I’m growing grain corn on 120 acres of a silt soil type.

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a) For my fully grown corn plants, how much would I need to irrigate (inches) to bring my soil from wilting point to field capacity assuming a reasonable management allowable depletion? State all assumptions with appropriate justification. 

b) How many acres would my pond need to be to supply this one irrigation if the pond was 12 feet deep? 

c) If you were a landowner, would this be a feasible or a good investment in your opinion? Justify your response. (30-70 words) 

d) I have 2 x 75 acre fields that are subsurface drained on my farm directly on the northwest corner of Monmouth, Illinois. I’d like to route that drainage water to a 12 ft deep pond to store water for irrigation. Based on long-term climate simulations, what pond storage size (in acre-feet) provides the best investment considering irrigation needs? Round to the nearest 10 acre-ft. Use a screen shot to support your answer 

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6 Answers

  1. I am familiar with the area and wonder why you are considering making the investment in irrigation. It is nearly unheard of until you get into the sand in the Mississippi  river bottom west of you. The reason is that historically year over year it will not return enough on the investment to pay for itself unless you would be growing a high value specialty crop that returns enough to allow the luxury of having it available in a drought year. 

     

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  2. You have received good advice but why commercial corn?  The per acre payback on corn is very low.  It would be difficult to justify irrigation overhead for only 120 acres.

    Have you planned rotational crops? Do you have access to livestock manure or bio-solids?  Have you considered organic crops.

    Your region has enough heat, frost free days and moisture to double crop if your soil health is at it's peak.

    It may pay back faster and with higher profit to look outside the box.

    Double crop corn in Ontario this year grown following 100 bushel wheat.

     

  3. Hello Rachel,

    Before you do any irrigation it would be good to determine managment zones in your agriculture field. It is less likely that you field is homogenous related to soil type. Evry other aspect like irrigation and fertilizers will depend on managment zone you defined.

    Good thing is that managment zones cane be determined from satelites. Here is my web site where you can get some more info https://advancedgwt.wixsite.com/agroscan-english

    After that, defining managment zones you should make a plan for irrigation. It depends on your needs and will how you will go deep into metter. You can get 1 soil moisture device for each managment zone (can help with a choice) or again, you can use, with our help, satellites to manage irrigation events and make decision when to turno off an on your irrgigation system.

     

    If you need more info be free to write me directly on support@advancedgwt.com

     

    Hope this was helpfull to you.

  5. The questions you ask are precursors  to what you need.If no chemical fertilizers or pesticides used and a microbial balance is restored all the requirements will be less and more profitable

  6. Rachel,

    Here are my rough answers to your questions:

    a) to bring soil from wilting point to field capacity, for medium texture soil (silty soils) you need  8 - 10 inches. However, if you let soil moisture to reach wilting point, then the irrigation of corn will be useless. Crop will be already dead at wilting point. You have to start irrigation when in soil there are at least 4 - 5 inches of water to avoid too much reduction of the planned yield. 

    b) your reservoir should keep 62500 cubic meters (51 acre-foot) to apply irrigation one time to entire area within 10 days interval. For this volume the area occupied by the reservoir would be 430 x 430 feet. After 10 days, the reservoir should be replenished. If you can replenish it daily, then the reservoir can be 140 x 140 feet.

    c) to answer this question much more information is needed.

    d) to answer this question more information is needed such as: flow of collected drainage as a function of calendar days (or at least flow in January, March... December). Usually, when drainage is working, removing the excess of water, the irrigation is not needed. When the irrigation is most needed, then the drainage will supply very little or no water. At point b) above you have the size of the reservoir needed for one day and for 10 days.  

    I wish you success,