Scheduling Irrigation for Agronomic Crops Using Estimation Methods

Proper irrigation scheduling is vital to sustainable agricultural practices. Despite averaging more than 48 inches of rainfall per year in Louisiana, rain doesn’t always occur at times to support crop yields, which makes irrigation necessary. Overirrigating will negatively affect the crop by leaching nutrients and increasing erosion or surface runoff that can carry pollutants into local water bodies. Limiting over-irrigation has the potential to address concerns about diminishing water resources, increasing environmental regulation and rising costs of irrigating agriculture. Irrigation management is best accomplished by implementing a scheduling technique or combination of techniques that is most convenient for the irrigator. Confidence in irrigation scheduling methods encourages long-term adoption of agricultural water management. Multiple methods or tools are available to irrigators, such as the water budget, woodruff charts, atmometers and soil moisture sensors.