012. Using Variability within Digital Images to Improve Tall Fescue Color Characterization. Crop Science (52):2365-2374. Gowda, P., Marek, T., Porter, D.O., Howell, T.A., Paul, G., Colaizzi, P.D. 2013. An integrated framework of operational ET remote sensing program for irrigation management the Texas High Plains [abstract]. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting Abstracts. Paper No.65-6. Gowda, Prasanna H., Jerry E. Moorhead, Daniel E. Holman, Dana O. Porter, Thomas Marek, George Paul, Paul Colaizzi, Terry A. Howell. 2014. Bushland Evapotranspiration and Agricultural Remote Sensing System (BEARS). [Poster] 2014 Annual Meeting of the USDA-ARS Ogallala Aquifer Program. Lubbock, TX. 03/25/14 – 03/26/14. Gowda, Prasanna H., Jerry E. Moorhead, Daniel E. Holman, Thomas Marek, Dana O. Porter, Terry A. Howell. 2014. Bushland Reference ET Calculator with QA/QC Capabilities and an iPhone/iPad Application. [Poster] 2014 Annual Meeting of the USDA-ARS Ogallala Aquifer Program. Lubbock, TX. 03/25/14 – 03/26/14. Gowda, Prasanna H., Terry A. Howell, George Paul, Paul D. Colaizzi, Thomas H. Marek, Bob Su, Karen S. Copeland. 2013. Deriving hourly evapotranspiration rates with SEBS: a lysimetric evaluation. Special Section: Remote Sensing for Vadose Zone Hydrology. Vadose Zone Journal. July 2011. Gowda, Prasanna, Dana Porter, Thomas Marek, Jerry Moorhead, Daniel Holman, George Paul, and Paul Colaizzi. 2014. Bushland evapotranspiration and agricultural remote sensing system. ASABE Paper 1887641. International Symposium, “Evapotranspiration: Challenges in Measurement and Modeling from Leaf to the Landscape Scale and Beyond.” American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. April 7-10, 2014. Raleigh, NC. Gowda, Prasanna, Terry Howell, Dana Porter, and Thomas Marek. 2014. Bushland reference ET calculator. ASABE Paper 1887642. International Symposium, “Evapotranspiration: Challenges in Measurement and Modeling from Leaf to the Landscape Scale and Beyond.” American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. April 7-10, 2014. Raleigh, NC. Grabow, G.L., I. E. Ghali , R. L. Huffman , G. L. Miller , D. Bowman , and A. Vasanth. 2013. Water Application Efficiency and Adequacy of ET-Based and Soil-Moisture-Based Irrigation Controllers for Turfgrass Irrigation. J. Irrig. Drainage Engr. 39(2):113-123. Harmsen, E. W., V. H. Ramirez Builes, M. D. Dukes, X. Jia, L. R. Perez Alegria and R. E. Vasquez. 2013. “Vapor flux measurement system” In Evapotranspiration: Principles and Applications for Water Management Ed by Goyal and Harmsen. CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group. pgs 513-522. He, J., Dougherty, M., and A. AbdelGadir. 2013. Numerical assisted assessment of vadose-zone nitrogen transport under a soil moisture controlled wastewater SDI dispersal system in a Vertisol. Ecological Engineering (53):28-234. Henggeler, J. Heat Units. 2012. MidAmerica Farmer Grower. Henggeler, J. 2014. Fantasy Irrigation. MidAmerica Farmer Grower. Henggeler, J. 2014. Missouri’s Woodruff Irrigation Charts: Still Making Missouri Irrigators Money After All These Years. MidAmerica Farmer Grower. Holman, Daniel, David Pointer, Patrick Porter, Danny Rogers, and Dana Porter. 2014. iOS Application Development for the Ogallala Aquifer Program: Useful Tools for Water and Irrigation Management. [Poster] 2014 Annual Meeting of the USDA-ARS Ogallala Aquifer Program. Lubbock, TX. 03/25/14 – 03/26/14. Holman, Daniel, Mohan Shridharan, Prasanna Gowda, Dana Porter, Thomas Marek, Terry Howell, and Jerry Moorhead. 2013. Gaussian Process Predictive Models for Reference ET Estimation from Alternative Meteorological Data Sources.” Journal of Hydrology. 05/2014; DOI: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2014.05.001 Holman, Daniel, Mohan Sridharan, Prasanna Gowda, Dana Porter, Thomas Marek, Terry Howell, and Jerry Moorhead. 2013. Estimating reference evapotranspiration for irrigation management in the Texas High Plains. (Refereed Proceedings) Proc. International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI), Beijing, China, August 3-9, 2013. Howell, Terry A., Prasanna H. Gowda, Paul D. Colaizzi, Thomas H. Marek, and Dana O. Porter. 2013. Evapotranspiration (ET) – Measurement, Modeling, Mapping and Technology Transfer. 75th Anniversary USDA-ARS-CPRL (Bushland). Amarillo, TX, August 29, 2013. Howitt, R., et.al. Economic Analysis of the 2014 Drought for California Agriculture. July 2014. Center for Watershed Sciences, University of California Davis. Hunsaker, D.H., A.N. French, and K.R. Thorp. 2014. Cotton Irrigation Scheduling using Soil Water Depletion Estimates of Small-Zones in Large Fields. Presented at the 2014 Beltwide Cotton Conference, New Orleans, La, January 5, 2014. Irmak, Suat, Denis Mutiibwa, Jose Payero, Thomas Marek, Dana Porter. 2013. Modeling soybean canopy resistance from micrometeorological?and plant variables for estimating evapotranspiration using one-step Penman–Monteith approach. Journal of Hydrology 507 (2013) 1-18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2013.10.008 Jia, X., T. F. Scherer, D. Lin, X. Zhang, and I. Rijal. 2014. Comparison of reference evapotranspiration calculations for southeastern North Dakota. Irrigation & Drainage Systems Engineering 2:112. doi:10.4172/2168-9768.1000112. Johnson, B. Alfalfa shows ability to survive on deficit irrigation (Extension biometeorology specialist, displays an instrument that provides weather data to farmers). Aug. 2014. Ag Alert. Kjaersgaard, J., K. Khand, C. Hay, and X. Jia. 2014. Estimating evapotranspiration from fields with and without tile drainage using remote sensing. ASCE World Environmental & Water Resources Congress (EWRI) Annual Meeting, June 1-5, 2014, Portland, Oregon. Liu, Z., G.L. Grabow, R.L. Huffman, J. Osborne, and R.O. Evans. 2012. Factors Affecting Uniformity of Irrigation-Type Manure Application Systems. Applied Eng. in Agric. 28(1). Lopez-Urrea, R., A. Montoro, T.J. Trout. 2014. Consumptive water use and crop coefficients of irrigated sunflower. Irr Sci. 32:99-109. DOI 10.1007/s00271-013-0418-9. Marek, G.W., S.R. Evett, P.H. Gowda, T.A. Howell, K.S. Copeland, and R.L. Baumhardt. 2014. Post-processing techniques for reducing errors in weighing lysimeter evapotranspiration (ET) datasets. Trans. ASABE 17(2):499-515. Marek, Gary, P.H. Gowda, and S.R. Evett. 2014. Calibration and validation of SWAT evapotranspiration estimates for irrigated crops in the Texas High Plains using lysimetric data. ASABE Paper No. 1872959. International Symposium, “Evapotranspiration: Challenges in Measurement and Modeling from Leaf to the Landscape Scale and Beyond.” American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. April 7-10, 2014. Raleigh, NC. Marek, Gary, S.R. Evett, P.H. Gowda, T.A. Howell, K.S. Copeland, R.L. Baumhardt. 2014. Post-processing techniques for reducing errors in weighing lysimeter evaptranspiration (ET) datasets. Transactions of the ASABE. 57(2):499-515. Marek, Thomas, Dana Porter, Prasanna Gowda, Terry Howell, Jerry Moorhead, and Gary Marek. 2014. Evaluating alternative meteorological data sources for potential use in irrigation management. ASABE Paper 1880246. International Symposium, “Evapotranspiration: Challenges in Measurement and Modeling from Leaf to the Landscape Scale and Beyond.” American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. April 7-10, 2014. Raleigh, NC. Migliaccio, K.W. and B. Shoemaker 2014. Estimation of urban subtropical bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum) evapotranspiration using crop coefficients and the eddy covariance method. Hydrological Processes doi: 10.1002/hyp.9958 Migliaccio, K.W., M.D. Dukes, N.A. Dobbs, K.T. Morgan, and Y.C. Li. 2014. Closure to “Interactive irrigation tool for simulating smart irrigation technologies in lawn turf” by Nicole A. Dobbs, Kati W. Migliaccio, Michael D. Dukes, Kelly T. Morgan, and Yuncong Li. September 2013, Vol. 139, No. 9, pp.747-754, doi: 10.1061/(ASCE)IR.1943-4774.0000612. Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering accepted Moorhead, J.E., Gowda, P., Marek, T.H., Porter, D.O., Howell, T.A., Singh, V.P., Stewart, B. 2014. Use of crop-specific drought indices for determining irrigation demand in the Texas High Plains. Applied Engineering in Agriculture. 29(6):905-916. Moorhead, Jerry E., Prasanna H. Gowda, Thomas H. Marek, Dana O. Porter, Terry A. Howell, Vijay Singh, and Bob A. Stewart. 2014. Use of Crop-Specific Drought Indices for Determining Irrigation Demand in the Texas High Plains. [Poster] 2014 Annual Meeting of the USDA-ARS Ogallala Aquifer Program. Lubbock, TX. 03/25/14 – 03/26/14. Moorhead, Jerry, Prasanna Gowda, Gary Marek, Dana Porter, Thomas Marek, Terry Howell. 2014. Spatial variability in sensitivity coefficients of grass and alfalfa reference evapotranspiration in the Texas High Plains. ASABE Paper 1873948. International Symposium, “Evapotranspiration: Challenges in Measurement and Modeling from Leaf to the Landscape Scale and Beyond.” American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. April 7-10, 2014. Raleigh, NC. Moorhead, Jerry, Prasanna Gowda, George Paul, Mike Hobbins, Gabriel Senay, Thomas Marek, and Dana Porter. 2014. Accuracy assessment of NOAA’s reference evapotranspiration maps in the Texas High Plains. ASABE Paper 1873929. International Symposium, “Evapotranspiration: Challenges in Measurement and Modeling from Leaf to the Landscape Scale and Beyond.” American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. April 7-10, 2014. Raleigh, NC. Mullenix, D.K., Adhikari,, S., Runge, M., McDonald, T., Son, A., Dougherty, M. and J.P. Fulton. 2014. Small-Scale Biodiesel Production: A Case Study of On-Farm Economics. Applied Engineering in Agriculture. 30(4): 585-592. (doi: 10.13031/aea.30.10285). Nuti, R.C., G.D. Collins,, D.L. Jordan, T. Corbett, J.E. Lanier, K.L. Edmisten, R. Wells, and G.L. Grabow, 2012. Cotton response to sub-surface drip irrigation, planting date, cultivar, and mepiquat chloride. Crop Management doi:10.1094/CM-2012-0319-01-RS. O'Shaughnessy, S.A., S.R. Evett and P.D. Colaizzi. 2014a. Infrared thermometry as a tool for site-specific irrigation scheduling. Pp. 136-145 In Proc. 26th Annual Central Plains Irrigation Conf., Burlington, CO., February 25-26, 2014. (proceedings) O'Shaughnessy, S.A., S.R. Evett, P.D. Colaizzi, J.A. Tolk and T.A. Howell. 2014b. Early and later maturing grain sorghum under variable climatic conditions in the Texas High Plains. Submitted to Trans. ASABE, 9-20-2013. Accepted 16 September 2014. Paul, George, P.H. Gowda, P. Prasad, T.A. Howell, T. Marek. Comprehensive lysimetric evaluation and sensitivity analysis of METRIC with high resolution airborne imagery. ASABE Paper 1880998. International Symposium, “Evapotranspiration: Challenges in Measurement and Modeling from Leaf to the Landscape Scale and Beyond.” American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. April 7-10, 2014. Raleigh, NC. Porter, Dana and Thomas Marek. 2014. Guide to Crop Water Use Estimates from the Texas High Plains Evapotranspiration Network: Water Management Website. Texas A&M AgriLife Research, Amarillo, Texas. 13 pp. Porter, Dana, Thomas Marek, Prasanna Gowda, Dan Rogers. 2014. Irrigation and Water Management Education: Technology Transfer to Increase Impact of the Ogallala Aquifer Program. [Poster] 2014 Annual Meeting of the USDA-ARS Ogallala Aquifer Program. Lubbock, TX. 03/25/14 – 03/26/14. Porter, Dana. 2013. Irrigation Management in an Integrated Cotton Production System. Beltwide Cotton Conferences, San Antonio, TX, January 8, 2013. Porter, Dana. 2014. Using soil moisture to improve irrigation management. June 2014. The Cross Section, December 2013. High Plains Underground Water Conservation District, Lubbock, TX. Reba, M.L. 2014. Preserving water resources for agriculture in the Lower Mississippi River Basin. Presented at The Sino-US Workshop on Water Use Efficiency, Northwest Agriculture and Forest University, Yangling, China, 12 Sept. 2014. Reba, M.L., T.G. Teague, and E.D. Vories. 2014. A retrospective review of cotton irrigation on a production farm in the Mid-South. Journal of Cotton Science. 18:137-144. Reyes-Cabrera, J., L. Zotarelli, D. L. Rowland, M. D. Dukes, and S. A. Sargent. 2014. Drip as alternative irrigation method for potato in Florida sandy soils. American Journal of Potato Research. Rijal, S., X. Zhang, and X. Jia. 2013. Estimating surface soil moisture in the Red River Valley of the North Basin using Landsat 5 TM data. Soil Science Society of American Journal 77:1133-1143. Rutland, D. C. and M. D. Dukes. 2014. Accuracy of reference evapotranspiration estimation by two irrigation controllers in a humid climate. Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering140(6):04014011. Sinclair, T. R., B. G. Wherley, M. D. Dukes, and S. E. Cathey. 2014. Penman's sink-strength model as an improved approach to estimating plant canopy transpiration. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 197:136-141. Smith, Ron. 2014. Evolving irrigation technology improves efficiency and yields. Southwest Farm Press, April 3, 2014. Steele, D.D. 2014. Evapotranspiration mapping. Water Spouts 277(September):2-3. Fargo: N. Dak. St. Univ. Ext. Serv. Steele, D.D., B.P. Thoreson, D.G. Hopkins, B.A. Clark, S.R. Tuscherer, and R. Gautam. 2014. Spatial mapping of evapotranspiration over Devils Lake basin with SEBAL: Application to flood mitigation via irrigation of agricultural crops. Irrigation Science (in press). DOI: 10.1007/s00271-014-0445-1. Available at http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1007/s00271-014-0445-1. Steele, D.D., S.R. Tuscherer, and H. Buyukcangaz. 2014. Evapotranspiration mapping tutorial for North Dakota. Instruction set submitted to the ND State Water Commission, 76 pp. Fargo: NDSU ABEN Dept. Steele, D.D., T.F. Scherer, F.A. Akyuz, A. Wamono, T.M. DeSutter, and S.R. Tuscherer. 2014. Evaluation of a low-cost optical rain sensor. Paper No. SD14-063. St. Joseph, Michigan: ASABE. Stone, K.C. 2014. Potential water conservation using site-specific irrigation. Presented at the special session, “China Ministry of Science and Technology-USDA Water-Saving Technology Flagship Project Workshop”, of the 18th World Congress of CIGR (International Commission of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering), Sept. 2014. Stone, K.C. 2014. Water conservation in the humid southeastern US. Presented at The Sino-US Workshop on Water Use Efficiency, Northwest Agriculture and Forest University, Yangling, China, 12 Sept. 2014. Sui, R. 2014. Soil moisture monitoring using wireless sensor network. Presented at the special session, “China Ministry of Science and Technology-USDA Water-Saving Technology Flagship Project Workshop”, of the 18th World Congress of CIGR (International Commission of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering), Sept. 2014. Sui, R. 2014. Variable-rate irrigation for improving water use efficiency. Presented at The Sino-US Workshop on Water Use Efficiency, Northwest Agriculture and Forest University, Yangling, China, 12 Sept. 2014. Taghvaeian, S., J.L. Chavez, W.C. Bausch, K.C. DeJonge, T.J. Trout. 2014a. Minimizing instrumentation requirement for estimating crop water stress index and transpiration of maize. Irr. Sci. 32:53-65. DOI 10.1007/soo271-013-0415-z. Taghvaeian, S., L.H. Comas, K.C. DeJonge, T.J. Trout. 2014b. Conventional and simplified canopy temperature indices predict water stress in sunflower. Ag Water Man. 144:69-80. Trout, T.J. 2014. ARS water productivity research in the U.S. Central Plains: Measuring crop response to water stress. Presented at the special session, “China Ministry of Science and Technology-USDA Water-Saving Technology Flagship Project Workshop”, of the 18th World Congress of CIGR (International Commission of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering), Sept. 2014. Trout, T.J. 2014. ARS water productivity research in the U.S. Central Plains: Measuring crop response to water stress. Presented at The Sino-US Workshop on Water Use Efficiency, Northwest Agriculture and Forest University, Yangling, China, 12 Sept. 2014. Trout, T.J., F. Melton and L. Johnson. 2014. A web-based tool that combines satellite and weather station observations to support irrigation scheduling. Pp. 126-135 In Proc. 26th Annual Central Plains Irrigation Conf., Burlington, CO., February 25-26, 2014. (proceedings) Vellidis, G., Tucker, M., Perry, C., Reckford, D, Butts, C., Henry, H., Liakos, V., Hill, R.W., and Edwards, W. 2013. A soil moisture sensor-based variable rate irrigation scheduling system. In: J.V. Stafford (Ed.), Precision Agriculture 2013 - Proceedings of the 9th European Conference on Precision Agriculture (9ECPA), Lleida, Spain, p.713-720. doi: 10.3920/978-90-8686-778-3 Vellidis, G., V. Liakos, C. Perry, M. Tucker, G. Collins, J. Snider, J. Andreis, K. Migliaccio, C. Fraisse, K. Morgan, D. Rowland, E. Barnes. 2014. A smartphone app for scheduling irrigation on cotton. In S. Boyd, M. Huffman and B. Robertson (eds) Proceedings of the 2014 Beltwide Cotton Conference, New Orleans, LA, National Cotton Council, Memphis, TN (paper 15551). Vories, E.D. 2014. Impact of soil variability on irrigated cotton yield. Presented at the special session, “China Ministry of Science and Technology-USDA Water-Saving Technology Flagship Project Workshop”, of the 18th World Congress of CIGR (International Commission of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering), Sept. 2014. Vories, E.D. 2014. Reducing water use for rice production with remote monitoring and control. Presented at The Sino-US Workshop on Water Use Efficiency, Northwest Agriculture and Forest University, Yangling, China, 12 Sept. 2014. Vories, E.D. and S.R. Evett. 2014. Irrigation challenges in the sub-humid US Mid-South. Int. J. Water 8(3):259-274.

Publications Attachment:

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Impact Statements

The first Oklahoma Irrigation Conference was held at Fort Cobb, OK, on August 19, 2014, where over 90 participants learned about different methods of estimating crop water requirement and scheduling irrigation events.
The University of California is patenting the development of a self-calibration technique for the Surface Renewal method of in-situ measurement of ETc. From this, a private company is forming to market this less expensive but accurate method measuring ETc and evaluating Kc. The availability of this technique has the potential to foster more adoption and improved accuracy of measuring real-time ETc in farm fields. Potentially, farmers may be able to incorporate real-time measurement of ETc into their irrigation scheduling. It may also offer opportunities to improve the grass reference (ETo) monitoring network in throughout California (known as California Irrigation Management Information System - CIMIS).
The Almond Board of California has conducted extensive surveys of almond growers in the Central Valley of California as part of their industry?s sustainability program. They report that about 50 percent of over 6000 almond growers incorporate ETc and soil moisture monitoring information into their irrigation management decisions. Approximately, 25 percent of these same growers use direct measurements of crop stress with a pressure chamber and midday stem water potential to assist with regulated deficit irrigation strategies. As a result the almond industry is achieving record setting crops at higher crop water use efficiencies (crop per drop).
Large numbers of wine grape growers also utilize ETc information coupled with measurements of vine stress to employ regulated deficit irrigation.
Large numbers of processing tomato farmers use fractions of estimated ETc in late season irrigation to carry out regulated deficit irrigation to achieve market incentives for higher quality fruit.
Administrators of the CropManage irrigation scheduling and nitrogen management web-based application report 450 subscribers in the relatively short duration that this web application has been in development and under implementation.
Evaluations of WISE (Colorado) calculated daily soil water deficits have shown that a simplified daily soil water balance of an irrigated field using data from an automatic weather network can provide accurate recommendations of irrigation requirements (13.6% average error). A limited survey of 14 stakeholders indicated that 100% of them plan to use WISE and would recommend it to someone else.
Florida/Georgia released four irrigation apps as of May 2014: citrus app (36 schedules; 391 downloads), cotton app (39 downloads; released April 2014) strawberry app (10 schedules; 302 downloads), and urban turf app (140 schedules; 558 downloads). Estimated water savings with the turf app (based on field plot study) is 35% (approximately 17 million gallons per year with 204 users). The other apps are currently being evaluated.
Data associated with the Texas project impact the Texas High Plains region an estimated value of $22 million annually in reduced water pumping costs and equipment use as well as conservation of limited groundwater resources of the Ogallala aquifer. Data from this project continue to be used in regional and state (Texas) water planning efforts to estimate 50-year projected water demand for irrigated agriculture. These data inform development of regulations by groundwater conservation districts throughout the Texas High Plains, and the methodologies are used throughout the state. Additional data, quality analyses, infrastructure recommendations and other technical assistance have been provided in response to requests by the state water regulatory board.
The SmartIrrigation Cotton App was released in April 2014 and was used by approximately users in Georgia and 30 in Florida. The App contains a near-term weather forecast which producers can utilize to decide on delaying an irrigation event. Feedback has been good and strong interest has been expressed from county agents and regional specialists about expanding the App?s footprint to other states (Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas, for example).
Due to above average growing season rainfall throughout both 2013 and 2014, the web-based irrigation-scheduling program (part of NDAWN) decreased from previous years. There were about 25 users scheduling irrigations for about 12,000 acres.
During the 2014 growing season (June, July and August) over 500 maps and about 800 crop water use tables were downloaded from the NDAWN website.
The Excel version of the checkbook irrigation-scheduling program has been distributed to many users and it can be downloaded from the Web (http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/irrigation/irrigation-scheduling). We do not have a good estimate of the number of people using the program.
Training on the use of the Excel spreadsheet version of the irrigation scheduler was conducted by NDSU personnel at the request of University of Minnesota Extension educators.
The Woodruff Irrigation chart website has been used to irrigate 400,000 acres of irrigated land in MO since its inception in 2000. Based on the yield increase that irrigators using have reported in annual MO irrigation surveys, the gross economic benefit is $42M in that period.
Since 2000 irrigators in MO who use scheduling have out-yielded non-schedulers by 13.8, 7.0, and 5.3 bu/acre for corn, full season soybeans, and double-crop soybeans, respectively. The increase in cotton is 89 lbs/acre.

Date of Annual Report: 11/25/2015

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 09/03/2015 - 09/04/2015
Period the Report Covers: 10/01/2014 - 09/01/2015

Participants

WERA-1022 SAES-422 Participants

1. Aguilar, Jonathan, Kansas State University,
2. Allen, Niel, Utah State University,
3. Altenhofen, Jon, Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District,
4. Andales, Allan, Colorado State University,
5. Caves, June, Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District,
6. Chávez, José, Colorado State University,
7. Crookston, Mark, Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District,
8. Davis, Stacia, Louisiana State University,
9. DeJonge, Kendall, USDA ARS,
10. Doesken, Nolan, State Climatologist, Colorado State University,
11. Dukes, Michael, University of Florida,
12. Gaitan, Camilo, Florida Dept. of Agriculture and Consumer Services,
13. Grabow, Gary, North Carolina State University,
14. Hamel, Jama, U.S.B.R.,
15. Henry, Chris, University of Arkansas,
16. Hillyer, Charles, Texas A&M AgriLife (Univ.),
17. Lucia, Lyndsey, Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District,
18. Marek, Thomas, Texas A&M AgriLife (Univ.),
19. Martin, Ed, University of Arizona Cooperative Extension,
20. Nef, Bart, Campbell Scientific,
21. Peters, Troy, Washington State University,
22. Safadi, Assad, Natural Resources Consulting Engineering,
23. Schwalbe, Zach, Colorado State University Climate Center,
24. Stamper, Joshua, University of Minnesota Extension,
25. Stevens, Gene, University of Missouri Delta Center,
26. Taghvaeian, Saleh, Oklahoma State University,
27. Thompson, Kelley, Colorado Division of Water Resources,
28. Torrion, Jessica, Montana State University, and
29. Waskom, Reagan, Colorado Water Institute

Brief Summary of Minutes

See Attached File.

Minutes Attachment:

Attachment

Accomplishments

WERA – 1022 Annual Report for 2015 Meteorological and Climate Data to Support ET-Based Irrigation Scheduling, Water Conservation, and Water Resources Management Western Education\Extension and Research Activity WERA-1022 2015 Annual Meeting Date of Annual Report: November 2015 Annual Meeting Dates: September 3-4, 2015 The Report Covers the Period: July, 2014 – September, 2015 State Reports & Accomplishments: Objective 1. Coordinate the documentation of crop coefficients used in irrigation scheduling. Colorado Seasonal crop coefficient (Kcr) curves have been incorporated into Colorado’s online irrigation scheduler (WISE). The Kcr curves (FAO 56 type) are based on cumulative growing degree days (GDD; °F·days) and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) standardized tall (alfalfa) reference ET equation (ETrs). The crops include alfalfa hay, barley, corn (grain), dry beans, grass hay, potatoes, sorghum, sugar beets, sunflower, and winter wheat. The Kc parameters will be sent to Troy Peters (Washington State University) for inclusion in the Kc data base. Florida Kati Migliaccio, University of Florida Michael Dukes, University of Florida Kelly Morgan, University of Florida Sanjay Shukla, University of Florida The Agricultural Field Scale Irrigation Requirements Simulation (AFSIRS) model is being revised and updated. As part of this process, the Kc database is being updated. The original database mostly consists of FAO-24 Kc values. We will be targeting Florida specific Kc values and will do a literature search to obtain relevant Kc values from Florida production systems. Once Kc values are updated, they will be shared with the WERA-1022 group. Plasticulture production system is increasingly being used for vegetable and fruit production globally with over 15 million ha land area devoted to this system. While crop ET (ETc) for traditional crops haven been extensively studied, ETc for this system has been under-reported in literature. California and Florida are the two prominent states with plasticulture acreage within the nation. Use of crop coefficients derived for open field systems for plasticulture crops, leads to erroneous estimates of ETc. ETc for a variety of crops has been quantified using large drainage scale lysimeters located in Immokalee, FL. Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Report: Currently we have a contract with University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Services (IFAS) to update the methodologies to develop crop coefficients and their databases in Florida. Impact: a report on the findings is due on September 30, 2015. Based on that report we will know what level of impact we have had so far, and how much more impact we need to achieve. Louisiana There has been little done on estimating crop coefficients in Louisiana. Paired weighing lysimeters were used to develop crop coefficients for cotton in 2010 and 2011 on cracking clay soils in the northeast part of the state, commonly referred to as the Louisiana Delta. However, these years experienced extreme drought, thus it is likely that the crop coefficients are not good for normal or rainy years. Future work will include taking over the use of the lysimeters to repeat the study as well as rotating other row crops dominating the Delta, including corn and soybean. Montana Kc used for irrigation scheduling in research and extension is adopted from Idaho Kc documentation and FAO-56. We adjusted Kc according to ground cover and water-critical crop stages. We managed to acquire funding from Montana Wheat and Barley to carry on Local crop coefficient documentation, with no provision for equipment. Thus, we coordinated with other professor in the University by loaning us two Eddy Covariance System installed in farmer spring wheat (Northwestern MT) and barley production fields (Southeastern MT). Data processing and analysis is on-going and we are looking forward to provide our first year’s Kc documentation. Resulting Kc will be associated to crop phenological duration and ground cover on ground and by remote sensing. We anticipate that associating Kc with crop biophysical and physiological stages will boost adoption of Kc for efficient irrigation scheduling. We are hopeful to be able to acquire equipment funding or grants to continue Kc documentation in Montana. North Carolina Lake Wheeler Field Labs (Raleigh) Turf Project (update to 2014 report). This project consists of several sub-projects, all of which are related to the development of crop coefficients for turfgrass via determination of consumptive use from several methods. The methods included to estimate consumptive use (ETc) by which to derive crop coefficients are: 1.) soil-water balance, 2.) Micro-Bowen Ratio, and 3.) eddy covariance and surface renewal systems. The water balance method is being evaluated in both warm (zoysia) and cool season (tall fescue) turfgrass under two irrigation strategies - Management Allowable Depletion (MAD) of 50% and 75%, while the micro Bowen Ratio and eddy covariance/surface renewal methods are being employed on cool season turfgrass only. Irrigation on the experimental plots is triggered automatically when volumetric water content reported from soil-moisture sensors fall to the “initiate irrigation” thresholds based on MAD, and terminated when soil-moisture content is 0.02 below field capacity. Consumptive use and crop coefficients were estimated for periods with and without drainage, and computed at both daily and monthly time steps . In 2015, an eddy covariance/surface renewal system was installed on the tall fescue plot area. Data collected in the 2014 irrigation season was added to those data collected in 2013. Results may be summarized as following: • Consumptive use computed from both daily and monthly soil-water balances was greater for MAD50 than MAD75, but did not differ by turfgrass type. • Daily consumptive water use derived from the micro Bowen Ratio system was lower than that estimated using the water balance approach • Irrigation water applied on MAD75 plots was only 52% of that applied to MAD50 plots • Turf quality as measured by the NDVI was greater for MAD50 turf plots than MAD75 turf plots. • Crop coefficients derived for MAD50 turf plots (no stress) were significantly greater than crop coefficients derived for MAD75 turf plots (moderately stressed). • An average turf crop coefficient of 0.97 was obtained for cool season turf when consumptive use (ETc) was measured with the micro Bowen Ratio system. • A crop coefficient of 0.6 be used in May and a crop coefficient of 0.7 be used for the duration of the season independent of turf type if ET0 is computed with the Penman-Monteith equation. • Crop coefficients should be greater if an atmometer is used to estimate ETo (recommended values of 0.8 for May and a crop coefficient of 0.9 for the duration of the season). Texas Thomas H. Marek, Senior Research Engineer, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, Amarillo Dana Porter, Professor, Extension Program Leader and Associate Department Head, Texas A&M Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering Prasanna Gowda, Agricultural Engineer, USDA-ARS, El Reno, OK Jed Moorhead, USDA-ARS, Bushland Research efforts have been completed and are being published on the development of crop coefficients (Kc’s) in the Texas High Plains for sunflowers at the USDA-ARS lysimeter facility at Bushland, TX. Agreement with previous literature values validates the derived Kc’s for regional applications. Additionally, Kc’s for cabbage and artichokes continue in the Wintergarden region pending post lysimeter scale calibrations. Information will contribute to support WERA 1022 subcommittee to compile a database of Kc values and their attributes. Utah Some of our research concerns irrigation scheduling and management when water is limited, as is often the case in many parts of Utah. Much of our research concerns deficit irrigation of safflower and pasture. Findings from the research concerning crop coefficients (Kc) and irrigation scheduling. Safflower Irrigation Outcomes Deficit irrigation of safflower has been studied in 2013, 2014, and 2015 (not yet harvested) at North Logan, Utah. The irrigation treatments include no irrigation, one 3-inch irrigation, two 3-inch irrigations, and three 3-inch irrigations. Safflower Kc during branching and flowering averaged 1.09 for grass based reference ET (based on soil water budgets). Safflower utilizes stored soil moisture effectively and having a soil moisture near field capacity at the beginning of the season resulted in higher yields than providing irrigations only during the high water use periods during 2014. Soil water depletion of 7 inches (soil moisture at planting minus soil moisture at maturity) in the top 5 feet of soil did not significantly reduce yield. The 7 inches represents about 35% of total soil water and 70% of available soil water. The study indicated that adequate irrigation or soil moisture during elongation, branching, and flowering provides the greatest benefit to yield (both years of research the maximum yields were 3,900 to 4,000 lbs. per acre). Irrigations after flowering did not increase yield. This is because the number of seed heads determines yield and they are set during in the vegetative stages. Deficit irrigation works very well with safflower if adequate soil moisture is available at the beginning of the irrigation season. While safflower yields were high with only 3 to 6 inches of irrigation, the soil moisture was low at the end of the season. Safflower is a crop that has deep roots and effectively utilizes water from the 5 feet of root zone of the soil (deeper soil moisture measurements were not taken). The total water use by the higher yields was 19-21 inches. Extension Factsheet - Irrigation of Safflower in Northern Utah, Utah State University, June 2015 AG/OilseedCrops/2015-03pr. http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1752&context=extension_curall Washington Compare and Coordinate Kc Values. We have compiled Kc values from several different sources and compared them. These include: • An old compilation of Kc values used in Washington state irrigation scheduling tool, WISE. • Crop coefficients modified to the ASCE Standardized equation from AgriMet • Crop coefficients fit to this data ^^ • UC Davis crop coefficients modified to alfalfa ET. Conclusions: They are all different! They have different reference equations, different reference crops, different growing seasons, optimized for different climates, and different varieties. This is a large problem since it limits the usefulness of evapotranspiration research. It points to either the method of estimating reference ET not being adequate to account for weather and climatic differences, or differences and errors in the research methods used to estimate crop coefficients. It is most likely the former. USDA-ARS Fort Collins, CO (Kendall DeJonge): Current efforts are underway at the USDA-ARS Limited Irrigation Research Farm (LIRF) near Greeley, CO. Twelve treatments of regulated deficit irrigation are being evaluated, with focused stress in strategic growth stages. Varied levels of stress are imposed during late vegetative growth, and maturity. Crops are taken out of stress for sensitive reproductive growth stages. Corn and sunflower are current crops. Soil water balance is modeled on daily time step, and verified using soil water content measurements taken 2-3x/week. Daily ET is estimated based on reference ET from onsite CoAgMet weather station (GLY04), basal crop coefficient found from canopy cover observations, and stress crop coefficient found from modeled soil water deficit from field capacity compared with estimated readily available water in the root zone. Objective 2. Coordinate efforts to promote adoption of improved irrigation scheduling technology, including computer models based on crop coefficients and ETref, remote sensing and instrumentation that will help producers more efficiently apply irrigation water. Colorado An online irrigation water management (IWM) system named Water Irrigation Scheduler for Efficiency (WISE; http://wise.colostate.edu/) has been developed and pilot-tested in Eastern Colorado. WISE is accessible via a web browser, with soil profile water status information also accessible via mobile apps. Early in its development, a stakeholder committee (10 individuals) was formed representing progressive crop producers and advisers, researchers, conservation agency personnel, farm managers, and crop commodity group representatives to test and provide suggestions for improving the tool. The WISE tool provides mobile access to field-level information on the soil water deficit (net irrigation requirement) that can be used by the irrigator to decide how much and when to apply irrigations. An iPhone app that displays irrigation requirement and synchronizes with WISE was also demonstrated. The stakeholders gave positive comments on the system as well as additional suggestions for improving the functionality. The suggestions were prioritized and were implemented in the online WISE tool. In addition, WISE has been demonstrated at more than 15 producer- or conservation agency-conferences and workshops. In 2015, the WISE tool was demonstrated to 79 individuals including farmers, water managers, crop consultants, and agency personnel. WISE was pilot-tested on about 130 hectares of sprinkler-irrigated fields during the 2014 - 2015 growing seasons. In addition, other producers (early adopters) used WISE for irrigation scheduling on approximately 668 hectares in Colorado. In addition, and to improve irrigation scheduling when using the soil water balance approach, a review of crop evapotranspiration methods have been published (i.e., Subedi & Chávez, 2015). Efforts continue to disseminate the adoption of infra-red thermometers (IRTs) to help schedule irrigation by detecting different levels of crop water stress. The use of handheld IRTs and also UAVs is promising for managing irrigation water under full to deficit irrigation regimes. See publication by Chávez and Kullberg (2015) and Chávez (2015), in the publication list. Florida Irrigation scheduling smartphone apps for different commodities have been developed. To date, we have released citrus, cotton, strawberry, and urban turf. These apps were developed for Florida and Georgia. We continue the development, release, and evaluation (demonstrations and plot studies) of the new irrigation apps using ET-based scheduling. Upcoming releases will be for avocado, vegetable, and peanut. A three year project evaluating smart irrigation controllers for landscape irrigation control on single-family homes was completed. Smart controllers reduced irrigation 12-45% depending on type of device and installation method. These controllers consisted of one brand of soil moisture sensor (SMS) irrigation controller as well as one brand of evapotranspiration (ET) controller. There was a trend toward higher irrigation savings with optimized installation based on UF-IFAS recommendations. In 2014, we developed two new smartirrigation apps: vegetable and avocado; both were released in 2015. The turf app was also modified to include different landscape plant types to improve its application from just turf to entire landscapes. All irrigation apps were also used in field studies in 2014 for validation. I led the validation for the turf and avocado apps where field trials compared irrigation amounts using the app generated schedule to that from a time-based schedule and ET controllers. Collaboration with USGS and eddy covariance systems also continued and data are being collected in Loxahatchee Refuge to better quantify ET losses from the system (2014 to present). Florida Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, report: We use our statewide Mobile Irrigation Laboratory (MIL) program to meet this objective to the highest extent possible. The program focuses on the field evaluation of all kinds of irrigation systems, and on the creation of a report to the grower on how he can improve on irrigation scheduling via irrigation system efficiency improvements, management tools such as Irrigation Water Management (IWM) plans, weather stations (see objective 3 below), irrigation system retrofits or replacements, flow rate information, and/or soil moisture sensors, among others. Information about the MIL program and its water savings impacts can be found at: http://www.freshfromflorida.com/Divisions-Offices/Agricultural-Water-Policy/Evaluate-Your-Irrigation-System A power point presentation I did about this program during our WERA September 3 and 4 2015 meeting in Fort Collins Colorado, is also available via Jose Chavez (meeting organizer) or myself (Camilo Gaitan). Louisiana Due to lack of quality weather station data, the use of ET to utilize irrigation scheduling in Louisiana is not available at this time. Thus, most efforts have been shifted toward the use of soil moisture sensors for improving irrigation scheduling. A gravimetric water content sensor, the Watermark (Irrometer Co., Riverside, CA), and a volumetric water content sensor, the GS1 (Decagon Devices, Pullman, WA), were selected for determining whether they can be used to plan irrigation events. These sensors were installed on research plots with soils of sandy loam, silt loam, and cracking clay soils and crops of corn, cotton, and soybean. Additionally, these sensors were used in one on-farm irrigation demonstration where the farmer was able to see the soil moisture data and help make the irrigation schedule. Since this research was initiated during the current crop season, no results are available. Five on-farm irrigation demonstrations were initiated in the Louisiana Delta to show the benefits of combining multiple irrigation technologies to improve furrow irrigation efficiency. The technologies selected were: computerized hole selection in lay-flat tubing, surge valves, and soil moisture sensors. There are currently no results from this research since it was initiated during the current crop season. Montana Research on making every drop count was conducted from 2014-recent in NWARC (J. Torrion and R.N Stougaard, Northwestern Ag Research Center) by setting up research where Genetics x Environment x Management association was evaluated. This included eight spring wheat varieties x 2 Soil Types x six irrigation treatments (100ET, early terminations based from 100ET treatment [minus 1, 2, and 3 irrigation event/s early cut off], deficit, and dryland). Brennan variety is the least responsive in both dryland and irrigated environment, whereas Volt showed high yield in dryland, and showed response in irrigation supplementation. However, additional response was not observed at the high irrigation application (FullIrr[100ET] and FullIrr-1). Solano, which is a popular dwarf variety in NW MT, responded in drought stress, but not very responsive to supplemental irrigation. Overall, 100ET is not superior compared with the early cut off irrigation terminations or the deficit irrigation on imposed water stress. Results of this research were presented during winter grower’s meeting (60 farmers); 2014 NWARC field day (120 people); 2015 NWARC field day (100 people); and 2015 NARC field day (65 people) and many more early next year. Extension events include the use of Kc, Reference ET, knowing your soil types, and genetic-specific response to the various irrigation strategies in terms of yield and quality. The use of granular-matrix sensors (watermark) was also discussed. North Carolina 2015 Kinston Corn Irrigation Study Summary (update to 2014 report) A web-based, irrigation decision support system (IDSS) that incorporates crop growth stage, current soil-water status, and short-term weather forecast to provide irrigation recommendations to growers has been developed. The IDSS uses a forecasted soil-water balance and allows the user to specify different management allowed depletions (MAD) for each growth stage of the crop. While it is intended to be used with multiple crops, preliminary testing has only been with corn. The2015 corn growing season was the second season of testing the IDSS at the Cunningham Research Station in Kinston, NC. As opposed to the 2014 growing season, which was exceptionally wet and required no irrigation, the 2015 season has had extended periods without rainfall during which irrigation was necessary. A variable rate irrigation (VRI) system was used to impose three irrigation management regimes during the season: 1) no irrigation 2) irrigation scheduled by the IDSS and 3) irrigation on a routine interval based on long term irrigation requirements (meant to mimic the "rule of thumb" that growers use currently). The IDSS recommended 8.6 inches of irrigation during the season, compared to 6.5 inches using the routine schedule. The crop will be harvested in early to mid-September and analyzed for differences in yield and water use efficiency between treatments. A simulation study using historical weather data and archived short-term weather forecasts from the National Weather Service for 5 locations across North Carolina and spanning 2009 to 2014 is also being conducted to evaluate how the IDSS would have compared to other irrigation strategies with regards to water use and predicted crop yield. This study will help to better parameterize the IDSS, especially concerning the sensitivity of crop yield to water stress at different stages of growth. The long term goal is to provide a reliable decision support system requiring minimal inputs that can be used to assist growers with irrigation scheduling in humid, sub-tropical regions. Texas Dana Porter and Thomas Marek completed a two-year project, “Higher Integration Networking, Texas High Plains Evapotranspiration Network,” sponsored by the Texas Water Development Board via Panhandle Regional Planning Commission. This work supported a graduate student and provided public access to adapted and user-friendly packaged ET-based crop water use information and related agricultural meteorological data. End users of the information include agricultural irrigators; agricultural, environmental and other research programs; water resources managers/agencies; crop insurance companies and agencies (TDA, USDA-Risk Management Agency); municipalities, turf managers, homeowners; environmental consultants and researchers; and educators. The “Extension Portal” supported through this project served as a public gateway to information available from the Texas High Plains Evapotranspiration (TXHPET) Network, including crop water use estimates, an online irrigation scheduling tool, information and educational resources are provided through this gateway. While the tools and resource materials are broadly applicable to a wide range of audiences and conditions, the crop water use data are regionally focused in the Texas High Plains (Panhandle and South Plains) where the majority of irrigation water in the state is used, as well as portions of the Rolling Plains and West Texas. The products of this effort support Regional Water Planning agricultural water conservation strategies. Educational events, including irrigation workshops, webinars, invited presentations, posters and oral presentations at conferences; news releases and media outreach; and internet-based information delivery promoted efficient irrigation management using ET-based scheduling and other technologies as appropriate. While in-person attendees benefitted from interactions with others at conferences and had opportunities to visit with speakers and vendors, extensive local media coverage promoted highlights of the events and availability of educational resources throughout the region. Missouri In March 2015, the University of Missouri Extension Service released a new crop water use app which uses daily evapotranspiration (ET) calculations from the state-wide agricultural weather station network. Irrigation was scheduled on 148 grower fields (includes all crops) with the program in the first season. Information is delivered to farmers on smart phones and computers. With a few exceptions, algorithms in the app came from the Arkansas Irrigation Scheduler. For cotton, the crop coefficient in the Missouri program is based on growing degree days (DD60) rather than days after emergence in the Arkansas program. Field evaluations with the app were made before the release. At Clarkton, Missouri we found that delaying the first irrigation from recommendations caused significant cotton yield losses. Two local watersheds received federal funds from the Mississippi River Basin Watershed Initiative (MRBI). The program promotes farmer use of ET information from weather stations to manage irrigation. This winter, with a USDA-NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG), we will be adding soil organic matter and soil type information from the NRCS database to the app. Short grass evapotranspiration (ETo) varied greatly for the same day between years at Portageville, Missouri. This shows the importance of using actual weather rather than relying on long-term historical weather for scheduling irrigation. The cost of installation and maintenance of new weather stations is a budget constraint for the extension service. Some growers are having to use ET data from stations located several miles away. Fortunately, ET is much less variable with distance than rainfall. In the Mid-South, the three most important factors in the Penman-Monteith ET equation are incoming shortwave solar radiation, wind speed, and relative humidity. Daily differences were small between stations at Portageville and Hayward located 8 miles apart. Rice is normally flood irrigated. We have been working with University of Arkansas to validate a modified crop coefficient for center pivot rice. Field trials are underway using Valley and Lindsay variable irrigation center pivots. Nebraska Irmak, S. With increasing pressure on availability of water resources, increase in energy costs, and water allocations in various parts of the state, the Nebraska Agricultural Water Management Network (NAWMN) (Irmak, 2006; Irmak et al., 2010) was formed in 2005 by Dr. Suat Irmak and his team of Extension Educators to establish an effective partnership between growers, crop consultants, Natural Resources Districts (NRDs), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), irrigation districts, and University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension to work together to achieve a common goal of increasing crop water use efficiency and conserve water and energy resources in agriculture. The primary goal of the Network is to enable transfer of high quality research-based information to Nebraskans through a robust and extensive series of demonstration projects established in farmers’ fields and foster adoption of new irrigation management technologies and methods that increase irrigation efficiency and reduce energy consumption. The demonstration projects are supported by the scientifically-based field research and evaluation projects conducted at the Univ. of Nebraska-Lincoln South Central Agricultural Laboratory (SCAL) near Clay Center, Nebraska. The NAWMN teaches and demonstrates farmers how to utilize soil moisture monitoring and crop water use estimates in their practices to enhance irrigation water management and crop production efficiency. The use of climate information [precipitation, temperature, reference (potential) evapotranspiration, crop coefficients, and actual crop evapotranspiration] has also been taught in the NAWMN programs. As a result, the Nebraska producers have been adopting these tools and information in their irrigation management practices. In 2005, there were 15 farmer cooperators in the Network and one NRD as partners. As of end of 2014, the number of active growers who joined the Network has increased to more than 1,200. By 2014, the NAWMN partners represented 1.7 million acres of irrigated land area. Due to the information and strategies taught and tools and technologies demonstrated in the Network, participants are changing their behavior in terms of how they manage irrigations and Network is having significant impacts in terms of conserving water and energy resources statewide. Since 2005, the reduction in the amount of water withdrawal for irrigation in corn and soybean fields farmed by the NAWMN participants has been averaging as 2.1 inch per growing season. The number of NRD partners has increased from one in 2005 to 17 (out of 23) in 2014. In 2014 and 2015, over 20 presentations have been made to deliver additional information to the growers. Additional soil moisture technologies have been researched and the information has been delivered to the NAWMN cooperators. Oklahoma Numerous related activities have been conducted at Oklahoma State University during the report period of September 16th 2014 to August 31st, 2015. A main focus has been on promoting the adoption of instrumentation to improve irrigation scheduling. As part of this effort, a total number of seven demonstration sites were developed across the state, where different types of sensors were used to train producers on different aspects of using sensor-based information to improve irrigation scheduling. These sites included four cotton fields under subsurface drip irrigation, center pivot sprinkler, and flood irrigation systems, as well as a pecan orchard, a vineyard, and a commercial nursery. Dissemination of information on science-based irrigation scheduling was achieved by presenting at numerous field days, meetings, workshops, and in-service training. More specifically, information was presented at five national conferences, four regional meetings and in-service trainings, and five field days and crop tours. The total contact hours (face-to-face interaction with clientele) reached 255 hours during this period. Besides attending the above-mentioned events, we organized the 2nd Oklahoma Irrigation Conference in August and invited irrigation specialists from Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas to train Oklahoma producers on different aspects of improved irrigation management. Three presentations were on the specific topic of implementing ET-based and sensor-based irrigation scheduling. Eighty eight people attended this one-day conference. In addition, eight educational videos were produced in collaboration with Oklahoma State University Agricultural Communication Services. These video clips were aired through local TV channels and are now available on YouTube website. USDA-ARS Fort Collins, CO (Kendall DeJonge): Current version of the DSSAT crop model suite do not use standardized reference ET and crop coefficient methodology, and there is a need for improvement (DeJonge et al., 2012; Thorp et al., 2014). Current work is underway in conjunction with Kelly Thorp (USDA-ARS, Maricopa AZ) to modify the ET modules to be in line with current standards. Basal crop coefficient (Kcb, transpiration demand) is determined as a function of leaf area index. DeJonge and Thorp began this project at DSSAT Sprint meeting in Washington DC, and DSSAT leadership are aware of the efforts. Preliminary results presented at 2015 ASABE International Meeting in New Orleans LA. New, simpler alternatives to the Crop Water Stress Index (CWSI) have been developed. The new indices Degrees Above Non-Stressed (DANS) and Degrees Above Canopy Threshold (DACT) are two canopy temperature-based indices whose data requirements are only canopy temperatures, yet they are highly correlated with CWSI despite requiring a fraction of the data (DeJonge et al., 2015a; Taghvaeian et al., 2014). These methods may be simple enough to be effective for use by farmers to identify and/or quantify stress in crops. A recent Master’s student for Jose Chavez (CSU) explored conversion of these indices into crop coefficients, which also performed as well as CWSI (Kullberg, 2015). Utah Research to determine potential water savings for deficit irrigation has been conducted at the Intermountain Irrigated Pasture Project site in Lewiston, Utah since July 2013. The objectives of the research are to: 1) determine the potential water savings (decreased consumptive use) from shortened irrigation season of pastures, 2) determine water use efficiency of pasture during the growing season, 3) assess impact on yield and health of pastures from deficit or no irrigation during single and multiple irrigation seasons, and 4) assess fertilizer effects on yields of deficit irrigated pastures. Five irrigation levels were used in the research; no irrigation, irrigation through approximate dates of May 31, June 30, July 31, August 31, and September 30. Soil moisture are being measured and monitored, but an exact water use has not been obtained due to a water table at about 50 inches that appears to be contributing to the crop ET. About 60% of the annual yield comes in the harvest that is made about mid-June. The full irrigation yields average about 4.2 tons per acre and non-irrigated yield are about 3.2 tons per acre in 2014 and the first two cutting in 2015 yields indicate the yields will be very similar. The pasture health has been maintained in all irrigation levels. Washington Improve Irrigation Scheduling. We have developed a simple, user friendly irrigation scheduler that is designed first for usability. It works on mobile phones as well as any web browser (http://weather.wsu.edu/ism). There is a full-page version as well as a small screen version for mobile phones. It has a one week forecast. It does push notification (text and email alerts). It works with most all of the weather networks in the Western US to automatically pull ET data, calculate reference ET, and apply the Kc values and compute the soil water balance. There is a functional Android App, and there will be an iPhone app running by next spring. The code is open source (written in PHP and MySQL). The code is available for download at http://irrigation.wsu.edu/Content/ism.zip. There is also a user’s manual at http://weather.wsu.edu/ism/ISMManual.pdf. We will help support the inclusion of additional weather networks. Objective 3. Coordinate the development of quality control (QC) procedures for weather data used for irrigation scheduling. Colorado COAGMET, the CO agricultural meteorological network is developing a new QC/QA procedure with funds from CO Water Conservation Board. Although COAMET will be coordinating with other networks and partners to standardize procedures. Florida Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services report: We have our My Florida Farm Weather program, to work to the best extent possible towards this objective. Weather data from this program can be viewed and accessed at:http://fawn.ifas.ufl.edu/mffw/index.html. In this program, we provide incentives to growers statewide to install weather stations at their farms, so that they can use data from those stations to improve irrigation scheduling. We worked with Jama Hamel from this same WERA group (US Bureau of Reclamation) in 2014, to improve our QC process regarding the data that comes from this statewide grower weather station network. We continue to implement a QC process for all data that is obtained from the grower weather stations, and to improve on that process as new information and resources become available to us. A power point presentation I did about this program during our WERA September 3 and 4 2015 meeting in Fort Collins Colorado, is also available via Jose Chavez (meeting organizer) or myself (Camilo Gaitan). Louisiana The original LSU AgCenter weather station system is not fully functioning. New towers and equipment have been installed in five locations across the state, but the sensors are not functional in all locations and none of the stations have been integrated into the website reporting system. As a result, the data are not available from the new equipment. The LSU AgCenter is in talks with merging this five station system into the Bureau of Reclamation’s quality control program for improving the sustainability of weather station management. Entering the Bureau of Reclamation’s weather station quality control program would allow Louisiana to seamlessly utilize the Irrigation Scheduler Mobile program developed and managed by Washington State University. This would add the capability of scheduling irrigation in Louisiana, which is not an option currently. Texas A previously reported statewide assessment of evapotranspiration networks in Texas provided an inventory of capabilities of existing networks to address agricultural irrigation scheduling and water planning needs. Operations and management, site and instrumentation issues, data QA/QC and other issues were investigated, and recommendations for improvements in management were provided in a workshop series. Results continue to be used in support efforts advocating a statewide (centrally coordinated and standardized) agricultural weather station network in Texas. ASAE Weather Station Standard (ASAE EP505.1 APR2015, Measurement and Reporting Practices for Automatic Agricultural Weather Stations) was finalized (approved and published) in April 2015. USDA-ARS Fort Collins, CO. Kendall DeJonge. A sensitivity and uncertainty analysis (SA and UA) was performed in semi-arid Colorado and humid Florida to evaluate reference ET sensitivity to manufacturer quoted accuracy of input sensors (wind, temperature, humidity, solar radiation). Both simple (local) SA and global SA methods were used where multiple inputs were varied simultaneously. Results showed that local sensitivity analysis may be adequate to repeat this analysis for other networks, which would be very simple for managers of micromet networks to repeat (DeJonge et al., 2015b). An example of the impact of this study: the northern Colorado network showed that the anemometer (wind sensor) showed much greater potential contribution to ET inaccuracy; subsequently CoAgMet has decided to upgrade the anemometers throughout the network. Utah Weather data quality control procedures are implemented by the Utah Climate Center.

Publications

See Attached

Publications Attachment:

Attachment

Impact Statements

Florida ranks second in number of new homes constructed. Currently, Orange County Florida is seeking a change in the statewide landscape irrigation rule, which would promote the use of smart irrigation controllers through day of the week exceptions and or formal rebate programs for installation. This is one of the fastest growing areas of the state, thus impacting the potential for reducing water waste will decrease water conflict in the future.
The cotton smart irrigation app has been used to schedule irrigation on 497 fields by 224 users in Georgia and Florida and predicts observed soil moisture curves reasonably well.
Smartirrigation app user statistics are posted at, http://agroclimate.org/tools/App-Statistic/. To date for the turf app there are 140 schedules; 558 downloads. Based on field plot studies the irrigation savings is 35% (approximately 17 million gallons/year with 204 users).
New crop coefficients developed for pepper (18,000 ac) and watermelon (27,000 ac) for sub-tropical Florida will reduce errors in ET estimates for south Florida by 20-30%. Use of these coefficients for irrigation scheduling has been demonstrated in field days and irrigation workshops.
Implementation of these coefficients for irrigation management can potentially save over ? 2 billion gallons/yr. in FL and will help meet conservation targets to meet the projected supply shortfalls in the state by 2030.
Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, reports to date we have a network of more than 180 grower weather stations throughout the State (and growing), producing data which goes through an automatic real time QC process before it is displayed on our website.
The farmer cooperator where Eddy Covariance was installed in Northwestern MT adopted the soil-water balance calculation using the improvised Kc to schedule irrigation in spring wheat field. This is about 160 acres. This impact is small but is a good start for Montana.
As of end of 2014, the number of active growers who joined the Network has increased to more than 1,200. By 2014, the NAWMN partners represented 1.7 million acres of irrigated land area.
Estimated potential water conservation resulting from this project are in the range of 0.5 -2.0 ac-inches/irrigated acre, depending upon level of adoption and well capacity and crops produced, with higher potential savings in areas with greater irrigation capacity such as in the Panhandle and Northern Texas High Plains.
Data associated with this project impact the Texas High Plains region an estimated value of $22 million annually in reduced water pumping costs and equipment use as well as conservation of limited groundwater resources of the Ogallala aquifer.
Educational programs reached over 1969 individuals through approximately 30 face-to-face Extension meetings. Numerous individual inquiries (contacts) were addressed through telephone, e-mail, site contacts and office visits. News releases and full-length articles reached a very broad audience; as the articles were further disseminated through county agent newsletters, crop consultants? communications, and other mass media outlets.
The High Plains Irrigation Conference in Amarillo, Texas in January 2014 addressed irrigation technologies and management; crop water requirements and general agricultural water management topics. Approximately 115 attendees, mostly agricultural producers, irrigation professionals, landowners and federal and state agency personnel participated in this one-day event that offered CEUs for Irrigation Association Certified Irrigation Professionals and Agronomy Society Certified Crop Advisers.
All (100%) of respondents indicated that the information provided in the program would be helpful in their irrigation decisions. Several indicated specific technologies and/or practices they would implement as a result of what they learned in the program.
In our research we took soil samples every two weeks and determined soil moisture gravimetrically. We also used Irrometer Water Mark sensors (electrical conductivity) and data loggers, and Sentek Diviner 2000 probe (capacitance based) measurements. The three sets of measurements allowed comparisons to be made between the methods. All methods can be used for irrigation scheduling, but the sensor-based estimates of soil moisture need calibration to come up with accurate soil moisture.
Information was presented to approximately 150 growers at an Oil Seed School in Logan, Utah on February 24, 2015. The primary impact is that water can be applied to safflower in fall irrigation, pre-planting, or early in season when it is more available due to the mountain runoff rather than mid or late season when other crops can benefit more from irrigations. The soil can be used to efficiently store water where reservoir storage is not available

Date of Annual Report: 10/27/2014

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 09/17/2014 - 09/18/2014
Period the Report Covers: 10/01/2013 - 09/30/2014

Participants

Alan Fulton, University of California
Bart Nef, Campbell Scientific
Camilo Gaitan, Florida Dept. Agriculture and Consumer Services
Chris Henry, University of Arkansas
Dana Porter, Texas A&M
Daniel Ostrum, South Dakota State University
David Sumner, USGS
Ed Martin, University of Arizona (Administrative Advisor)
Jama Hamel, U.S. Bureau Reclamation
Joe Henngler, University of Missouri
Jonathan Aguilar, Kansas State University
José Chávez, Colorado State University (Vice-Chair)
Kati Migliaccio, University of Florida
Michael Dukes, University of Florida (Chair)
Mike Hobbins, NOAA
Peter Robinson, NRCS
Robert Evans, North Carolina State University
Saleh Taghvaeian, Oklahoma State University
Stacia Davis, Louisiana State University
Troy Peters, Washington State University
Wes Porter, University of Georgia/Auburn

Brief Summary of Minutes

Minutes Attachment:

WERA 1022 Annual Combined Report 2014.docx

Accomplishments

Arizona Arizona crop coefficients have been sent to Troy Peters at Washington State to develop a database of Kc’s.   California Efforts are underway to evaluate crop coefficients (Kc) and ETc for several major crops such as alfalfa, almond, rice, vegetable crops, walnut, and wine grapes.   Varietal and rootstock improvements and modified planting, pruning, other cultural practices, and the growing necessity for effective deficit irrigation strategies motivate the need to re-evaluate Kc and ETc (Fulton, et al., 2013).   Progress has been made with the development of an inexpensive Energy Balance (Surface Renewal) technique for accurately measuring in-situ actual ET (ETa) and Kc in major California crops (Johnson, 2014).   Missouri Literature regarding Heat Units (HUs) was reviewed to determine accepted methodology to calculate heat units for various crops. There appears to be inconsistency among researchers on how HUs are calculated. Also, literature regarding cardinal temperatures for various crops was reviewed.     North Carolina Micro Bowen Ratio systems have been installed on the turf plots to estimate ET via the Bowen Ratio approach.  We are trying to ascertain consumptive use and derive crop coefficients for cool and warm season turf by multiple methods for a bit more confidence.   Irrigation is applied to warm and cool season variety turf based on Management Allowable Depletion of MAD50 and MAD75. Irrigation is scheduled automatically when MAD thresholds are reached based on soil moisture sensors. Water balances to compute consumptive use (ET) are first conducted during periods of no rainfall and irrigation when drainage is assumed zero, and alternatively computed monthly throughout growing season summing applied irrigation and estimated effective precipitation to obtain ET. Result and Preliminary Conclusions: <ol> <li>Difficult to develop reliable crop coefficients for humid climates because effective rainfall is difficult to quantify.</li> <li>From 2013 data, Kc in the 0.5 to 0.6 range. Above normal rainfall in 2014 has resulted in few irrigation events.</li> <li>No difference observed in irrigation applied for warm and cool season grasses when both actively growing during the 21 week study period (173 mm warm, 170 mm cool).</li> <li>MAD75 reduced irrigation annual irrigation amount by about 40% (MAD50 = 215 mm, MAD75 = 132 mm).</li> </ol> An ongoing outreach component is planned that will convey results to water management and turf professionals, and local municipalities.   North Dakota The crop coefficients used with North Dakota's irrigation scheduling programs were developed based on research performed over 30 years ago. Ongoing research using eddy covariance has the potential to provide updated Kc curves however there are no research projects currently focused on updating the crop coefficients for the 10 most irrigated crops in ND. Currently, research on ET from tile-drained fields has produced some estimates of corn and soybean crop coefficients.   Texas Field-based research efforts continue to expand development of crop growth curves and subsequently crop coefficient curves for use with irrigation scheduling tools, including the Texas High Plains Water Management Soil Profile package. Additional analysis of lysimeter data is ongoing to refine and expand Kc curves for additional crops and new varieties of major crops.   Washington Kc values from several different sources have been compiled and compared. These include: <ul> <li>An old compilation of Kc values used in Washington state irrigation scheduling tool, WISE.</li> <li>Crop coefficients modified to the ASCE Standardized equation from AgriMet</li> <li>Crop coefficients fit to this data.</li> <li>UC Davis crop coefficients modified to alfalfa ET.</li> </ul>   Conclusions: They are all different! They have different reference equations, different reference crops, different growing seasons, optimized for different climates, and different varieties.   USDA-ARS Members of the ARS multi-location research effort, Site-Specific Irrigation Management and Water Use Efficiency Tools (SSIMWUET), met together with Chinese colleagues to discuss irrigation scheduling, crop water use, crop coefficients and methods for improving water use efficiency in a Symposium on Water Use Efficiency, at Northwest Agriculture and Forest University, Yangling, China, Sept. 2014. Members of the team also discussed these topics in a special session (China Ministry of Science and Technology-USDA Water-Saving Technology Flagship Project Workshop) of the 18th World Congress of CIGR (International Commission of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering), Sept. 2014. SSIMWUET team members from Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Missouri, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas were represented. Papers (abstracts) presented are listed. In addition, ARS-Colorado published a journal article on sunflower water use and crop coefficients (Lopez-Urrea et al., 2014).   Objective 2. Coordinate efforts to promote adoption of improved irrigation scheduling technology, including computer models based on crop coefficients and ETref, remote sensing and instrumentation that will help producers more efficiently apply irrigation water.   Arizona Our program AZSCHED is still available for download online at <a href="http://ag.arizona.edu/crop/irrigation/azsched/azsched.html">http://ag.arizona.edu/crop/irrigation/azsched/azsched.html</a>. Although support for the program is not 100% at this time, we still have the capability to answer questions and assist users as needed.   Arkansas Tools have been developed for using Atmometers (ET gages) for row crops (soybeans, corn, and cotton). An online version of the Arkansas Irrigation Scheduler has been developed and is available for use in Arkansas. The AIS has a long history of development and use in the state. The online version improves ease of use by automating the acquisition of temperature data for ET prediction. A new state weather station network exists. Arkansas is conducting on farm trials using portable flow meters, computerized hole selection, surge irrigation, and AIS or Atmometers. Soil moisture sensors are also employed to assist in decision making of scheduling. The sensors often are used to troubleshoot issues related to soil sealing and irrigation application amounts. After adjustments are made using set times and surge programming, they can often be used to make scheduling decisions. Research and demonstration use has shown good agreement between Atmometers and proposed Watermark sensor thresholds.   California A video series delivers irrigation management information to California farmers who irrigate 9 million acres and over 330 different crops: Insights - Water and Drought Online Seminar Series (URL: <a href="http://ciwr.ucanr.edu/California_Drought_Expertise/Insights__Water_and_Drought_Online_Seminar_Series/">http://ciwr.ucanr.edu/California_Drought_Expertise/Insights__Water_and_Drought_Online_Seminar_Series/</a>). It features ET based irrigation scheduling and management considerations under drought and several other complimentary videos on deficit irrigation strategies, soil moisture and crop stress monitoring techniques that support application of ET information. Related free, on-line publications are also available at <a href="http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/FreePublications/">http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/FreePublications/</a>. A recent example is <a href="http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/Details.aspx?itemNo=8503">http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/Details.aspx?itemNo=8503</a>.   UC ANR, the California Department of Food and Agriculture, and the California Department of Water Resources are jointly investing in the development and implementation of a web-based irrigation scheduling and nitrogen management application called CropManage. An introduction can be found at: <a href="http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=13639">http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=13639</a>. This web-based application was initially developed for lettuce and other vegetables grown in the Salinas Valley of California. Collaborative efforts are underway to expand its application to other major California crops throughout California such as alfalfa, almond, and walnut.   Colorado The Crop Water Stress Index (CWSI) method involves simultaneous measurements of air temperature (Ta), canopy temperature (Tc) and vapor pressure deficit (VPD), with thermometers and humidity sensors. Tc increases due to stress and Tc – Ta gradually becomes more positive rises above the baseline. When Tc – Ta deviates from a “baseline” of Tc – Ta vs. VPD the crop is considered to be stressed and it is an ideal time to irrigate. However, the adoption of this simple methodology is hindered by the high cost of accurate (research grade) infra-red thermometers (and loggers). Some farmers in CO have been using commercially available handheld infra-red thermometer guns. These much cheaper devices are not accurate and are affected by heating when exposed to solar radiation when used outdoors.   The objective of this study is to evaluate the viability of commercially available handheld IRT (Infrared Thermometers) for use with Crop Water Stress Index (CWSI) to promote the use of the CWSI method and thus help improve the management of irrigation by properly triggering (schedule) irrigations before the plant is water stressed (i.e., at target stress level thresholds).   Several handheld IRTs are being tested, including: Fluke 62 Max, Ryobi Tek4, DeWalt, etc. Preliminary results indicate that that raw handheld IRT data are not accurate enough to monitor crop canopy temperature without a proper calibration. In particular, the Ryobi Tek4 sensor was calibrated to approximate readings of a “research grade” Apogee S-111 IRT sensor. A multiple linear regression equation was used for the calibration. Independent variables included: the canopy readings taken with the handheld IRT (e.g., Ryobi), air temperature, wind speed, vapor pressure deficit, short wave incoming solar radiation, and solar zenith angle.   Data from 2014 still needs to be processed and incorporated in the analysis. Furthermore, it is expected that the inclusion of vegetation percent cover will further enhance the calibration algorithm accuracy. A spreadsheet tool to calculate CWSI and actual ET values will be developed and made available to the public next year.   Given that approximately 54.9 million acres of farm land are irrigated in the United States, widespread adoption of improved irrigation water management (IWM) can have a significant impact on water conservation, prevention of water pollution, and water productivity (crop yield). A key component of IWM is proper irrigation scheduling, which involves application of correct amounts of irrigation water at the right times. There is a need to provide low-cost irrigation scheduling tools that are “smart” (minimize the need for technical knowledge). There is also a need for continual education regarding the benefits of IWM for water conservation and prevention of non-point source pollution.   The overall goal of this project is to develop, pilot, and disseminate a scalable device-independent mobile system for improved irrigation water management (IWM). The system will enhance the capacity of stakeholders, including producers and water managers, to determine in real time irrigation water demand for a field or region of interest. The IWM system will be accessible through any Web browser or connected mobile device. The online irrigation water management (IWM) system was demonstrated to more than 100 individuals including farmers, water managers, crop consultants, and agency personnel in Colorado. The stakeholders have learned how irrigations can be scheduled according to daily soil water deficit values automatically calculated by the IWM system. An online irrigation scheduler, Water Irrigation Scheduler for Efficiency (WISE), has been developed on the eRAMS GIS platform (<a href="https://erams.com/">https://erams.com/</a>). WISE automatically accesses field-specific soil characteristics and daily weather data to calculate irrigation water requirements for each field. A prototype mobile app for smart phones is also being finalized. Approximately 10 cooperator farmers, conservationists, and crop industry personnel are testing WISE on their irrigated farms for the 2014 growing season.   Florida Irrigation scheduling smartphone apps for different commodities have been developed. To date, we have released citrus, cotton, strawberry, and urban turf. These apps were developed for Florida and Georgia. We continue the development, release, and evaluation (demonstrations and plot studies) of the new irrigation apps using ET-based scheduling. Upcoming releases will be for avocado, vegetable, and peanut.   Work continues on the evaluation of commercially available smart controllers such as soil moisture sensor (SMS) and evapotranspiration based (ET) controllers to efficiently irrigate landscapes. A project with 167 single family homes has 132 homes with SMS or ET controllers and 35 comparison homes. All homes have dedicated irrigation meters with hourly data. To date, ET controlled homes reduced irrigation 21-33% and SMS controlled homes 30-44% without reducing turfgrass quality.   Georgia The University of Georgia Smart Sensor Array (UGA SSA) is a wireless, low-cost soil moisture sensing system. The UGA SSA provides continuous real-time soil water tension data at three depths (8, 16, and 24 inches) at each sensor node. The data can be used in conjunction with crop growth stage and precipitation forecasts to make data-based decisions on irrigation. The user interface at www.flintirrigation.com now includes an irrigation scheduling tool that recommends irrigation amounts for irrigation management zones   Kansas Research on ET scheduling includes generation of heat-unit or GDU based crop coefficients for corn using SDI system as a high level of water control.   K-State is comparing full and 75% of ET treatments with both the typical standard fixed Kc values used in past versus those that advance (faster or slower) in relation to the heat units occurring to date.  Integration of ET-based irrigation scheduling with plant water status and soil water monitoring as checks to complement ET-based scheduling has been initiated for corn. The goal is to improve reliability of irrigation scheduling and increase its adoption.   KanSched, which is K-State’s ET-based irrigation scheduling program that was primarily a stand-alone program, is now available as a web-based (beta version) application. This enable users to access their data from the cloud and use multiple computer devices and OS platforms. Initial arrangements have been made to deliver KanSched as an app for mobile devices.   In conjunction with KanSched, demonstration fields installed with different soil moisture sensors were established. These soil moisture sensors have telemetry capability whereby the farmers could access the soil moisture data at the convenience of the computer or mobile device. The aim is to encourage farmers to adopt irrigation scheduling in their management activities using either KanSched or soil moisture sensors or both.   Missouri The University of Missouri has moved to make the hourly ASCE Standardized Reference ET using grass reference as their accepted method of calculating reference ET.   Weather data for various MO weather stations was synthesized to provide average DOY values for parameters allowing direct modification of Kc values. These polynomial values relate DOY to climatological factors used to locally fit Kc values based on Eq. 62 in FAO-56. <ul> <ul> <li>Annual Relative HumidityMIN.</li> <li>Annual 2-m wind speed.</li> <li>Annual rainfall frequency.</li> <li>Annual amount received in a rainfall event.</li> </ul> </ul>   The weather data was also used to graphs of annual Kratio (the relationship between alfalfa reference [ETr] and grass reference [ETr] crop coefficient values).   Dr. Gene Stevens has developed an app on scheduling for smart phones.   Crop coefficient values based on canopy coverage calculated with ΣHUs has been developed   North Carolina The goal of this project is to develop and test a decision support system (DSS) for scheduling irrigation in humid regions based on four factors: 1) crop growth stage, 2) current soil-water status, 3) weather data, and 4) 7 day weather forecast. Corn is the primary crop of interest, but the DSS could be adapted for various crops. The DSS runs on a daily basis (based on a daily soil-water balance) and returns: 1) whether or not irrigation should occur and 2) if so, how much irrigation.   Objectives: <ol> <li>Design a “smart” irrigation system to apply irrigation water based on soil water conditions in the root zone, precipitation forecast, and crop growth stage.</li> <li>Investigate the effects of traditional and smart irrigation systems on crop physiology and yield.</li> <li>Investigate the effects of traditional and smart irrigation systems on nitrogen leaching losses to shallow groundwater</li> <li>Conduct a simple economic analysis to assess the feasibility of implementation of the proposed smart irrigation system.</li> <li>Validate and further develop predictive models that can be used for the design and evaluation of smart irrigation systems.</li> </ol>   This study is in its first growing seasons. The field component is being completed at the Cunningham Research Station in Kinston, NC. Corn was planted on April 14, 2014 on the approximately 7 acres study field, which is divided into 9 plots (3 irrigation treatments, replicated 3 times). The irrigation treatments are: 1) No Irrigation, 2) Routine Irrigation (meant to mimic the schedule a NC grower might currently use), and 3) Smart Irrigation (based on the DSS). Each plot has soil-moisture sensors installed in the plot center. The field is irrigated by a five span Valley linear move system (hose drag). The system was retrofitted in 2013 to be a variable rate irrigation (VRI) system. The VRI system has 15 independently controlled zones, which allow for our multiple irrigation treatments under a single system.              The 2014 growing season has been unusually wet. From April through the beginning of September, the site received nearly 40 inches of rain, so the number of irrigation events was low and will not likely provide conclusive results.   North Dakota <ul> <li>The North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network (NDAWN) is comprised of 74 weather stations located throughout North Dakota with 10 stations in Minnesota, 1 in South Dakota and 2 in Montana. Another 12 will be added in the next year. Since 1995, during the growing season daily crop water use values for the 10 most irrigated crops have been calculated using data from each of the weather stations. The crop water use estimates can be obtained from the NDAWN website, <a href="http://ndawn.ndsu.nodak.edu/">http://ndawn.ndsu.nodak.edu/</a>, back to the year the weather station was installed. Daily crop water use estimates based on maximum daily air temperature and weeks past crop emergence are included in Extension bulletin AE-792 Checkbook Irrigation Scheduling.</li> <li>The Excel version of the checkbook irrigation-scheduling program can be used in both ND and MN. It is used in the classroom and by individual irrigators.</li> <li>Since 2008, a site-specific online irrigation-scheduling program has been available for use by irrigators in ND. It can be accessed through the NDAWN website.</li> <li>The NRCS requires irrigators to use the web-based irrigation-scheduling program to support the irrigation water management portion of their Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP).</li> </ul>   Texas Efforts to promote improved irrigation management, including ET-based irrigation scheduling, leveraged Internet-based tools; traditional educational venues (workshops, conferences); audience-targeted webinars and publications; and professional/technical venues (conferences, publications). The Texas High Plains ET Network data were used by research programs (Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension, USDA-ARS and others) to support imposed water treatments and to improve interpretation of research results. Data were made available through the Water Management website for the general public for irrigation management and other applications. End-users included agricultural producers, university faculty (Extension and research), and agricultural industry/agribusiness (seed companies, crop consultants, etc.) The Texas High Plains Water Management Soil Profile tool was used by applied research programs to manage irrigation treatments. This and other tools, including KanSched, were promoted with a variety of audiences through meetings and conferences, as well as through external (public and commercial) Internet and print formats (newspapers, etc.) Programs, products and events promoting ET-based irrigation scheduling are listed later in this report.   Texas participants in WERA-1022 were highly engaged at the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers conference, “Evapotranspiration: Challenges in Measurement and Modeling from Leaf to the Landscape Scale and Beyond,” held April 7-10, 2014 in Raleigh, NC. Research efforts presented at this conference include the Bushland evapotranspiration and agricultural remote sensing system (BEARS system); Bushland reference ET (BET) calculator; calibration and validation of SWAT evapotranspiration estimates for irrigated crops in the Texas High Plains using lysimetric data; evaluating alternative meteorological data sources for potential use in irrigation management; and applying machine learning techniques to improve interpolation and application of data from alternative data sources. Posters and papers describing this work are listed later in this report.   Oklahoma The Oklahoma Mesonet, a state-wide network of standard weather stations, provides a web-based irrigation scheduling tool that can be used at no charge to schedule irrigation events for main agricultural and horticultural crops (17 crops) of the state. This tool, known as “Irrigation Planner,” provides estimates of daily and cumulative ET, precipitation, and soil water deficit since the last irrigation/precipitation event date (entered by the user).   Extensive efforts were conducted on promoting the use of soil moisture sensors for improving irrigation management. Over 120 soil moisture sensors were installed at corn, sorghum, and cotton fields of participating farmers across the western Oklahoma. Training on soil moisture sensors was provided to 604 local producers through numerous field days, meetings, personal visits, and conferences. A larger number of audiences were reached by producing short videos clips and uploading them on OSU YouTube channel.   USDA-ARS ARS-Colorado and ARS-Texas presented papers on irrigation scheduling using crop coefficients and instrumentation, and a joint paper on the future of irrigation in the Great Plains along with state colleagues (Arkansas, Colorado, Nebraska and Texas) at the 2014 Central Plains Irrigation Conference, Burlington, Colorado (Evett et al., 2014a,b; O’Shaughnessy et al., 2014b; Trout et al., 2014). As part of the SSIMWUET group, ARS-Texas published papers on sensor-based irrigation scheduling of early and later maturing grain sorghum (O’Shaughnessy et al., 2014a); ARS-Colorado published papers on instrumentation and methods to improve irrigation scheduling (Taghvaeian et al., 2014a,b); and ARS-Missouri & Texas published a paper describing Mid South regional challenges to irrigation management (Vories and Evett, 2014). ARS-Arizona presented a paper on cotton irrigation scheduling using remotely-sensed crop coefficients at the 2014 Beltwide Cotton Conference (Hunsaker et al., 2014) and a paper on canopy temperature sensing of wheat and camelina for irrigation management (French et al., 2013). ARS-Arkansas and Missouri published a paper describing termination of cotton in the Mid South.   Washington A simple user friendly irrigation scheduler that is designed first for usability has been developed. It works on mobile phones as well as any web browser (<a href="http://weather.wsu.edu/ism">http://weather.wsu.edu/ism</a>). There is a full-page version as well as a small screen version for mobile phones. It has a one week forecast. It does push notification (text and email alerts). It works with most all of the weather networks in the Western US to automatically pull ET data, calculate reference ET, and apply the Kc values and compute the soil water balance. There is a functional Android App, and there will be an iPhone app running by next spring.             The code is open source (written in PHP and MySQL). The code is available for download at <a href="http://irrigation.wsu.edu/Content/ism.zip">http://irrigation.wsu.edu/Content/ism.zip</a>. There is also a user’s manual at <a href="http://weather.wsu.edu/ism/ISMManual.pdf">http://weather.wsu.edu/ism/ISMManual.pdf</a>.   We will help support the inclusion of additional weather networks.   Objective 3. Coordinate the development of quality control (QC) procedures for weather data used for irrigation scheduling.   Colorado Both the State (CO) and our agricultural weather network (COAGMET) are adopting the relatively new ASCE EWRI 2005 standardized reference evapotranspiration (ETref) computation methodology. The State is interested in evaluating the accuracy of the new method for Colorado. With funding from CO Agricultural Experiment Station we are evaluating the ASCE EWRI 2005 ETref method using measured alfalfa ET values recorded by large monolithic weighing lysimeters in south eastern CO.   Preliminary results: The ASCE ETr equation underestimated ET under unstable atmospheric conditions (MBE=3 %) For stable conditions MBE was -11.7 % In neutral atmospheric conditions there was a general over estimation of 8 % with a large variability in the errors (RMSE = 26.7 %) Note: MBE = mean bias error, RMSE = root mean squared error.   Expected outcome: In the next year it is expected that the analysis of four years of alfalfa ET data will derive in the recommendation of an appropriate local calibration and useof the ASCE EWRI 2005 ETref method for the environmental conditions encountered in eastern CO.   Kansas A major emphasis of the K-State Weather Data Library (WDL) this year was to upgrade several weather stations across the state through the installation of 30-foot towers to measure two-height wind speeds. The Kansas Mesonet now is providing nearly real-time (5 minute refresh rate), high-quality, and reliable ag-weather information. The WDL has launched their new website (<a href="http://mesonet.k-state.edu/">http://mesonet.k-state.edu/</a>) for Kansas citizens through high-quality data and value-added products including evapotranspiration (ET) data.   Multi-state ASABE Standard ASAE EP505.1, Measurement and Reporting Practices for Automatic Agricultural Weather Stations   At the 2013 Annual Meeting of WERA-1022 in Austin, Texas, WERA-1022 took advantage of an opportunity given by the assembly of a “critical mass” of ASABE SW-244 members - including the task committee appointed to review and revise EP505.1. We made great progress during one evening session, and follow-up edits and revisions through e-mail. Revisions included updates to reflect current practices and equipment. Vote: Re-ballot of X505.1 was approved by members of ASABE SW-244 with 30 votes in favor and none opposed. Minor edits were made in response to follow-up comments during the vote.   North Dakota Preliminary QA/QC of the daily NDAWN data is performed by the High Plains Climate Center in Lincoln, NE. After the data are transferred to NDSU, the staff of the ND State Climatologist performs additional QA/QC. NDAWN currently offers 10 minute updated weather information for all stations on the network and is formatted for smart phones. QA/QC, on the 10-minute data, is performed locally on the NDAWN servers.   South Dakota South Dakota is unique in that it has a law that prevents water from being mined from aquifers, or annual recharge must exceed annual withdrawal. This limits the amount of irrigation that can be added to areas where shallow aquifers are the main water source. It is important to SD to have accurate ET calculations in order to minimize the amount of water required for pumping through irrigation water management. Any water saved may allow for additional acres to be appropriated for irrigation or other uses. South Dakota State University has an automated weather network across the state that is set up to calculate ET by the Penman Monteith equation.   SDSU also has a website (<a href="http://climate.sdstate.edu/climate_site/climate.htm">http://climate.sdstate.edu/climate_site/climate.htm</a>) that will display each stations five minute data in real time. An Ag Weather Tool is also available to calculate both alfalfa and grass reference ET as well as ETc for corn and soybeans. Crop coefficients are alfalfa based and taken from the High Plains Regional Climate Center. <a href="http://www.hprcc.unl.edu/awdn/et/">http://www.hprcc.unl.edu/awdn/et/</a> The network also has soil moisture sensors on a few stations and we are looking for additional sources of funding to add both additional soil sensors and more station density to the state. The increased resolution of soil moisture monitoring would not only improve ag interest but flood forecasting and USACE runoff forecasts as well.   Texas A statewide assessment of evapotranspiration networks in Texas (previously reported) provided an inventory of capabilities of existing weather station networks to address agricultural irrigation scheduling and water planning needs. Operations and management, site and instrumentation issues, data QA/QC and other issues were investigated, and recommendations for improvements in management were provided in a workshop series and in a comprehensive report to the funding agency (Texas Water Development Board). These recommendations have found advocates within the Texas Water Development Board, The Texas A&M University System and other agencies to develop a centrally managed, standardized statewide ET network. This project group assisted in developing a proposal and budget for the expanded effort. To date, stable funding for the network has not been achieved, despite ongoing and coordinated multi-agency efforts.   USDA-ARS A paper on quality assurance/quality control of weighing lysimeter data to provide accurate ET data for determination of crop coefficients was published by ARS-Texas (Marek et al., 2014).

Publications

Seminars/workshops/talks   Chávez, J.L. 2014. “Implementation of Deficit Irrigation Regimes: Demonstration and Outreach.” Field Day at research and demonstration fields, Greeley, CO, August 8, 2014. Oral presentations at deficit and full irrigated corn plots and posters session, for farmers, conservation and irrigation districts and consultants.   Evapotranspiration (ET) and Irrigation Scheduling webinar, Lubbock, TX, June 10, 2014. Webinar training for County Extension Agents.   High Plains Irrigation Conference and Trade Show, Amarillo, TX, January 16, 2014. CEUs provided for Irrigation Association (IA) Certified Irrigation Designers (CID), Certified Agricultural Irrigation Specialists (CAIS) and American Society of Agronomy Certified Crop Advisers (CCA).   Irrigation Management in Cotton Production Systems, Lubbock, TX, September 15, 2014. Webinar training for County Extension Agents.     Irrigation Management in High Plains Cotton Production Systems. Two invited seminars, Lubbock, TX, September 10, 2013 and September 16, 2013.   Porter, Dana. 2014. “Crop Water Use Estimates from the Texas High Plains ET Network Water Management Website.” Panhandle Regional Water Planning Group Meeting, Amarillo, TX. May 20, 2014.   Porter, Dana. 2014. "Irrigation Technology Decisions: Microirrigation." Texas Panhandle-High Plains Water Conservation Symposium. Amarillo, TX. February 12, 2014.   Porter, Dana. 2013. "Agricultural Irrigation Challenges, Opportunities, and Observations." Netafim Global Commodities Conference. Lubbock, TX. September 30, 2013.     Publications   Fulton, et. al., Progress with Measuring and Utilizing Crop Evapotranspiration (ETc) in Walnut. January 2014, Walnut Research Reports, California Walnut Board.   Howitt, R., et.al. Economic Analysis of the 2014 Drought for California Agriculture. July 2014. Center for Watershed Sciences, University of California Davis.   Johnson, B. Alfalfa shows ability to survive on deficit irrigation (Extension biometeorology specialist, displays an instrument that provides weather data to farmers). Aug. 2014. Ag Alert.     Grabow, G.L., I. E. Ghali , R. L. Huffman , G. L. Miller , D. Bowman , and A. Vasanth. 2013. Water Application Efficiency and Adequacy of ET-Based and Soil-Moisture-Based Irrigation Controllers for Turfgrass Irrigation. J. Irrig. Drainage Engr. 39(2):113-123.   Liu, Z., G.L. Grabow, R.L. Huffman, J. Osborne, and R.O. Evans. 2012. Factors Affecting Uniformity of Irrigation-Type Manure Application Systems. Applied Eng. in Agric. 28(1).   Ghali, I.E. , G. L. Miller, G. L. Grabow, and R. L. Huffman. 2012. Using Variability within Digital Images to Improve Tall Fescue Color Characterization. Crop Science (52):2365-2374.   Nuti, R.C., G.D. Collins,, D.L. Jordan, T. Corbett, J.E. Lanier, K.L. Edmisten, R. Wells, and G.L. Grabow, 2012. Cotton response to sub-surface drip irrigation, planting date, cultivar, and mepiquat chloride. Crop Management doi:10.1094/CM-2012-0319-01-RS.   Developed material for a 6 hour training workshop on “Irrigation Systems and Water Management” Sections include “Irrigation System Performance and Calibration”, “Fertigation Basics”, “Soil Water Sensors”, “Irrigation Scheduling” and “New Technologies” Developed “Irrigation Design Basics and Smart Controller Insights and Updates” 6 hour course (CEUs)for Licensed NC Irrigation Contractor Training Migliaccio, K.W., M.D. Dukes, N.A. Dobbs, K.T. Morgan, and Y.C. Li. 2014. Closure to “Interactive irrigation tool for simulating smart irrigation technologies in lawn turf” by Nicole A. Dobbs, Kati W. Migliaccio, Michael D. Dukes, Kelly T. Morgan, and Yuncong Li. September 2013, Vol. 139, No. 9, pp.747-754, doi: 10.1061/(ASCE)IR.1943-4774.0000612. Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering accepted Migliaccio, K.W. and B. Shoemaker 2014. Estimation of urban subtropical bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum) evapotranspiration using crop coefficients and the eddy covariance method. Hydrological Processes doi: 10.1002/hyp.9958 Dobbs, N.A., K.W. Migliaccio, Y.C. Li, M.D. Dukes and K.T. Morgan. 2014. Evaluating irrigation applied and nitrogen leached using different smart irrigation technologies on bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum). Irrigation Science 32:193-203. Dobbs, N.A. , K.W. Migliaccio, M.D. Dukes, K.T. Morgan and Y.C. Li. 2013. Interactive Irrigation Tool for Simulating Smart Irrigation Technologies in Lawn Turf. Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering 139(9):747-754. Gowda, Prasanna, Dana Porter, Thomas Marek, Jerry Moorhead, Daniel Holman, George Paul, and Paul Colaizzi. 2014. Bushland evapotranspiration and agricultural remote sensing system. ASABE Paper 1887641. International Symposium, “Evapotranspiration: Challenges in Measurement and Modeling from Leaf to the Landscape Scale and Beyond.” American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. April 7-10, 2014. Raleigh, NC. Gowda, Prasanna, Terry Howell, Dana Porter, and Thomas Marek. 2014. Bushland reference ET calculator. ASABE Paper 1887642. International Symposium, “Evapotranspiration: Challenges in Measurement and Modeling from Leaf to the Landscape Scale and Beyond.” American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. April 7-10, 2014. Raleigh, NC. Marek, Gary, P.H. Gowda, and S.R. Evett. 2014. Calibration and validation of SWAT evapotranspiration estimates for irrigated crops in the Texas High Plains using lysimetric data. ASABE Paper No. 1872959. International Symposium, “Evapotranspiration: Challenges in Measurement and Modeling from Leaf to the Landscape Scale and Beyond.” American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. April 7-10, 2014. Raleigh, NC. Marek, Thomas, Dana Porter, Prasanna Gowda, Terry Howell, Jerry Moorhead, and Gary Marek. 2014. Evaluating alternative meteorological data sources for potential use in irrigation management. ASABE Paper 1880246. International Symposium, “Evapotranspiration: Challenges in Measurement and Modeling from Leaf to the Landscape Scale and Beyond.” American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. April 7-10, 2014. Raleigh, NC. Moorhead, Jerry, Prasanna Gowda, George Paul, Mike Hobbins, Gabriel Senay, Thomas Marek, and Dana Porter. 2014. Accuracy assessment of NOAA’s reference evapotranspiration maps in the Texas High Plains. ASABE Paper 1873929. International Symposium, “Evapotranspiration: Challenges in Measurement and Modeling from Leaf to the Landscape Scale and Beyond.” American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. April 7-10, 2014. Raleigh, NC. Moorhead, Jerry, Prasanna Gowda, Gary Marek, Dana Porter, Thomas Marek, Terry Howell. 2014. Spatial variability in sensitivity coefficients of grass and alfalfa reference evapotranspiration in the Texas High Plains. ASABE Paper 1873948. International Symposium, “Evapotranspiration: Challenges in Measurement and Modeling from Leaf to the Landscape Scale and Beyond.” American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. April 7-10, 2014. Raleigh, NC. Paul, George, P.H. Gowda, P. Prasad, T.A. Howell, T. Marek. Comprehensive lysimetric evaluation and sensitivity analysis of METRIC with high resolution airborne imagery. ASABE Paper 1880998. International Symposium, “Evapotranspiration: Challenges in Measurement and Modeling from Leaf to the Landscape Scale and Beyond.” American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. April 7-10, 2014. Raleigh, NC. Aguilar, J, D. Rogers, N. Klocke, L. Stone, D. Porter, and I. Kisekka. 2014. Web-based Planning and Water Management Tools for Producers. [Poster] 2014 Annual Meeting of the USDA-ARS Ogallala Aquifer Program. Lubbock, TX. 03/25/14 – 03/26/14. Bordovsky, James P., Joe T. Mustian, David Winters, Dana Porter, Calvin Trostle, and Dick Auld. 2014. Cotton Response in Non-Traditional Crop Rotations at Low Irrigation Levels (Results from First Year of a Complete 3-Year Rotation). [Poster] 2014 Annual Meeting of the USDA-ARS Ogallala Aquifer Program. Lubbock, TX. 03/25/14 – 03/26/14. Gowda, Prasanna H., Jerry E. Moorhead, Daniel E. Holman, Dana O. Porter, Thomas Marek, George Paul, Paul Colaizzi, Terry A. Howell. 2014. Bushland Evapotranspiration and Agricultural Remote Sensing System (BEARS). [Poster] 2014 Annual Meeting of the USDA-ARS Ogallala Aquifer Program. Lubbock, TX. 03/25/14 – 03/26/14. Gowda, Prasanna H., Jerry E. Moorhead, Daniel E. Holman, Thomas Marek, Dana O. Porter, Terry A. Howell. 2014. Bushland Reference ET Calculator with QA/QC Capabilities and an iPhone/iPad Application. [Poster] 2014 Annual Meeting of the USDA-ARS Ogallala Aquifer Program. Lubbock, TX. 03/25/14 – 03/26/14. Holman, Daniel, David Pointer, Patrick Porter, Danny Rogers, and Dana Porter. 2014. iOS Application Development for the Ogallala Aquifer Program: Useful Tools for Water and Irrigation Management. [Poster] 2014 Annual Meeting of the USDA-ARS Ogallala Aquifer Program. Lubbock, TX. 03/25/14 – 03/26/14. Moorhead, Jerry E., Prasanna H. Gowda, Thomas H. Marek, Dana O. Porter, Terry A. Howell, Vijay Singh, and Bob A. Stewart. 2014. Use of Crop-Specific Drought Indices for Determining Irrigation Demand in the Texas High Plains. [Poster] 2014 Annual Meeting of the USDA-ARS Ogallala Aquifer Program. Lubbock, TX. 03/25/14 – 03/26/14. Porter, Dana, Thomas Marek, Prasanna Gowda, Dan Rogers. 2014. Irrigation and Water Management Education: Technology Transfer to Increase Impact of the Ogallala Aquifer Program. [Poster] 2014 Annual Meeting of the USDA-ARS Ogallala Aquifer Program. Lubbock, TX. 03/25/14 – 03/26/14. Porter, Dana. 2013. Irrigation Management in an Integrated Cotton Production System. Beltwide Cotton Conferences, San Antonio, TX, January 8, 2013. Gowda, P., Marek, T., Porter, D.O., Howell, T.A., Paul, G., Colaizzi, P.D. 2013. An integrated framework of operational ET remote sensing program for irrigation management the Texas High Plains [abstract]. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting Abstracts. Paper No.65-6. Howell, Terry A., Prasanna H. Gowda, Paul D. Colaizzi, Thomas H. Marek, and Dana O. Porter. 2013. Evapotranspiration (ET) – Measurement, Modeling, Mapping and Technology Transfer. 75th Anniversary USDA-ARS-CPRL (Bushland). Amarillo, TX, August 29, 2013. Holman, Daniel, Mohan Sridharan, Prasanna Gowda, Dana Porter, Thomas Marek, Terry Howell, and Jerry Moorhead. 2013. Estimating reference evapotranspiration for irrigation management in the Texas High Plains. (Refereed Proceedings) Proc. International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI), Beijing, China, August 3-9, 2013. Porter, Dana and Thomas Marek. 2014. Guide to Crop Water Use Estimates from the Texas High Plains Evapotranspiration Network: Water Management Website. Texas A&M AgriLife Research, Amarillo, Texas. 13 pp. Porter, Dana. 2014. Using soil moisture to improve irrigation management. June 2014. The Cross Section, December 2013. High Plains Underground Water Conservation District, Lubbock, TX. Smith, Ron. 2014. Evolving irrigation technology improves efficiency and yields. Southwest Farm Press, April 3, 2014. Fox, Adeline. 2013. High Plains Ag Conference: Irrigation efficiency essential. The Cross Section, December 2013. High Plains Underground Water Conservation District, Lubbock, TX. Burns, Robert. 2013. Expert: Irrigated crops on the High Plains ‘all over the map’. Texas A&M AgriLife press release July 16, 2013. Gowda, Prasanna H., Terry A. Howell, George Paul, Paul D. Colaizzi, Thomas H. Marek, Bob Su, Karen S. Copeland. 2013. Deriving hourly evapotranspiration rates with SEBS: a lysimetric evaluation. Special Section: Remote Sensing for Vadose Zone Hydrology. Vadose Zone Journal. July 2011. Holman, Daniel, Mohan Shridharan, Prasanna Gowda, Dana Porter, Thomas Marek, Terry Howell, and Jerry Moorhead. 2013. Gaussian Process Predictive Models for Reference ET Estimation from Alternative Meteorological Data Sources.” Journal of Hydrology. 05/2014; DOI: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2014.05.001 Irmak, Suat, Denis Mutiibwa, Jose Payero, Thomas Marek, Dana Porter. 2013. Modeling soybean canopy resistance from micrometeorological and plant variables for estimating evapotranspiration using one-step Penman–Monteith approach. Journal of Hydrology 507 (2013) 1-18. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2013.10.008">http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2013.10.008</a> Marek, Gary, S.R. Evett, P.H. Gowda, T.A. Howell, K.S. Copeland, R.L. Baumhardt. 2014. Post-processing techniques for reducing errors in weighing lysimeter evaptranspiration (ET) datasets. Transactions of the ASABE. 57(2):499-515. Moorhead, J.E., Gowda, P., Marek, T.H., Porter, D.O., Howell, T.A., Singh, V.P., Stewart, B. 2014. Use of crop-specific drought indices for determining irrigation demand in the Texas High Plains. Applied Engineering in Agriculture. 29(6):905-916. Evett, S.R., P.D. Colaizzi, S.A. O'Shaughnessy, F.R. Lamm, T.J. Trout and W.L. Kranz. 2014a. The future of irrigation on the U.S. Great Plains. Pp. 2-25 In Proc. 26th Annual Central Plains Irrigation Conf., Burlington, CO., February 25-26, 2014. (proceedings) Evett, S.R., P.D. Colaizzi, R.C. Schwartz and S.A. O'Shaughnessy. 2014b. Soil water sensing - Focus on variable rate irrigation. Pp. 99-109 In Proc. 26th Annual Central Plains Irrigation Conf., Burlington, CO., February 25-26, 2014. (proceedings)  Lopez-Urrea, R., A. Montoro, T.J. Trout.  2014.  Consumptive water use and crop coefficients of irrigated sunflower.  Irr Sci. 32:99-109.  DOI 10.1007/s00271-013-0418-9.  Marek, G.W., S.R. Evett, P.H. Gowda, T.A. Howell, K.S. Copeland, and R.L. Baumhardt. 2014. Post-processing techniques for reducing errors in weighing lysimeter evapotranspiration (ET) datasets. Trans. ASABE 17(2):499-515.  O'Shaughnessy, S.A., S.R. Evett and P.D. Colaizzi. 2014a. Infrared thermometry as a tool for site-specific irrigation scheduling. Pp. 136-145 In Proc. 26th Annual Central Plains Irrigation Conf., Burlington, CO., February 25-26, 2014. (proceedings)  O'Shaughnessy, S.A., S.R. Evett, P.D. Colaizzi, J.A. Tolk and T.A. Howell. 2014b. Early and later maturing grain sorghum under variable climatic conditions in the Texas High Plains. Submitted to Trans. ASABE, 9-20-2013. Accepted 16 September 2014.  Reba, M.L., T.G. Teague, and E.D. Vories.  2014.  A retrospective review of cotton irrigation on a production farm in the Mid-South.  Journal of Cotton Science. 18:137-144.  Taghvaeian, S., J.L. Chavez, W.C. Bausch, K.C. DeJonge, T.J. Trout.  2014a.  Minimizing instrumentation requirement for estimating crop water stress index and transpiration of maize.  Irr. Sci. 32:53-65.  DOI 10.1007/soo271-013-0415-z.  Taghvaeian, S., L.H. Comas, K.C. DeJonge, T.J. Trout. 2014b.  Conventional and simplified canopy temperature indices predict water stress in sunflower.  Ag Water Man. 144:69-80.  Trout, T.J., F. Melton and L. Johnson. 2014. A web-based tool that combines satellite and weather station observations to support irrigation scheduling. Pp. 126-135 In Proc. 26th Annual Central Plains Irrigation Conf., Burlington, CO., February 25-26, 2014. (proceedings)  Vories, E.D. and S.R. Evett. 2014. Irrigation challenges in the sub-humid US Mid-South. Int. J. Water 8(3):259-274.  Bronson, K.F. 2014. Advancing irrigation efficiency in the arid southwest USA. Presented at the special session, “China Ministry of Science and Technology-USDA Water-Saving Technology Flagship Project Workshop”, of the 18th World Congress of CIGR (International Commission of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering), Sept. 2014.  Bronson, K.F. 2014. Advancing irrigation efficiency in the arid southwest USA. Presented at The Sino-US Workshop on Water Use Efficiency, Northwest Agriculture and Forest University, Yangling, China, 12 Sept. 2014.  Evett, S.R. 2014. Enhancing water use efficiency with plant feedback irrigation control: the case for sorghum. Presented at the special session, “China Ministry of Science and Technology-USDA Water-Saving Technology Flagship Project Workshop”, of the 18th World Congress of CIGR (International Commission of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering), Sept. 2014.  Evett, S.R. 2014. Water saving technologies in U.S. Irrigation. Presented at The Sino-US Workshop on Water Use Efficiency, Northwest Agriculture and Forest University, Yangling, China, 12 Sept. 2014.  French, A., D. Hunsaker, K. Thorp and J. White. 2013. Monitoring sprinkler irrigated wheat and camelina canopy temperatures with a wireless sensor network. Presented at the session ‘Wireless Technologies and Innovations To Meet Food, Water, and Energy Challenges’:  ASA 2013 Annual Meeting, Tampa, FL.  Hunsaker, D.H., A.N. French, and K.R. Thorp. 2014. Cotton Irrigation Scheduling using Soil Water Depletion Estimates of Small-Zones in Large Fields. Presented at the 2014 Beltwide Cotton Conference, New Orleans, La, January 5, 2014.  Stone, K.C. 2014. Potential water conservation using site-specific irrigation. Presented at the special session, “China Ministry of Science and Technology-USDA Water-Saving Technology Flagship Project Workshop”, of the 18th World Congress of CIGR (International Commission of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering), Sept. 2014.  Reba, M.L. 2014. Preserving water resources for agriculture in the Lower Mississippi River Basin. Presented at The Sino-US Workshop on Water Use Efficiency, Northwest Agriculture and Forest University, Yangling, China, 12 Sept. 2014.  Stone, K.C. 2014. Water conservation in the humid southeastern US. Presented at The Sino-US Workshop on Water Use Efficiency, Northwest Agriculture and Forest University, Yangling, China, 12 Sept. 2014.  Sui, R. 2014. Soil moisture monitoring using wireless sensor network. Presented at the special session, “China Ministry of Science and Technology-USDA Water-Saving Technology Flagship Project Workshop”, of the 18th World Congress of CIGR (International Commission of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering), Sept. 2014.  Sui, R. 2014. Variable-rate irrigation for improving water use efficiency. Presented at The Sino-US Workshop on Water Use Efficiency, Northwest Agriculture and Forest University, Yangling, China, 12 Sept. 2014.  Trout, T.J. 2014. ARS water productivity research in the U.S. Central Plains: Measuring crop response to water stress. Presented at the special session, “China Ministry of Science and Technology-USDA Water-Saving Technology Flagship Project Workshop”, of the 18th World Congress of CIGR (International Commission of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering), Sept. 2014.  Trout, T.J. 2014. ARS water productivity research in the U.S. Central Plains: Measuring crop response to water stress. Presented at The Sino-US Workshop on Water Use Efficiency, Northwest Agriculture and Forest University, Yangling, China, 12 Sept. 2014.  Vories, E.D. 2014. Impact of soil variability on irrigated cotton yield. Presented at the special session, “China Ministry of Science and Technology-USDA Water-Saving Technology Flagship Project Workshop”, of the 18th World Congress of CIGR (International Commission of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering), Sept. 2014.  Vories, E.D. 2014. Reducing water use for rice production with remote monitoring and control. Presented at The Sino-US Workshop on Water Use Efficiency, Northwest Agriculture and Forest University, Yangling, China, 12 Sept. 2014. Bhattarai, N., Dougherty, M., Marzen, L., and L. Kalin. 2014. A simple Landsat-MODIS fusion approach to monitor seasonal evapotranspiration at 30 m spatial resolution" International J. Remote Sensing (in press). Mullenix, D.K., Adhikari,, S., Runge, M., McDonald, T., Son, A., Dougherty, M. and J.P. Fulton. 2014. Small-Scale Biodiesel Production: A Case Study of On-Farm Economics. Applied Engineering in Agriculture. 30(4): 585-592. (doi: 10.13031/aea.30.10285). He, J., Dougherty, M., and A. AbdelGadir. 2013. Numerical assisted assessment of vadose-zone nitrogen transport under a soil moisture controlled wastewater SDI dispersal system in a Vertisol. Ecological Engineering (53):28-234. Vellidis, G., V. Liakos, C. Perry, M. Tucker, G. Collins, J. Snider, J. Andreis, K. Migliaccio, C. Fraisse, K. Morgan, D. Rowland, E. Barnes. 2014. A smartphone app for scheduling irrigation on cotton. In S. Boyd, M. Huffman and B. Robertson (eds) Proceedings of the 2014 Beltwide Cotton Conference, New Orleans, LA, National Cotton Council, Memphis, TN (paper 15551). Vellidis, G., Tucker, M., Perry, C., Reckford, D, Butts, C., Henry, H., Liakos, V., Hill, R.W., and Edwards, W. 2013. A soil moisture sensor-based variable rate irrigation scheduling system. In: J.V. Stafford (Ed.), Precision Agriculture 2013 - Proceedings of the 9th European Conference on Precision Agriculture (9ECPA), Lleida, Spain, p.713-720. doi: 10.3920/978-90-8686-778-3 Sinclair, T. R., B. G. Wherley, M. D. Dukes, and S. E. Cathey. 2014.<a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016819231400166X"> Penman's sink-strength model as an improved approach to estimating plant canopy transpiration.</a> Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 197:136-141. Davis, S. and M. Dukes. 2014. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)IR.1943-4774.0000804">Methodologies for Successful Implementation of Smart Irrigation Controllers.</a> Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering 04014055. Reyes-Cabrera, J., L. Zotarelli, D. L. Rowland, M. D. Dukes, and S. A. Sargent. 2014. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/%2010.1007/s12230-014-9381-0">Drip as alternative irrigation method for potato in Florida sandy soils.</a> American Journal of Potato Research. Dobbs, N. A., K. W. Migliaccio, Y. Li, M. D. Dukes, and K. T. Morgan. 2014. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00271-013-0421-1">Evaluating irrigation applied and nitrogen leached using different smart irrigation technologies on bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum).</a> Irrigation Science 32(3):193-203. Boyer, M. J., M. D. Dukes, L. J. Young, and S. Wang. 2014.<a href="http://ascelibrary.org/doi/full/10.1061/%28ASCE%29IR.1943-4774.0000774"> Irrigation conservation of Florida-Friendly Landscaping based on water billing data.</a> Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering 04014037. Dobbs, N.A., K.W. Migliaccio, Y. Li, M.D. Dukes, and K.T. Morgan. 2014. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00271-013-0421-1">Evaluating irrigation applied and nitrogen leached using different smart irrigation technologies on bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum).</a> Irrigation Science 32(3):193-203. Rutland, D. C. and M. D. Dukes. 2014. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)IR.1943-4774.0000720">Accuracy of reference evapotranspiration estimation by two irrigation controllers in a humid climate</a>. Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering140(6):04014011. Davis, S. L. and M. D. Dukes. 2014. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)IR.1943-4774.0000694">Irrigation of residential landscapes using the Toro Intelli-Sense controller in southwest Florida</a>. Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering140(3):04013020. Steele, D.D., B.P. Thoreson, D.G. Hopkins, B.A. Clark, S.R. Tuscherer, and R. Gautam. 2014. Spatial mapping of evapotranspiration over Devils Lake basin with SEBAL: Application to flood mitigation via irrigation of agricultural crops. Irrigation Science (in press). DOI: 10.1007/s00271-014-0445-1. Available at <a href="http://dx.doi.org/">http://dx.doi.org/</a> 10.1007/s00271-014-0445-1. Steele, D.D. 2014. Evapotranspiration mapping. Water Spouts 277(September):2-3. Fargo: N. Dak. St. Univ. Ext. Serv. Steele, D.D., S.R. Tuscherer, and H. Buyukcangaz. 2014. Evapotranspiration mapping tutorial for North Dakota. Instruction set submitted to the ND State Water Commission, 76 pp. Fargo: NDSU ABEN Dept. Steele, D.D., T.F. Scherer, F.A. Akyuz, A. Wamono, T.M. DeSutter, and S.R. Tuscherer. 2014. Evaluation of a low-cost optical rain sensor. Paper No. SD14-063. St. Joseph, Michigan: ASABE. Jia, X., T. F. Scherer, D. Lin, X. Zhang, and I. Rijal. 2014. Comparison of reference evapotranspiration calculations for southeastern North Dakota. Irrigation & Drainage Systems Engineering 2:112. doi:10.4172/2168-9768.1000112.  Rijal, S., X. Zhang, and X. Jia. 2013. Estimating surface soil moisture in the Red River Valley of the North Basin using Landsat 5 TM data. Soil Science Society of American Journal 77:1133-1143. Harmsen, E. W.,  V. H. Ramirez Builes, M. D. Dukes, X. Jia, L. R. Perez Alegria and R. E. Vasquez. 2013. “Vapor flux measurement system” In Evapotranspiration: Principles and Applications for Water Management Ed by Goyal and Harmsen. CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group. pgs 513-522. Kjaersgaard, J., K. Khand, C. Hay, and X. Jia. 2014. Estimating evapotranspiration from fields with and without tile drainage using remote sensing. ASCE World Environmental & Water Resources Congress (EWRI) Annual Meeting, June 1-5, 2014, Portland, Oregon.  Henggeler, J. 2014. Missouri’s Woodruff Irrigation Charts: Still Making Missouri Irrigators Money After All These Years. MidAmerica Farmer Grower. Henggeler, J. 2014. Fantasy Irrigation. MidAmerica Farmer Grower. Henggeler, J. Heat Units. 2012. MidAmerica Farmer Grower.

Impact Statements

Since 2000 irrigators in MO who use scheduling have out-yielded non-schedulers by 13.8, 7.0, and 5.3 bu/acre for corn, full season soybeans, and double-crop soybeans, respectively. The increase in cotton is 89 lbs/acre.

Date of Annual Report: 12/23/2016

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 09/06/2016 - 09/08/2016
Period the Report Covers: 10/01/2015 - 09/30/2016

Participants

Leigh Nelson, Ed Barnes, Michael Borengasser, Charles Hillyer, Troy Peters, Saleh Taghvaeian, Jonathan Aguilar, Clarence Prestwich, Vivek Sharma, Jessica Torrian, Kent McVay, Ed Martin, Michele Reba, Gene Stevens, Jama Hamel, Chris Henry

Brief Summary of Minutes

Minutes Attachment:

2016 WERA102 Meeting Minutes.docx

Accomplishments

Objective 1. Coordinate the documentation of crop coefficients used in irrigation scheduling. Colorado In an effort to improve the calculation of reference evapotranspiration and crop coefficients for irrigation scheduling purposes, a study was carried out in South Eastern Colorado. Quantification of crop water use or evapotranspiration (ETc) is required for efficient irrigation water management. The ASCE-EWRI Standardized Penman-Monteith (PM) evapotranspiration equation (ETsz) has been recommended by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) to estimate reference ET. The reference alfalfa ET obtained from the standardized ET equation (ETrs) along with alfalfa crop coefficients (Kcr) can be used to estimate a given crop ETc. In this study, the ETsz equation was evaluated using measured alfalfa ET (ETr) from a large monolithic precision weighing lysimeter located near Rocky Ford, Colorado, using data from 2009 to 2012.The performance evaluation of the PM ETsz equation was done for different atmospheric stability conditions for individual years and for all years combined. Also, the evaluation was carried out for multiple alfalfa cutting cycles. The results obtained showed that the equation underestimated measured ETr (−0.04 mm/h (−14%)) for stable atmospheric conditions. Nonetheless, the ETsz values matched closely to those of the lysimeter for unstable atmospheric conditions. Furthermore, somewhat large scattered ETrs values (RMSE of 0.11 mm/h (25.5%)) were observed for neutral atmospheric conditions. The ETrs comparison produced acceptable results for daily time step for years 2009–2011. However, the daily ETrs comparison was not acceptable for the 2012 dataset, which included effects of severe heat advection. Moreover, it was found that the ETsz equation overestimated ETr, the MBE was 0.05 mm/h (18.1%) for the first alfalfa cutting cycle and slightly underestimated (up to −0.02 mm/h (−5.7%)) ETr for the second, third and fourth cutting cycles. Therefore, adjusting (reducing) the value of the constant Cd in the ASCE Standardized ETrs equation for stable atmospheric conditions is recommended; and either adjusting (increasing) the Cd value or developing a different set of crop coefficients for the first cutting cycle of alfalfa, which ultimately helps in improving agricultural water use efficiency.  Another project is the verification of verification water conservation from deficit irrigation of forage crops in the Upper Colorado River Basin Landsat data and Mapping Evapotranspiration at High Resolution and using Internal Calibration (METRIC™) in scattered pasture fields in Wyoming and Colorado that are being deficit irrigated as part of a Pilot Water Conservation Project.   The water use and therefor Kc values decrease after irrigation is stopped, but the yield difference is not proportional to the decrease in irrigation.   Pasture studied show the yield difference between full irrigated and partial irrigation have consistently (2013-2016) been about 1 ton per acres.  The water use efficiency (i.e. tons/acre-inch) is much lower after the initial cutting, even as temperatures cool in the fall.   The verification of water conservation from deficit irrigation using METRIC show; 1) Determining water savings from deficit irrigation of riparian pastures is difficult, 2) There is large field-to-field variability in water savings from short-season irrigation (some fields showed little or no water savings), 3) Remote sensing applications can be used to estimate ET and with proper comparison they can be used to estimate water savings from deficit irrigation and fallowing. 4) Both year-to-year and field-to-field information is needed to make a good estimate of water savings from deficit irrigation.  Our recommendations are to obtain history of field including how is it irrigated, what is the pattern of irrigation (has it been irrigated the full season), evaluate topography and location of field, consider water table contribution to ET, use historical Landsat and aerial imagery to estimate baseline ET.  Average seasonal Kc ranged from 0.74 (full irrigation) to 0.46 (deficit irrigation) based on METRIC analysis. Louisiana The future work planned from the last state report, indicating work with weighing lysimeters, was not completed due to their state of disrepair and lack of funds to revitalize them.  Instead, work was focused on using alternative methods for estimating crop coefficients. In 2015, GS-1 (Decagon Devices, Pullman, WA) soil moisture sensors were used to estimate crop coefficients in a sandy clay loam soil for cotton.  The crop coefficients were calculated as the loss of soil moisture on non-rainy and non-irrigated days using a rolling 10-day average to smooth the estimations.  The measured coefficients were validated using the crop coefficients developed for cotton on clay soils using weighing lysimeters (Kumar et al. 2015).  These coefficients were adequate during most of the growing season except on two occasions during the dry summer conditions where the crop coefficient decreased significantly.  Upon further exploration, these two occasions corresponded to two missed irrigation events, indicating that a stress coefficient was introduced.  These same sensors were implemented on two other soil types, silt loam and cracking clay, with less than acceptable accuracy resulting in the inability to calculate coefficients for soybean.  In 2016, the reuse of the sensors resulted in less accurate soil moisture estimations as experienced by inexplicable and drastic shifts of soil moisture readings over short periods of time, sometimes resulting in oscillations or complete shifts in measurements.  As a result, the sensors could be used to make most irrigation decisions, but not for determining crop coefficients. Missouri We maintained three real-time weather stations with web access to the information at research facilities in southeast Missouri and continued tests using variable rate irrigation (VRI) to evaluate irrigation treatments for center pivot irrigated rice, corn, and soybean based on evapotranspiration calculated from on-site weather station data. USDA-ARS worked with collaborators at University of Arkansas to finalize publication compiling and analyzing 10 years of on-farm rice water use measurements. Earl Vories collaborated with ARS researchers at Bushland, Texas, Florence, South Carolina, and Stoneville, Mississippi, along with a commercial collaborator, to test ARS-developed system for variable rate irrigation management. Guidelines for VRI prescriptions were refined to avoid runoff. Montana Kc used for irrigation scheduling in research and extension is adopted from Idaho Kc documentation and FAO-56. We adjusted Kc according to ground cover and water-critical crop stages. We managed to acquire funding from Montana Wheat and Barley to carry on Local crop coefficient documentation, with no provision for equipment. Thus, we coordinated with other professor in the University by loaning us two Eddy Covariance System installed in farmer spring wheat (Northwestern MT) and barley production fields (Southeastern MT). Data processing and analysis is on-going and we are looking forward to provide our first year’s Kc documentation. Resulting Kc will be associated to crop phenological duration and ground cover on ground and by remote sensing. We anticipate that associating Kc with crop biophysical and physiological stages will boost adoption of Kc for efficient irrigation scheduling. We are hopeful to be able to acquire equipment funding or grants to continue Kc documentation in Montana. Nebraska Maximizing the net benefits of irrigated and rainfed agricultural crop production through properly and effectively designed, analyzed, and implemented research-based “agricultural water management programs” on large scales is critical and a necessity in many states in the United States and globally (Irmak et al., 2012). Many areas are experiencing water resource and irrigation allocation and management challenges with associated policy transformations or adjustments to conserve ground and surface water resources (Irmak et al., 2010) and to establish a balance between urban, agricultural, industrial, municipal and other water users. In many parts of the United States, producers and their advisors, as well as state and federal water resources agencies, are challenged to practice conservation methods and use water resources more efficiently while meeting crop water requirements to maintaining high productivity while protecting environmental services. Results from this work will provide important information that will allow producers, urban water managers and resource managers to design and implement water management infrastructure in a manner that is both effective for production and environmentally responsible (Irmak et al., 2012). To engage in and address some of the water availability vs. agricultural productivity issues in Nebraska, an unprecedented effort was undertaken in 2005, and the Nebraska Agricultural Water Management Network (NAWMN) was formed (Irmak, 2006; Irmak et al. 2010; 2012) with substantial positive environmental impacts with over 1,400 farmer cooperators representing about 2 million acres of irrigated cropland and with an average of 2 inches of reduction in water withdrawal for irrigation per growing season since 2005. This kind of large scale comprehensive and coordinated water management program, as well as its real-world impacts, is unprecedented. The NAWMN teaches and demonstrates farmers how to utilize soil moisture monitoring and crop water use estimates from either ETgages or weather station climate data in their practices to enhance irrigation water management and crop production efficiency. The use of climate information [precipitation, temperature, reference (potential) evapotranspiration, crop coefficients, and actual crop evapotranspiration] has also been taught in the NAWMN programs. As a result, the Nebraska producers have been adopting these tools and information in their irrigation management practices. Texas Crop coefficients for sunflowers in the Texas High Plains have been developed based upon work conducted at the USDA-ARS lysimeter facility at Bushland, TX  (Howell, et al., 2015). Comparisons of ASCE standardized reference ET calculated using hourly and daily data, and for short and tall reference crops, and comparison with FAO 56 reference ET indicate that relationships between reference ET calculated by the different methods varied significantly from one year to the next. This climate effect means that conversion of crop coefficients for use with the different ET equations will not be straightforward. Because ET measurements and estimates by various methods often are compared with direct measurement of ET by large weighing lysimeters, and crop coefficients often are developed with data from large weighing lysimeters, emphasis has been placed on the importance of good lysimeter design and management for accurate ET measurement. However, much less attention has been dedicated to guidelines for data collection, processing, analysis, and quality assurance / quality control (QA/QC) for lysimeter data. Improper processing and interpretation of data and management events can lead to substantial errors. Data from large lysimeters at the USDA-ARS Conservation and Production Laboratory (CPRL) in Bushland, Texas, were used to demonstrate that indiscriminate application of smoothing functions and misinterpretation of lysimeter data can lead to significant errors and flawed conclusions. Understanding and judicious application of recommended techniques and QA/QC procedures can help to minimize errors in processing lysimeter datasets. [Reference: Marek, G.W., S.R. Evett, P.H. Gowda, T.A. Howell, K.S. Copeland, R.L. Baumhardt. 2014. Post-processing techniques for reducing errors in weighing lysimeter evapotranspiration (ET) datasets. Transactions of the ASABE, Vol. 57 (2):499-515.]  These recommendations have been used in subsequent studies using lysimeter-based ET data; selected recent publications are listed in the “Refereed Journal Articles” section of this report. Utah Some of our research concerns irrigation scheduling and management when water is limited, as is often the case in many parts of Utah. Much of our research concerns deficit irrigation of pasture.  Pasture Short-Season Irrigation Research to determine potential water savings for deficit irrigation has been conducted at the Intermountain Irrigated Pasture Project site in Lewiston, Utah (41°57'4.54"N, 111°52'20.90"W, 4,503 feet elevation) since July 2013 and at Panguitch, Utah (37°52'8.29"N, 112°26'11.35"W, 6,547 feet elevation) beginning in 2016.  The Panguitch location is higher in elevation and with a deep water table well below crop rooting zone.  The objectives of the research are to: 1) determine the potential water savings (decreased consumptive use) from shortened irrigation season of pastures, 2) determine water use efficiency of pasture during the growing season, 3) assess impact on yield and health of pastures from deficit or no irrigation during single and multiple irrigation seasons, and 4) assess fertilizer effects on yields of deficit irrigated pastures. Five irrigation levels were used in the research; no irrigation, irrigation through approximate dates of May 31, June 30, July 31, August 31, and September 30.  The Lewiston pasture studies have location has a water table that varies between 40 and 50 inches deep.  This water table contributes to pasture ET in the deficit irrigated plots. New this year is the addition of Acclima TDR-315L soil moisture sensors banks at 15 locations.  The time domain reflectometer systems have provided accurate and consistent hourly data to determine crop water use and crop coefficients.  Washington We have compiled Kc values from several different sources and compared them.  These include: <ul> <li>An old compilation of Kc values used in Washington state irrigation scheduling tool, WISE.</li> <li>Crop coefficients modified to the ASCE Standardized equation from AgriMet</li> <li>Crop coefficients fit to the above data.</li> <li>UC Davis crop coefficients modified to alfalfa ET.</li> </ul>  Conclusions: They are all different! They have different reference equations, different reference crops, different growing seasons, optimized for different climates, and different varieties.  This is a large problem since it limits the usefulness of evapotranspiration research.  It points to either the method of estimating reference ET not being adequate to account for weather and climatic differences, or differences and errors in the research methods used to estimate crop coefficients.  It is most likely the former. Wyoming Currently, there is no information is available on the crop coefficients (Kc) for different crops under Wyoming climate and management practices. PI is planning to purchase one Bowen Ration Energy Balance System (BREBS) that will be installed at Powell Research and Extension Center (PREC) for actual evapotranspiration measurements and the development of Kc values for different crops. Objective 2. Coordinate efforts to promote adoption of improved irrigation scheduling technology, including computer models based on crop coefficients and ETref, remote sensing and instrumentation that will help producers more efficiently apply irrigation water. Arkansas Since 2014 an effort to promote Irrigation Water Management Practices has been used to provide educational opportunities and training for county Extension agents, agency personnel, and irrigators.   In 2016 the program has expanded to 30 demonstrations on 27 farms, mostly furrow irrigated rice and corn.  Each site has flow measured, computerized hole selection, soil moisture monitoring and most had surge irrigation practices applied.  IWM fields are compared to a control field without IWM (in the case of rice it was compared to a flood irrigated field).  Each site was visited as necessary (generally at least three to ten times during the season) and monitored remotely and with close collaboration with the county agent or the farmer directly.  Soil moisture sensors are a primary method to schedule irrigation in rice, which has a very shallow rooting system and is very sensitive to water stress relative to other row crops.  This season the results were mixed, in many cases water use was reduced, but yields may have been more or less than the control field.  Unseasonably wet weather and limited irrigation requirements as well as other production related factors impacted the 2017 growing season.  One primary objective in 2016 was to compare furrow irrigated rice to flood irrigated rice.  No significant difference in yields (p=0.52) or water use (p=0.17) was found statistically, however water use was 10-21% less and yields for flooded rice were 4% higher on average.  This data suggests considerable potential for furrow irrigated rice as an alternative to flood irrigation and is the first multi-site study of its kind to document yield and water use differences between the two production systems.  Considerable work and resources will be needed to confirm results found in 2016.  Through these demonstrations agents and irrigators learn how to implement IWM practices on row crops and the program is providing key data for a novel and poorly understood production system for rice. Colorado             Extension South Eastern Colorado (Osborn Blake).  Accurate weather station data plays a critical role in the development and use of many water management tools used and recommended to others. First, as a member of a team working to develop crop coefficients through the use of a weighing lysimeter, it is critical that we have accurate weather data for calculating evapotranspiration for comparison with measured data. Second, I rely on local weather station data from the Colorado Agricultural and Meteorological Network (CoAgMet) to schedule irrigations for homeowners (through the Lawn Irrigation Self Audit program) as well as large agricultural producers using an irrigation scheduling tool developed by Colorado State University. As a field based research scientist, I rely heavily on the CoAgMet weather station network to provide me data on crop ET for use in irrigation scheduling tools. Regarding the irrigation scheduling tool WISE (http://wise.colostate.edu/) developed by Dr. Allan Andales, efforts are underway to incorporate remote sensing derived actual stress coefficients in the dual crop coefficient approached from FAO Paper-56. Louisiana In 2015 and 2016, various soil moisture sensor products were implemented in research and demonstration situations to determine their ability for aiding in scheduling irrigation and end-user responses to using them.  In the first year, at least one sensor type had acceptable performance across all locations.  Additionally, producer feedback was positive.  However, reuse of the sensors in the second year resulted in less than accurate soil moisture readings.  In some situations, irrigation was delayed for too long during the critical moisture period due to the sensors failing to accurately measure moisture throughout the full drying curve.  Additionally, approximately 10% of sensors failed during the second year.  Sensors will be evaluated for life expectancy, taking note of failures over time.  Demonstrations showed that trust in the sensor data was relative to whether sensors failed at the site location.  Both years were considered to have more rain than a normal year, resulting in little water savings from using the technology.  However, producers were able to understand that they could skip irrigation events during normal years by using the sensors.  In 2016, an irrigation scheduling spreadsheet was developed for Louisiana.  This spreadsheet conducts a daily soil water balance during the growing season.  Though each detail is customizable by the user, suggested inputs for soil characteristics and plant information are provided from existing literature that was narrowed for Louisiana conditions when possible.  Testing of the spreadsheet occurred during the 2016 crop season so that adjustments in functionality and utility could be made.  It is anticipated that the manual will be written this winter and the spreadsheet can be released before the 2017 crop season. Hope remains that the weather station network will also be working so that rainfall and evapotranspiration information, both required for the spreadsheet’s operation, will be readily available to producers. Texas The most recent Farm and Ranch Irrigation Survey indicates that less than 15% of farms use measurement based methods for scheduling irrigation. Technologies for scientific irrigation scheduling have been available for decades but their adoption rates have remained poor. One potential reason for the low adoption lies in the effort required to use the technology. Deriving value from these tools requires using multiple, separate sources of information and growers must do the data integration. The AgGateway.org Precision Ag Irrigation Leadership (PAIL) project team is seeking to develop an industry-wide standard data format that will simplify data integration, and ultimately increase adoption of technologies, including irrigation scheduling technologies. The project team has developed a set of process models (Use Cases, User Stories, and BPMN diagrams) describing the irrigation management process. Based on these process models, the team designed a robust data model that incorporates relevant data flows and messages. The data model is rendered as an XML Schema and, when the data standard is published, this schema will be available publicly. Two field trials will serve to verify the efficacy of - and demonstrate the utility of - the PAIL standard, and will serve as a foundation for documentation and training materials. Charles Hillyer is a member of the AgGateway PAIL project team. Dana Porter and Thomas Marek completed a project, “Higher Integration Networking, Texas High Plains Evapotranspiration Network,” sponsored by the Texas Water Development Board via Panhandle Regional Planning Commission. This work supported a graduate student and provided public access to adapted and user-friendly packaged ET-based crop water use information and related agricultural meteorological data. End users of the information included agricultural irrigators; agricultural, environmental and other research programs; water resources managers/agencies; crop insurance companies and agencies (TDA, USDA-Risk Management Agency); municipalities, turf managers, homeowners; environmental consultants and researchers; and educators. While the tools and resource materials are broadly applicable to a wide range of audiences and conditions, the ET based crop water use data are regionally focused in the Texas High Plains (Panhandle and South Plains) where the majority of irrigation water in the state is used, as well as portions of the Rolling Plains and West Texas. The products of this effort support Regional Water Planning agricultural water conservation strategies. An irrigation scheduling tool incorporating cotton crop growth model(s), local weather data (rainfall and crop ET), soil moisture balance, and irrigation management recommendations based on long-term applied research has been developed and is being beta tested. The Dashboard for Irrigation Efficiency Management (DIEM) package prescribes a season-long, field-specific irrigation schedule that optimizes yield and water use efficiency based on total water (rainfall and irrigation) availability. As the growing season progresses, DIEM users can update their irrigation schedule recommendation based on real-time weather, soil moisture, and other field observations (Bordovsky, et al., 2015). Beta testing will be expanded during the 2017 crop season. This project is a collaboration of a team under the leadership of Jim Bordovsky (PI, Texas A&M AgriLife Research), Jim Wall and Keith Biggers (Texas Center for Applied Technology), and Dana Porter. Educational events, including irrigation workshops, webinars, invited presentations, posters and oral presentations at conferences; news releases and media outreach; and internet-base information delivery promoted efficient irrigation management using ET-based scheduling and other technologies as appropriate. While in-person attendees benefitted from interactions with others at conferences and had opportunities to visit with speakers and vendors, extensive local media coverage promoted highlights of the events and availability of educational resources throughout the region. Selected educational events, presentations and packages are listed below. <ul> <li>Porter, Dana. 2016. High Plains Irrigation Conference. Amarillo, Texas, February 4, 2016.</li> <li>Marek, Thomas. 2015. Workshop: practical considerations in establishing and maintaining a evapotranspiration weather station network to support research programs. Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center Seminar, Vernon, TX. September 23, 2015.</li> <li>Marek, Thomas. 2016. Center Pivot Irrigation Workshop. Delta States Irrigation Conference, Memphis, TN. January 13, 2-16.</li> <li>Porter, Dana. 2015. Evapotranspiration: Applications in water management research to address emerging water issues. Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center Seminar, Vernon, TX. September 23, 2015.</li> <li>Porter, Dana. 2016. Cochran County Irrigation Workshop. Morton, TX, April 3, 2016.</li> <li>Porter, Dana. 2016. Irrigation Management for Cotton Production. Texas A&M AgriLife North Region Cotton Field Day, Lubbock, TX. August 4, 2016.</li> </ul> Montana Research on making every drop count was conducted from 2014-recent in NWARC (J. Torrion and R.N Stougaard, Northwestern Ag Research Center) by setting up research where Genetics x Environment x Management association was evaluated. This included eight spring wheat varieties x 2 Soil Types x six irrigation treatments (100ET, early terminations based from 100ET treatment [minus 1, 2, and 3 irrigation event/s early cut off], deficit, and dryland). Brennan variety is the least responsive in both dryland and irrigated environment, whereas Volt showed high yield in dryland, and showed response in irrigation supplementation. However, additional response was not observed at the high irrigation application (FullIrr[100ET] and FullIrr-1). Solano, which is a popular dwarf variety in NW MT, responded in drought stress, but not very responsive to supplemental irrigation. Overall, 100ET is not superior compared with the early cut off irrigation terminations or the deficit irrigation on imposed water stress. Results of this research were presented during winter grower’s meeting (60 farmers); 2014 NWARC field day (120 people); 2015 NWARC field day (100 people); and 2015 NARC field day (65 people) and many more early next year. Extension events include the use of Kc, Reference ET, knowing your soil types, and genetic-specific response to the various irrigation strategies in terms of yield and quality. The use of granular-matrix sensors (watermark) was also discussed. Missouri The University of Missouri Extension developed an online application to help farmers produce higher crop yields by improving irrigation management. The program was released in 2015. The Crop Water Use application can be run on an office computer or smartphone. To register, go to http://cropwater.org.  The program is designed to simplify calculations required for tracking soil moisture in fields.  Crop water use is estimated from weather data from a network of agricultural weather stations across the state. In 2016, Missouri farmers used the program on 398 fields. The application saves farmers time by automatically entering weather information for each field and making daily calculations used for irrigation planning. Evapotranspiration (ETo) is calculated using the standardized short crop Penman-Monteith equation. ETo is multiplied by a crop coefficient, which is specific for the crop and growth stage. Nebraska Maximizing the net benefits of irrigated and rainfed agricultural crop production through properly and effectively designed, analyzed, and implemented research-based “agricultural water management programs” on large scales is critical and a necessity in many states in the United States and globally (Irmak et al., 2012). Many areas are experiencing water resource and irrigation allocation and management challenges with associated policy transformations or adjustments to conserve ground and surface water resources (Irmak et al., 2010) and to establish a balance between urban, agricultural, industrial, municipal and other water users. In many parts of the United States, producers and their advisors, as well as state and federal water resources agencies, are challenged to practice conservation methods and use water resources more efficiently while meeting crop water requirements to maintaining high productivity while protecting environmental services. Results from this work will provide important information that will allow producers, urban water managers and resource managers to design and implement water management infrastructure in a manner that is both effective for production and environmentally responsible (Irmak et al., 2012). To engage in and address some of the water availability vs. agricultural productivity issues in Nebraska, an unprecedented effort was undertaken in 2005, and the Nebraska Agricultural Water Management Network (NAWMN) was formed (Irmak, 2006; Irmak et al. 2010; 2012) with substantial positive environmental impacts with over 1,400 farmer cooperators representing about 2 million acres of irrigated cropland and with an average of 2 inches of reduction in water withdrawal for irrigation per growing season since 2005. This kind of large scale comprehensive and coordinated water management program, as well as its real-world impacts, is unprecedented. The NAWMN teaches and demonstrates farmers how to utilize soil moisture monitoring and crop water use estimates from either ETgages or weather station climate data in their practices to enhance irrigation water management and crop production efficiency. The use of climate information [precipitation, temperature, reference (potential) evapotranspiration, crop coefficients, and actual crop evapotranspiration] has also been taught in the NAWMN programs. As a result, the Nebraska producers have been adopting these tools and information in their irrigation management practices. In 2005, there were 15 farmer cooperators in the Network and one NRD as partners. As of end of 2016, the number of active growers who joined the Network has increased to more than 1,500. By 2016, the NAWMN partners represented 1.8 million acres of irrigated land area. Due to the information and strategies taught and tools and technologies demonstrated in the Network, participants are changing their behavior in terms of how they manage irrigations and Network is having significant impacts in terms of conserving water and energy resources statewide. Since 2005, the reduction in the amount of water withdrawal for irrigation in corn and soybean fields farmed by the NAWMN participants has been averaging as 2.1 inch per growing season. The number of NRD partners has increased from one in 2005 to 18 (out of 23) in 2014. In 2015 and 2016, over 30 presentations have been made to deliver additional information to the growers. Additional soil moisture technologies have been researched and the information has been delivered to the NAWMN cooperators. Oklahoma Efforts were continued at Oklahoma State University toward promoting the use of sensor-based technologies to improve irrigation scheduling: <ul> <li>A multistate proposal (Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas) was awarded by USDA-NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant. This $770,000 grant will support the development of demonstration sites and extension material on use of sensor technologies over the next three years. Our activities in this field was highlighted in a recent White House publication and we were invited to the World Water Summit that was held at the White House on March 21, 2016.</li> <li>Different types of sensors were installed at three demonstration sites (in cooperation with agricultural growers) and two research stations in Southwest and Panhandle regions of Oklahoma. A local dealer installed another type of sensors at two of the demonstration sites to allow for a comparison between sensor types and installation methods.</li> <li>Information on science-based irrigation scheduling was disseminated by presenting at four meetings with scientific community and fifteen field days and meetings with growers and crop consultants. The total number of extension contact hours (face-to-face interaction with clientele) was 434 hours during the reporting period.</li> <li>The 3rd Oklahoma Irrigation Conference was organized in March 2016. Invited irrigation specialists from Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas presented on different aspects of irrigation management. One hundred eighteen (118) people attended this conference (about 50% more than last year). About 68% of the participants in the post-conference survey rated it highly, agreeing that the information provided was helpful and timely.</li> </ul> Utah We have developed a gridded ET Model (GridET) to use provide a spatial potential ET data that can be utilized with GIS software.  The methodology and software were developed using the ASCE Standardized Reference Evapotranspiration equation with input climate drivers from the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) gridded weather forcing dataset and a digital elevation model. The method provides potential ET data at locations not adequately represented by electronic weather stations.   Washington We have developed a simple, user friendly irrigation scheduler that is designed first for usability.  It works on mobile phones as well as any web browser (http://weather.wsu.edu/ism).  There is a full-page version as well as a small screen version for mobile phones.  It has a one week forecast.  It does push notification (text and email alerts).  It works with most all of the weather networks in the Western US to automatically pull ET data, calculate reference ET, and apply the Kc values and compute the soil water balance.  There is a functional Android App, and there will be an iPhone app running by next spring.             The code is open source (written in PHP and MySQL).  The code is available for download at http://irrigation.wsu.edu/Content/ism.zip.  There is also a user’s manual at http://weather.wsu.edu/ism/ISMManual.pdf.   We will help support the inclusion of additional weather networks.               We currently have an Android app, and are developing an iPhone app that should be available by next spring.     Figure 1. Map of the weather stations that work with the mobile irrigation scheduling tool.  Also works in Alberta, Canada.  The numbers on the balloons are the number of fields set up on that station. Wyoming Research and extension efforts are made to develop the Wyoming Agricultural Water Management Program (Wyo-AWMP) to effectively manage the agricultural water resources in Wyoming. Currently, producers across the state do not have access to basic climate and evapotranspiration data for different crops (mainly sugarbeet, barley, drybeans, winter wheat, and alfalfa) for irrigation scheduling, under the Wyoming climate and management practices. When PI (Vivek Sharma) joined the University in April, 2016, University of Wyoming weather stations at five locations were not under working conditions. PI worked on the weather station and now all the weather station are under working condition. In addition, PI is also working with Wyoming State Office to install addition five more weather stations especially in the northern Wyoming, where current no weather station exist. All the data from aforementioned weather stations will be disseminate to Wyoming citizen through University of Wyoming Extension web platform (work under process). PI also started extension activities (e.g. field days and mini field days) to promote the use of soil moisture sensors for irrigation scheduling. However, further research is required to check the accuracy of different available soil moisture sensors according to Wyoming soil type. Objective 3. Coordinate the development of quality control (QC) procedures for weather data used for irrigation scheduling. Louisiana The original LSU AgCenter weather station network continues to be a work in progress.  There has been commitment from personnel to finalize the installations and calibrations before the end of 2016.  There has been no update as to whether the LSU AgCenter website, which was re-released in February under a new software system, will be ready for distributing the data to the public.  Once this network goes live, talked will occur to incorporate irrigation scheduling capabilities either by funneling the data into a standalone product or incorporating irrigation scheduling into the weather network’s reporting software.  The LSU AgCenter IT department stopped negotiations for allowing the Bureau of Reclamation to conduct quality control, citing security issues with outside entities accessing the state’s network.  Quality control will have to be conducted in-house. Texas A previously reported statewide assessment of evapotranspiration networks in Texas provided an inventory of capabilities of existing networks to address agricultural irrigation scheduling and water planning needs. Operations and management, site and instrumentation issues, data QA/QC and other issues were investigated, and recommendations for improvements continue to be used in informing water and natural resources agency decisions regarding ET and other data used in irrigation scheduling, as well as in development of new irrigation scheduling Utah We are evaluating gridded weather data such as the NLDAS data to provide better estimation of potential ET in locations not represented by weather stations.  We are evaluating sources and methods to determine spatial gridded precipitation (Daymet, PRISM, gridding methods) to use with METRIC and other estimates of ET to determine effective precipitation and depletion.  Weather data quality control procedures are implemented by the Utah Climate Center, State of Colorado, and State of Wyoming.

Publications

Adhikari, Diganta,  Dan Berne, R Andres Ferreyra, Charles Hillyer, Steve Melvin, Bart Nef, R Andres. Data Exchange Standard for Precision Irrigation. 2016 Annual International Meeting of the ASABE. Orlando, FL. July 2016. Amatya, D.M., S. Irmak, P. Gowda, G. Sun, J.E. Nettles and K.R. Douglas-Mankin. 2016. Ecosystem evapotranspiration: Challenges in measurements, estimates and modeling. Transactions of the ASABE 59(2): 555-560. Anapalli, Saseendran S., Lajpat R. Ahuja, Prasanna H. Gowda, Liwang Ma, Gary Marek, Steven R. Evett, Terry A. Howell. 2016. Simulation of crop evapotranspiration and crop coefficients with data in weighing lysimeters. Agricultural Water Management 177 (2016) 274-283. Bordovsky, James P., James Wall, Dana Porter, and Keith Biggers. 2015. Dashboard for Irrigation Efficiency Management. Texas A&M AgriLife Research, College Station, TX. Available at: http://twri.tamu.edu/media/629228/40-diem-81115.pdf. Djaman, K., A.B. Balde, L. Diop, K. Futakuchi and S. Irmak. 2016. Analyses, calibration and validation of evapotranspiration models to predict grass-reference evapotranspiration in the Senegal River Delta. Journal of Hydrology 8:8294. dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrh.2016.06.003. Gaspar, J. C. G. Henry, P. B. Francis, L. Espinoza, M. Ismanov, S. Hirsh, A. Horton and H. James.  2016. The Effects of Deep Tillage and Gypsum Amendment, Across a Range of Irrigation Deficit for Furrow Irrigated Soybeans in Three Different Arkansas Soil Types.  Arkansas Soybean Research Studies 2014. Research Series 631.  University of Arkansas, Division of Agriculture, Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station.  May 2016.  pp 150-155. Gowda, Prasanna H.,  Terry A. Howell, Jose L. Chavez, George Paul, Jerry E. Moorhead, Daniel Holman, Thomas H. Marek, Dana O. Porter, Gary H. Marek, Paul D. Colaizzi, Steve R. Evett, David K. Brauer. 2015. A decade of remote sensing and evaportranspiration research at the USDA-ARS Conservation and Production Research Laboratory. 2015 ASABE / IA Irrigation Symposium: Emerging Technologies for Sustainable Irrigation - A Tribute to the Career of Terry Howell, Sr. Conference Proceedings (doi:10.13031/irrig.20152143458). Gowda, Prasanna, Terry Howell, Louis Baumhardt, Dana Porter, Thomas Marek, and Vinay Nangia. 2016. A user-friendly interactive tool for estimating reference ET using ASCE Standardized Penman-Monteith Equation). Applied Engineering in Agriculture. 32(3): 383-390. Hao, B., Xue, Q., Marek, T. H., Jessup, K. E., Hou, X., Xu, W., Bynum, E. D. and Bean, B. W. (2016), Radiation-Use Efficiency, Biomass Production, and Grain Yield in Two Maize Hybrids Differing in Drought Tolerance. J Agro Crop Sci, 202: 269–280. doi:10.1111/jac.12154. Henry, C G., Hirsh, S. L., Anders, M. M., Vories, E. D., Reba, M. L., Watkins, K.B., and Hardke, J. T. 2016. Annual Irrigation Water Use for Arkansas Rice Production. J. Irrig. Drain Eng., 10.1061/(ASCE)IR.1943-4774.0001068 , 05016006. Henry, C. G. W. M. McDougall, and M. L. Reba.  2016.  A Study of Arkansas Irrigation Pumping Plant Efficiency.  Arkansas Soybean Research Studies 2014.  Research Series 631.  University of Arkansas, Division of Agriculture, Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station.  May 2016.  pp 156-158.  Henry, C. G., G.S. Sartori.  L. Espinoza, P. Francis, J. Gaspar, A. P. Horton, S. M. Hirsh.  2016. Deep Tillage and Gypsum Amendment on Fully, Deficit Irrigated and Dryland Soybeans.  Accepted for publication in the Agronomy Journal.  Henry, C. G., K. B. Watkins, R. U. Mane and G. L. Stark.  2016.  Vertical Hollow Shaft Motors for Irrigation: Does Premium Efficiency Payback?  Presented at the 2016 ASABE Annual International Meeting, Orlando, Florida, July 17-20.  Paper Number 2459984.  ASABE St. Joseph, MI.  Henry, C., C. Declerk, R. Wimberly, M. Daniels, A. Sharpley, C. Hallmark, and J. Hesselbein.  2016.  Arkansas Discovery Farms: Improving Irrigation Efficiencies in Soybean with Pipe Planner Design and a Surge Valve.  Arkansas Soybean Research Studies 2014.  Research Series 631.  University of Arkansas, Division of Agriculture, Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station.  May 2016.  pp 172-175 Howell, Terry, Steve Evett, Judy Tolk, Karen Copeland, and Thomas Marek. 2015. Evapotranspiration, water productivity and crop coefficients for irrigated sunflower in the U.S. Southern High Plains. Agricultural Water Management 162:33-46. Kandpal, V. and C.G. Henry.  2016.  A Review of Improving Efficiencies in Furrow Irrigation.  Presented at the 2016 ASABE Annual International Meeting, Orlando, Florida, July 17-20.  Paper Number 2462974.  ASABE St. Joseph, MI.  Marek, G.W., Gowda, P., Evett, S.R., Baumhardt, R.L., Brauer, D.K., Howell, T.A., Marek, T.H., Srinivasan, R. 2015. Evaluation of SWAT for estimating ET in irrigated and dryland cropping systems in the Texas High Plains. ASABE Annual International Meeting. CDROM: Paper#152141855. Marek, G.W., Gowda, P., Evett, S.R., Baumhardt, R.L., Brauer, D.K., Howell, T.A., Marek, T.H., Srininvasan, R. 2016. Calibration and validation of the SWAT model for predicting daily ET over irrigated crops in the Texas High Plains using lysimetric data. Transactions of the ASABE. 59(2):611-622 doi:10.1303/trans.59.10926. Marek, G.W., Gowda, P., Evett, S.R., Baumhardt, R.L., Brauer, D.K., Howell, T.A., Marek, T.H., Srininvasan, R. 2016. Estimating evapotranspiration for dryland cropping systems in the semiarid Texas High Plains using SWAT. Journal of the American Water Resources Association. 52(2):298-314. Marek, Gary, Prasanna Gowda, Thomas Marek, and David Brauer. 2016. Estimating preseason irrigation losses by characterizing evaporation of effective precipitation under bare soil conditions using large weighing lysimeters. Agricultural Water Management 169:115-128. Marek, Gary, Prasanna H. Gowda, Thomas Marek, Brent Auvermann, Steve Evett, Paul Colaizzi, and David Brauer. 2016. Estimating preseason irrigation losses by characterizing evaporation of effective precipitation under bare soil conditions using large weighing lysimeters. Agricultural Water Management 169:115-128. May 2016. Marek, Gary, Prasanna H. Gowda, Thomas Marek, Dana Porter, Louis Baumhardt, and David Brauer. 2016. Modeling long-term water use of irrigated cropping rotations in the Texas High Plains using SWAT. Irrigation Science, September, 2016. Moorhead, J.E., Gowda, P., Hobbins, M.T., Senay, G.B., Paul, G., Marek, T.H., Porter, D.O. 2015. Accuracy assessment of NOAA gridded daily reference evapotranspiration for the Texas High Plains. Journal of the American Water Resources Association. 51(5):1262-1271. DOI: 10.1111/1752-1688. Moorhead, Jerry, Prasanna Gowda, Gary Marek, Dana Porter and Thomas Marek. 2016. Spatial uniformity in sensitivity coefficient of reference ET in the Texas High Plains. Applied Engineering in Agriculture, Vol. 32(2): 263-269   Moorhead, Jerry. 2015. Lysimetric Evaluation of Eddy Covariance and Scintillometer Systems for the Texas High Plains. Dissertation for completion of a Doctor of Philosophy Degree, Texas Tech University Department of Plant and Soil Science, Lubbock, TX. (Graduate committee: Stephen Maas, Prasanna Gowda, Glenn Ritchie, Chuck West, Thomas Marek, Dana Porter, and Mark Sheridan). Porter, Dana O., Danny Rogers, David Brauer, Thomas H. Marek, Prasanna H. Gowda, Freddie Lamm, James Bordovsky, Terry A. Howell, Sr. 2015. Promoting Efficient Water Management through Effective Outreach Education in the High Plains and Beyond: Role of the Ogallala Aquifer Program. ASABE Paper Number 2143456. ASABE / IA Irrigation Symposium, “Emerging Technologies for Sustainable Irrigation”, Long Beach, California, November 10 – 12, 2015. Porter, Dana, Dan Rogers, Jonathan Aguilar, Jourdan Bell, Thomas Marek, Saleh Taghvaeian, Bridget Guerrero, Gary Marek, Tiffany Dowell Lashmet, Freddie Lamm, Kay Ledbetter, Prasanna Gowda, Jim Bordovsky, 2016. OAP Technology Transfer: Educating Stakeholders in Agricultural Water Management Issues, Technologies and BMPs. USDA-ARS Ogallala Aquifer Program Annual Meeting, Amarillo, TX. March 9, 2016. Porter, Dana, Kevin Wagner, and Victor Gutierrez. 2016. South Texas Irrigation Training Program Manual. Texas Water Resources Institute Publication EM-121. Texas A&M University System, College Station, TX. Sharma, V., A. Kilic, and S. Irmak. 2016. Impact of scale/resolution on evapotranspiration from LANDSAT and MODIS images. Water Resources Research 52: 1-20. doi:10.1002/2015WR017772. Sharma, V., J. Heitholt and M. A. Islam. Evapotranspiration: Basics, Terminology and its Importance. University of Wyoming Extension, B-1293. Stevens, G., and Zach Straatmann. 2016.  Crop water use program for irrigation. University of Missouri Extension Service Bull. MP800. Straatmann, Zachary. 2016.   Interface design and field validation of the Crop Water Use Application. MS Thesis. University of Missouri. Columbia, MO. Adviser: G Stevens. Subedi A., J.L. Chávez, and A. Andales. 2016. "ASCE-EWRI Standardized Penman-Monteith Evapotranspiration (ET) Equation Performance in Southeastern Colorado." Agricultural Water Management. Accepted on June 30, 2016. Online publication: 24-AUG-2016. DOI information: 10.1016/j.agwat.2016.07.002. In Press. Vories, E., W. Stevens, M. Rhine, and Z. Straatmann. 2016. Investigating irrigation scheduling for rice using variable rate irrigation.  Agric. Water Mgt. doi:10.1016/j.agwat.2016.05.032 Wang, J., A.L. Kessner, C. Aegerter, A. Sharma, . Judd, B. Wardlow, J. You, M. Shulski, S. Irmak, A. Kilic, and J. Zeng, 2016. A multi-sensor view of the 2012 Central Plains drought from space. Front. Environ. Sci., 4(45): 1-13. 20 June, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2016.00045. Weeks, W., Popp, M.P., Salmeron, M., Purcell, L., Gbur, E.E., Boruland, F.M., Buehring, N.W., Earnest, L., Fritschi, F.B., Golden, B.R., Hathcoat, D., Lofton, J., McClure, A.T., Miller, T.D., Neely, C., Shannon, G., Udeigwe, T.K., Verbree, D.A., Vories, E.D., Wiebold, W J., Purcell, L.C. 2016. Diversifying soybean production risk using maturity group and planting date choices. Agron. J. 108(5):1917-1929.

Impact Statements

As of end of 2016, the number of active growers who joined the Network has increased to more than 1,500. By 2016, the NAWMN partners represented 1.8 million acres of irrigated land area.