Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

See Attached File.

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.

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