If you missed the most recent Iowa Learning Farms webinar, you’ll want to watch Dr. Jeff Strock’s presentation, Crop Response to Excess and Deficit Water Stress. In the webinar he discussed irrigation research trials on fine textured soils to see effects of yield, plant stress and cost effectiveness of drainage water recycling.
Extremes on both sides of rainfall amounts affect farmers in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. The Upper Midwest is seeing trends of wetter springs and drier summers which can make it challenging to get the crop in the ground and then to see top yields in the fall. Dr. Strock and his team set up trials and have been collecting data on the most recent dry years starting in 2019.
Anywhere from 3.2 inches in a soybean plot and 9.3 inches in a corn plot have been added in the trial. Results are astounding for the corn crop, a three-year mean showing 40 bu/ac more in the irrigated system compared to a rainfed plot. Soybeans did show a higher yield, 10 bu/ac more, but Dr. Strock concluded that was mostly due to differences in the plots not water amounts.
Watch the recording for some quick cost effectiveness calculations to see just how important water is to productivity. Tune into to any previously recorded webinar from our archive and learn about a variety of topics.
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