U.S. Water News Online
MANHATTAN, Kan. -- Gary Clark knows just how precious water is, particularly to farmers. And he knows that in times like this, when it's dry and getting drier by the day in Kansas and other states, making the most efficient use of moisture is of the utmost importance.
That's why this year -- and so many years in the High Plains -- it's important for producers to make sure their irrigation systems are performing as intended, providing uniform moisture to the areas they are supposed to, said Clark, who is a professor of irrigation and water management with Kansas State University's Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering.
"If they're [producers] growing corn, an inch of water can translate to 10 bushels of corn," Clark said.
To ensure irrigation systems are working properly and to develop an educational program about effective irrigation and cropping systems in general, K-State Research and Extension faculty, with supportive funding provided by the Kansas Water Office, developed the Mobile Irrigation Lab (MIL).
The Kansas Corn Commission has also joined in to help fund the project. The K-State Research and Extension MIL team includes specialists with expertise in irrigation system design and management, crop water management, agronomic cropping systems, and computer programming and software development.
"To our knowledge there are no other educational programs like this," said Clark, who is the MIL project coordinator. "Our first role is to provide education, and technical assistance comes next."
The idea, Clark said, is not for the MIL to evaluate all irrigation systems in Kansas.
"There are thousands of producers out there. We can't hit them all -- our funding and resources are limited," he said. "Our preference is to develop and field test the technology to make it possible for private companies, consultants, cooperatives, and individuals to do this kind of testing."
The MIL hit the road in the summer of 2001, and since then has conducted 15 hands-on, computer-based educational training sessions on irrigation scheduling for over 250 people and has conducted several on-site field tour and performance evaluations of center pivot irrigation systems
Housed in an 8-by-16-foot trailer, the back part carries tools to evaluate center pivot systems. Up front, the portable classroom is equipped with laptop computers that are used to provide hands-on training for individuals with KanSched, an evapotranspiration (ET)- based irrigation scheduling program developed by K-State Research and Extension irrigation engineers and specialists.
"Irrigation scheduling is the determination of when and how much water to apply to meet specific management goals," Clark said. "Most often in Kansas, that means trying to maintain yield potential without [wasting] irrigation water by applying just enough water at the right time."
Training for a few individuals can occur on-site at a farmstead or even on the edge of an irrigated field in the mobile classroom. But, if needed, a hands-on educational session with the computers can also be set up in a larger meeting room in whatever community the lab is visiting.
"Another part of what we do is give farmers information on their center pivot systems. What we're finding is that many of the systems are not applying water uniformly," Clark said.
Seemingly small factors such as an incorrectly installed or improperly-sized nozzle are sometimes the culprit. But even on new systems, the sprinkler packages have been incorrectly installed. With these errors over time, too much or too little water can make a sizeable yield and economic difference.
The lab is equipped with IrriGages -- water collection devices developed by K-State to evaluate the uniformity of center pivots. The gages are built to capture water from rainfall or sprinklers and because of the design, just 1 percent or less of evaporation loss occurs, compared with losses of over 50 percent in a single day for traditional rain gages.
That allows more time for the person collecting the gage data to get into the field. One hundred or more IrriGages are currently used to evaluate the uniformity of a center pivot system. But the MIL team is developing simpler and more manageable techniques to make the evaluation process easier and yet still reliable.
The major cost of irrigating is the cost of the energy to pump the water to the field, Clark said. Computer software is also available for growers to determine an energy cost performance evaluation.
The farmer inputs data such as the type of power unit used -- typically diesel, electric or natural gas -- and along with a few other inputs about their irrigation system, the Fuel Cost Evaluation computer program can give an indication of the cost to apply one inch of water to an area, he said. Generally that cost is $2 to $5 per acre for each inch of water.
"So, when a farmer can save several inches of water through irrigation scheduling, that can translate into $1,000 or $2,000 of energy costs for a quarter section system. That's a substantial economic savings," Clark said.
He cited a case where a central Kansas farmer enlisted his 15-year- old daughter to do the scheduling for 14 center pivot irrigation systems. By inputting information regarding the field's soil type, crop characteristics (crop type, planting date, etc.) and by tracking water distributed over the fields by rainfall and irrigation along with estimated crop water use from a local automated weather station, the family estimated it saved enough money in fuel costs and other cost incentives to pay for two years of their daughter's future tuition at Kansas State University.
For more information on the Mobile Irrigation Lab, interested persons can visit www.oznet.ksu.edu/mil.
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