2019
Developing Irrigation Management Strategies for Soybean Production in Humid Regions of the Southern US
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Contributor/Checkoff:
Southern Soybean Research Program
Category:
Sustainable Production
Keywords:
SustainabilityWater resistanceWater supply
Parent Project:
Developing Irrigation Management Strategies for Soybean Production in Humid Regions of the Southern US
Lead Principal Investigator:
Ole Wendroth, University of Kentucky
Co-Principal Investigators:
Michal Sama, (not specified)
Dennis Delaney, Auburn University
Thorsten Knappenberger, Auburn University
Brenda Ortiz, Auburn University
Wesley Porter, Southern Soybean Research Program
George Vellidis, University of Georgia
Carrie Knott, University of Kentucky
Chad Lee, University of Kentucky
Lloyd Murdock, University of Kentucky
Brian Leib, University of Tennessee-Institute of Agriculture
+9 More
Project Code:
Contributing Organization (Checkoff):
Southern Soybean Research Program
$50,000
Institution Funded:
University of Kentucky
$50,000
Brief Project Summary:

With the experience of the severe drought during late spring and summer of 2012 and significant yield losses for corn, soybean, and wheat in the southern U.S., many farmers, especially in Western Kentucky, decided to install irrigation systems following the model of many farmers in Georgia and Tennessee from years before. The majority of irrigation systems are center pivot sprinklers. While in several southern states, farmers, extension specialists and other personnel have some experience with irrigation, relatively little to no work has been done on scheduling irrigation in soybeans or even variable rate irrigation putting soybean growers at a competitive disadvantage. In other crops, growers...

Unique Keywords:
#irrigation
Information And Results
Project Deliverables

A Beta version of an interactive ET-based smartphone irrigation scheduling tool will be made available for limited use.

• A limited number of soybean growers will evaluate the usefulness of the new automated MOIST spreadsheet and monitoring system for improving their irrigation scheduling decisions in 2017. The goal is to have a greater release of New MOIST by 2018..

• The Soybean Smartphone Irrigation Scheduling app is adopted by some farmers in the region with irrigation capability by the end of the 2018 growing season.

• A method for deriving irrigation management zones within fields from “easily” obtainable information, such as remote sensing of the land surface, was developed. It will now be tested in another field to validate its applicability.

• Soybean producers with variable rate irrigation capabilities utilize the IMZ scheme for determining irrigation rates across a field based on soil water holding capacity by the end of the 2018 growing season.

Final Project Results

The United Soybean Research Retention policy will display final reports with the project once completed but working files will be purged after three years. And financial information after seven years. All pertinent information is in the final report or if you want more information, please contact the project lead at your state soybean organization or principal investigator listed on the project.