Texas AgriLife Research
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Academic
AgriLife Research Study: Center Pivot Does Not Always Mean Efficiency
VERNON - Identifying, but more importantly, gaining adoption of the most efficient irrigation systems is an important step in water conservation within agriculture, according to a recent study conducted by Texas A&M AgriLife Research.
Thestudy by AgriLife Research, in partnership with the Texas Alliance for Water Conservation, determined that producers who were not using low energy precision application, or LEPA, sprinkler systems were leaving as much as $100 per acre behind.
Dr. Nithya Rajan, AgriLife Research agronomist in Vernon, helped complete the study by looking at different types of irrigation systems for their application efficiency. A more efficient irrigation system allows a larger percentage of the applied water to reach the root zone and not be lost to soil evaporation or evaporation from plant surfaces.
The study is a part of the project "An Integrated Approach to Water Conservation for Agriculture in the Texas Southern High Plains," initiated through funding from the Texas Water Development Board in 2005.
Rick Kellison, project director of the Texas Alliance for Water Conservation, said the study was designed to help producers "put a dollar figure to using the most efficient irrigation systems, because over the years they had shifted away from the efficiency of LEPA."
This eight-year project led to the establishment of the Texas Alliance for Water Conservation Demonstration Project, which involves about 30 producers' fields in Hale and Floyd counties.
While about 75 percent of the Texas High Plains irrigated acres are under center pivot systems, these systems can be equipped with different types of emitters, Rajan said. These include mid-elevation spray application, known as MESA; low elevation spray application or LESA; and LEPA.
She explained MESA systems use spray emitters positioned at around 4 feet above the ground or higher, and are popular for irrigating taller crops like corn. LESA systems have spray emitters generally located less than 4 feet above the ground, and are popular for irrigating shorter crops like cotton. LEPA systems use emitters in contact with the surface that allow water to flow directly onto the soil, and are generally used in conjunction with furrow dikes.
The primary objective of the Texas Alliance for Water Conservation project has been to identify cropping systems and practices in this region that use less irrigation water while maintaining farm profitability.
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