Timely irrigation alleviates crop stress, and with pivot irrigation it is important that farmers do not fall behind. Knowing the soil moisture status in a field and how much water the crop needs is critical to staying ahead of the game.
So, does your pivot system meet crop demand? Based on research conducted in the Blackland Prairie in Brookville, Miss., Dave Spencer, assistant professor at the Mississippi Water Resources Research Institute (MWRRI), Mississippi State University, offers three pivotal strategies as farmers prepare to crank up irrigation across the Midsouth.
Spencer said 2022 was the first year to develop threshold and volume recommendations for pivot irrigation in the prairie. There, the soil is underlaid with lime rock, providing a much smaller soil profile for plant roots to extract water. This year, an additional study will be conducted in Stoneville, Miss. to see if these recommendations hold up in the Delta.
“I think that a lot of this research translates well to pivot irrigation in the Delta. The big takeaway about irrigating earlier with a pivot is that you can only apply an inch at a time. It takes much longer for that pivot to walk across a field, compared to furrow irrigation where you can draw the water down to threshold and apply water very quickly.”