Irrigation

56A - Irrigation Management Strategies: Sorghum for Silage - 2014

Principal Investigator: Robert Hutmacher, Steve Wright, Jeff Dahlberg (UCCE, UC Davis, UCCE Tulare and Kings Counties; UC Kearney REC) Email: rbhutmacher@ucdavis.edu
Objectives of the project are to continue evaluations of furrow irrigation management strategies for sorghum for silage, with the objectives to:

1. Identify yield and quality responses to irrigation management regimes that include non-stressed plants as well as treatments imposing periods of water deficits utilizing specific sorghum cultivars potentially useable for silage; and
2. Estimate total crop water use (Applied plus stored soil water use) under the imposed irrigation management regimes.

97 - Irrigation Strategies for producing more with less Center Pivot Project

Principal Investigator: Jeff Mitchell (UCCE, UC Davis), Jeff Dahlberg (UC Kearney REC), Dan Putnam (UCCE and UC Davis), Dan Munk (UCCE Fresno Co) Email: jpmitchell@ucdavis.edu
The objectives of this study are to:

1. Determine the water use efficiency and economic efficiency of a forage production system of alfalfa and sorghum under full ET, moderate deficit (≈ 75% ET), and severe deficit (≈ 50% ET) center pivot irrigation
2. Measure crop responses and water productivity of these crops under limited water supplies, and
3. Have these evaluations of overhead irrigation for these forages serve as the basis for intensive public extension education programming for precision crop management technologies at the WSREC.

106B - Developing New Crop Coefficients for San Joaquin Valley Crops

Principal Investigator: Florence Cassel (CA State University, Fresno) and James Ayars (USDA-ARS) Email: fcasselss@csufresno.edu
The primary objective of the proposed project is to develop new crop evapotranspiration data and crop coefficients for crops grown in the San Joaquin Valley under drip irrigation and to evaluate relationships between fc and kcb values for the crops studied. This project will test the hypothesis that the relation between fc and kcb values are consistent across multiple crop types, and that the relationships are independent of canopy architecture. Results from the study will be used by CSU Fresno, CSU Monterey Bay and NASA to update algorithms used to map kcb values from satellite data, and will be evaluated by CSU Fresno to update values used in Wateright. In addition, results will be shared with the Department of Water Resources to update values used in CIMIS as appropriate.