Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Objective 1. Coordinate the standardization/documentation of crop coefficients used in irrigation scheduling. 1) Coordinate development of a list and/or database of available crop coefficient data in the U.S., including information of the time step upon which the data are based (i.e., degree days, time, percent season, etc.) California: " A new Excel program KcMod.xls was written to store crop coefficient information and to output the Kc curves to tables and plots. This program will serve as a basis for the WERA 202 crop coefficient compilation objective. " The Kc Testing project continued this year, and two years of data collection are now completed. This project was designed to help the State DWR to upgrade crop coefficients for water resources planning by teaching DWR employees how to measure ETc and determine crop coefficients. The project also encourages research cooperation between DWR employees and UC farm advisors. Florida: " One year of a turfgrass crop coefficient (Kc) project has been completed. Turf Kcs are being developed using mini-lysimeters for the following warm-season grasses: Floratam St. Augustine, Argentine Bahia, Tifway Bermuda, and Empire Zoysia. Results to date indicate no significant differences in non-stressed water use rates between these four grasses given equal growing conditions. Once turf Kcs are verified in a second year, recommended values will be published. " Tomato and green bell pepper crop coefficients from the literature have been fitted to irrigation water use data under regimes where plants are not stressed and no deep percolation occurs. Thus, the literature Kc values have been verified. Future work will use soil moisture measurements to calculate crop ET and further document and verify these Kc values. Kansas: No specific work on adjusting crop coefficients has been done and none is envisioned. (Continuing to use crop coefficients already in use developed based on Penman (Kimberly) equation. " Adoption of irrigation scheduling technology, including computer models, remote sensing or instrumentation. i) ET based irrigation scheduling tool, KanSched, has been adopted by USDA-NRCS for the EQIP program in Kansas. ii) 12 sessions were held to refresh and train both NRCS personnel and producers. Educational meetings numbering 9 were held to introduce ET based irrigation scheduling and services provided by the Mobile Irrigation Lab (MIL). iii) MIL webpage visitors numbered 1,176 and page views accounted to 3,440 so far. iv) None available to report on remote sensing. " Evaluation of the effectiveness of delivery methods for the adoption of irrigation scheduling technology. Where possible, working with the NRCS to provide useable ET and irrigation scheduling information to producers. i) No formal evaluation with clientele done so far. NRCS program participants and general producers are using (firm numbers are unavailable) KanSched ascertained from calls, e-mails received asking for consultation and information. Calls from crop consultants and contract researchers were received for help with the use of KanSched. E-mails are being sent to a list serve address having 20 addresses of producers, crop consultant, and banker. Southwest Kansas County agents receive ET information by e-mail. ii) ET values are posted in internet web page. Washington: " Little work has been done in Washington State on crop coefficients. 2) Work with ASCE Kc task subcommittee on the development of a procedure for standardizing crop coefficient data. California: " As Chair of the ASCE Kc Task subcommittee and current Chair of the WERA 202, we developed the KcMod.xls program described above. We are still working on a program to estimate virtual crop ETc and to estimate crop coefficients. Texas: " Work is nearing completion on the revision to ASCE Manual No. 70, which is likely to be published in 2008 or 2009. " Terry Howell conducted comparative regression relationships between the various reference ET equations for the years of 2006 and 2007 using Bushland data. The results of that effort are summarized in the Texas Report. " Bushland crop coefficients were summarized on a day after planting scale. Future work will expand the summary into the FAO-56 formats for ASCE/EWRI reference ET for GDD and ground cover scales. " Crop coefficients derived from the large weighing lysimeters at Bushland over time have been estimated per growth stage for the multiple planting dates within the TXHPET models. Work funded through a grant from Texas Water Development Board netted data necessary to validate the multi-year corn study at the NPRF to obtain potential adjustment data of the Kcs based on actual plant stage for multiple planting dates within the TXHPET. Adjustment data have been compiled and publication is planned with linkage to the accumulated crop heat units based on the day after planting scale in the TXHPET models. " Thomas Marek, in cooperation with Dr. Terry Howell of the USDA-ARS Water Management Unit at Bushland, was involved in the design, construction, installation and instrumentation of a large weighing lysimeter for crop coefficient determination in the Arkansas River Valley region of Colorado. Initial crop establishment and growth patterns indicate more cropping time is needed to establish equilibrium soil conditions around the large lysimeter. A new reference based lysimeter (12 Mg) is currently being installed in 2008 at the research site. Objective 2. Coordinate the adoption of irrigation scheduling technology, including computer models, remote sensing or instrumentation that will help growers more efficiently apply irrigation water. 1) Coordinate evaluation of the effectiveness of delivery methods for the adoption of irrigation scheduling technology. Where possible, work with the NRCS to provide useable ET and irrigation scheduling information to producers. California: " We received an NRCS CIG grant to expand the OSU irrigation scheduling program into California. Three Farm Advisors (Allan Fulton, Dan Munk, and Blake Sanden) are working with OSU to test the scheduling program with California growers. We have developed a subprogram to assess water stress and salinity effects on yield, and it is currently being evaluated. " We finished the project SIMETAW II, which is used to (1) estimate reference evapotranspiration in the Central Valley of California using 82 years of climate data and with the ability to simulate weather data to assess climate change effects on crop water usage. Recently, we initiated a new project CALSIMETAW to accomplish the same goals for the entire State. " The online irrigation scheduling tool developed in Oregon is being evaluated through a two-year project in Washington. It is being tried by several Washington growers and supported out of Washington State University during this time period. This has been adopted by the NRCS for the EQIP program in Washington for the evaluation period. Other more simple irrigation management tools (spreadsheet and paper-based) are under evaluation for use with Washington State. Kansas: " The NRCS has adopted KanSched as one of the recognized irrigation scheduling tool for program participants requiring year-end report on water use and conservation achieved. No formal survey conducted to find out the types of irrigation scheduling tools that are used within the state by producers. New Mexico: " Work is being carried out to automate the SATET remote sensing program and offer it as a web service. The stand alone document is described at http://hydrology1.nmsu.edu/Lake%20evaporation/Lake%20Evaporation%20Remote%20Sensing%20Model.htm. The progress includes downloading all scenes of MOD021KM, MOD03 and MOD11_L2 data sets from 2002 to current date, covering all parts of New Mexico, California and Texas have been downloaded. The SATET model was updated to function in automated mode. All input parameters are supplied by means of a driver file, which contains a list of files to be processed by the model and all the necessary weather information and other additional input parameters. Currently the model uses MOD021KM data set to extract Modis reflectance solar bands 1, 2, 3,4,5,7 and Modis emissive bands 31 and 32 which are used to calculate Temperature, NDVI and ET for each pixel. " The data is geo corrected by using geo location fields latitude and longitude from the corresponding MOD03 dataset. Elevation data for each pixel is also extracted from MOD03 file. The elevation value is used in searching for an appropriate cold spot. The maximum elevation difference that can be there between cold spot and the point of interest can be supplied as an input parameter to the model. Cloud cover mask is extracted from MOD11_L2 data set. Texas: " The Texas AgriLife Extension Service AgriPartner program [Mr. Leon New, Mr. O.R. (Reggie) Jones (Coordinator), Dr. Brent Bean, Dr. Carl Patrick and Mr. Don Dusek] continued on-farm irrigation demonstrations in which the North Plains ET (NPET) network (part of the Texas High Plains ET network) models and irrigation scheduling data were again verified and utilized with area producers. The total number of field demonstrations was 54. A summary is provided in the Texas Report. " Part-time AgriPartner employees acquired data on the various commercial fields that tracked applied irrigation water, rainfall, soil water use, yields, and crop phenology. Overall, the NPET crop growth models performed well, with possibly the exception of peanuts. There were 36 producers that participated in the 2007 AgriPartner demonstrations. The program was officially terminated at the end of 2007, but is being considered for continuation by two of the area groundwater districts. " Thomas Marek continued to conduct work at the North Plains Research Field ancillary to commercial farm monitoring in 2007; this work involved monitoring of 2,255 acres of crops, with 11 growers participating. The percentage of full ET applied by growers ranged from 54 to 110%. A summary table is given in the Texas Report. " Texas A&M efforts continued operations and maintenance of the Texas High Plains ET network (TXHPET- http://txhighplainset.tamu.edu/). TXHPET represents the entire Texas High Plains region (and Pecos in West Texas) and operates 18 stations. During 2007, the TXHPET network disseminated nearly 300,000 pages of irrigation and/or climatic data information. A reduced number of copies of the TXHPET user manual were released in 2007 due to the previous number disseminated and online availability of the manual as a pdf file. The majority of TXHPET dissemination is now by electronic venues rather than paper distribution methods, and conversion can be attributed to the education venues by TXHPET extension personnel. 2) Coordinate the evaluation of the effectiveness of irrigation scheduling tools. This will include conducting surveys to determine what types of irrigation scheduling tools are being used by different producers in each state. Florida: " In landscape irrigation, a two year study has been completed using soil moisture sensors and rain sensors to control irrigation on cooperating homes in Pinellas County. Soil moisture sensor irrigation controllers reduced irrigation application by 65% cumulatively over a two year period. " In another study on smart controllers, ET controllers are being evaluated on cooperating homes in Hillsborough County. Research plot results have shown that these devices can reduce irrigation 40-60% relative to typical homeowner irrigation schedules. Preliminary results on homes show a 50% reduction in irrigation relative to homeowners only being monitored. " Work is continuing demonstrating soil moisture measurement with vegetable growers. Growers report value in using the soil moisture sensor readings as a tool for irrigation management. Real barriers exist in implementing fully automatic irrigation control at the farm scale; however, future work will investigate this type of control. Research plot level studies indicate that soil moisture sensor control systems on green bell pepper and tomato has resulted in approximately 30-50% reduction in water applied compared to grower type of time based irrigation schedules. A corresponding 50% reduction in nitrate nitrogen leaching has been documented. " Both soil moisture (e.g. tensiometer controlled) and ET based control strategies are being used on tropical fruit production in South Florida. Research results have shown that water reductions as high as 90% are possible without any yield or quality reduction. Significant reductions in nutrients applied have been shown, also without reducing plant quality. Texas: " User feedback from the use of the TXHPET website has been evaluated and incorporated through new enhancements to terminology and features proposed for integration on to the TXHPET web based system. Additional user education and technical support materials will be added as needed to promote awareness and application of the features. 3) Continue to report all findings and information on the WCC 202 (WERA 202) website located at the New Mexico State University website. (See http://weather.nmsu.edu/wcc202/ .) " Note that Ted Sammis (New Mexico State University) is retiring. An alternative to using the NMSU website was discussed at the Lake Tahoe meeting. 4) Coordinate with the irrigation industry group (The Irrigation Association) on updating their database on existing agricultural weather networks in the US, their websites, weather data provided (present and historical) and irrigation scheduling information. Objective 3. Coordinate the development of Quality Control procedures for weather data used for irrigation scheduling. 1) Work with WERA-102 in developing standards for QC data in all climate networks. Publish existing QC for all climate networks in each participating state. " California and New Mexico State Universities have been working on the use of remote sensing and GIS (e.g. CIMIS-GOES) to provide refined estimates of reference evapotranspiration (ETo). The projects require the interpolation of weather data between ETo stations. Because the GIS based estimates are mostly independent of the weather station measurements, the products offer a new possibility for quality control of weather data used to estimate reference evapotranspiration. 2) Coordinate the sharing of QC software developed in an individual state to be used by all states. " See item 1) above. 3) Coordinate the development of interpolation programs to fill in missing data from climate networks. Irrigation scheduling programs will not run with missing data. California: " The remote sensing group at UCD has developed a GIS based interpolation program for reference evapotranspiration estimation. We are currently studying the possibility to use this product to quality control CIMIS ETo data in California. Also, see item 1) above. New Mexico: " Evaluated the use of the NWS forecast hourly values to conduct QC on weather station data. See ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndgd/GT.rtma/AR.conus/ " To capture the forecast gridded data on 5 km grid. Also, a program python script was written to capture the NWS forecast cast for any location in the U. S. This file captures the data and calculates the reference Et. The data can be compared to the measured data to conduct QC. Educational Activities: 1) Educational sessions at meetings about different aspects of irrigation scheduling material and software. California: YEAR MON GROUP AND LOCATION SIZE TOPIC HRS 2008 Aug DWR Training, Corning 6 Surface Renewal ET 3 2008 Nov WERA 102 Davis 20 CIMIS & ETo 1 2008 Nov WERA 102 Davis 20 Surf Ren. & ET 2 2008 Dec Alfalfa Symp. San Diego 200 Irrigation Scheduling 0.3 2009 Mar CDWR  District Staff 15 Surf. Ren. and ET 4 2009 Apr Bay Delta Office DWR, Sacramento 20 SIMETAW II 1 2009 Apr DWR Staff Sacramento 9 SIMETAW II Phase II 1 2009 Apr Spanish Minister of Agric. Davis 7 CIMIS & ET 1 Florida: There were 10 different educational publications that came out in proceedings of various professional meetings and fact sheets. These are cited under Publications. Kansas: " Water related educational activities were held in 3 counties attended by 54 school going children. In addition water conservation educational sessions held during Childrens Water Festival programs. New Mexico: " Education sessions at meetings about different aspects of irrigation scheduling material and software. " Dissemination of information through newsletters, faxes, press releases, and magazines articles, etc. Water Supply Forecast of Stream Flow Volume http://virga.nmsu.edu/News/nl-climate-fall-08-dec1.pdf Texas: " Eighteen invited papers, presentations, and lectures were presented by Dana Porter. A list is given in the Texas Report. Washington: " Twenty four different presentations were given in 2007 in many areas across the state on many different aspects of irrigation and water management. Irrigation scheduling tools are currently being developed. 2) Development of effective documentation of irrigation scheduling information available through the web. California: " A new scheduling program for alfalfa ISA.xls was developed and presented at the Alfalfa Symposium in San Diego. The program uses ETo and the climate corrected alfalfa Kc values from FAO 56 and the stress factor calculation from CROPWAT to determine schedules for up to nine alfalfa cuttings. Florida: " An urban irrigation scheduling tool has been updated and is available at, http://fawn.ifas.ufl.edu/tools/urban_irrigation/ " A website has been developed highlighting turfgrass crop coefficients, http://irrigation.ifas.ufl.edu/turf/index.html " Multimedia presentations are available at, http://irrigation.ifas.ufl.edu/voiceppt/ Texas: " Approximately 600 e-mail listserv files and TXHPET web site downloads occurred daily in 2007. This resulted in a total of over 200,000 pages of irrigation scheduling information disseminated. " Washington: " An irrigation information website was created at http://irrigation.wsu.edu. This website contains many different irrigation related calculators, tutorials, FAQs and many other web page links. This was accessed for irrigation information over 14,000 times within the first 6 months. 3) Dissemination of information through newsletters, faxes, press releases and magazine articles, etc. California: " Working with the National Weather Service (NWS), we developed a reference evapotranspiration (ETo) forecast product for northern California that is now available through the Sacramento NWS Office. We are working to expand the service to cover the State. Florida: " Dukes, M.D. 2009. Smart irrigation technologies result in water savings. Florida Irrigation Society, Pipeline Magazine, Summer 2009. Texas: " Porter, Dana. 2008. Best Management Practices to Prevent Groundwater Contamination. Extension Fact Sheet. Texas Cooperative Extension. College Station, TX. (In press.) " Boman, Randy, Dana Porter, and Jim Bordovsky. 2008. Irrigation Management Strategies for High Plains Cotton. Texas AgriLife Extension and Research Center, Lubbock. Texas. " Howell, T.A. 2008. Addressing the world water crisis. Resource 14(3):5-8. Washington: " Two different popular press articles were published on irrigation management in Master Gardener Magazine, and Potato Country. 4) Development of short course information on irrigation scheduling using climate data. Florida: A short course has been developed highlighting automated irrigation control technologies. This course is given routinely to stakeholders such as developers, builders, irrigation contractors, decision makers, government personnel, and homeowners. The following workshops have been given highlighting various irrigation scheduling methods, including automated irrigation controls: " Dukes, M.D. 2008. UF/IFAS soil moisture sensor irrigation controller research results. Presentation at the Miami-Dade Soil Moisture Sensor Training Session, Jan 24. Homestead, FL. (25 attendees) " Dukes, M.D. 2008. Results of UF soil moisture sensor testing. Presentation at Osceola County Landscape Irrigation Workshop, Mar 31, Kissimmee, FL. (85 attendees) " Dukes, M.D. 2008. Results of UF soil moisture sensor controller testing. Volusia County Landscape Irrigation Workshop: New Technologies and Certification Programs. DeLand, FL, Aug 28. (60 attendees) " Dukes, M.D. 2008. Results of UF soil moisture sensor controller testing. St. Johns County Landscape Irrigation Workshop: New Technologies and Certification Programs. St. Augustine, FL, Sept 30. (50 attendees) " Dukes, M.D. 2008. Irrigation and Landscape Opportunities. Florida Section American Water Works Association, Dollars and Sense in Water Efficiency  A Symposium. Dec 3, Orlando, FL. (25 attendees) " Dukes, M.D. 2008. Irrigation Technology: How it relates to water use in Florida. Water Resources and the Future of Florida Landscapes, Osceola County Extension, Oct 23, Kissimmee, FL. (30 attendees) " Dukes, M.D. 2008. SMART Irrigation Controls: What Does the Future Hold? 14th Annual Gulf Coast Turfgrass Expo & Field Day, June 18, Jay, FL. (250 attendees) " Dukes, M.D., K.L. Morgan, and L. Zotarelli. 2008. Irrigation scheduling methods and tools: Enhancing efficiency of water and fertilizer delivery. IFAS Best Management Practice workshop, Apopka, FL (50 attendees). " Dukes, M.D. 2008. Water conservation as an alternative water supply. University of Florida Water Institute Symposium, Sustainable Water Resources, Florida Challenges, Global Solutions, Feb 28, Gainesville, FL. (50 attendees) " Dukes, M.D. 2008. Soil moisture sensors and rain sensors. AWWA Sustainable Water Sources, Feb 13, Reno, NV. (50 attendees) " Dukes, M.D. 2008. Irrigation auditing techniques and technologies. AWWA Sustainable Water Sources, Feb 13, Reno, NV. (50 attendees) " Dukes, M.D. 2008. Improving irrigation management in golf. Presentation at FTGA/EGCSA Southwest Florida Turf Conference, Jan 10. Ft. Myers, FL. (120 attendees) " Dukes, M.D. 2008. Taking control of landscape irrigation through smart control systems. Presentation at FTGA/EGCSA Southwest Florida Turf Conference, Jan 10. Ft. Myers, FL. (35 attendees) Texas: " Porter, Dana. 2008. Irrigation Training Program curriculum, manual and irrigation workshop series. Reference notebooks were developed for a statewide irrigation education program targeting progressive agricultural producers, county educators, crop consultants, irrigation professionals, technical support providers, water resources planners and similarly interested audiences. " Porter, Dana and Leon New. 2007. Texas AgriLife Extension Serive (formerly Texas Cooperative Extension) North Region Water Conservation and Irrigation Training. Reference notebook developed for North Region TCE-CEA training events held August 14, 2007 (Lubbock) and August 21, 2007 (Amarillo).