Yield response of corn to deficit irrigation in a semiarid climate (original) (raw)
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Corn Yield Response to Water Availability
Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Reports, 2015
Drought-tolerant technologies have become popular in hybrids for low-yielding corn environments across central and western Kansas and are marketed for their ability to produce higher grain yields with less water. The objective of this study was to compare water use, yield, and water use efficiency (WUE) of two types of drought-tolerant (DT) corn hybrids and a high-yielding non-DT hybrid. Water use and yield of two DT and one non-DT, high-yielding hybrid were compared in both dryland and irrigated situations. The average yield for the irrigated corn was 217 bu/a, and the average was 127 bu/a in dryland, representing a yield increase of 90 bu/a. The irrigated corn received a total of 10 in. more water than the dryland corn over the course of the growing season, resulting in 9 bu for each additional inch of water use averaged across the three hybrids. The irrigated corn used a mean of 20.85 in. of water, and the dryland corn used a mean of 11.66 in. of water. The WUE was 10.71 bu/in. and 10.43 bu/in. for dryland and irrigated corn, respectively. Although hybrid yields differed in the irrigated environment, water use and WUE were similar for all hybrids in both dryland and irrigated environments. One DT hybrid exhibited more stable yields across dryland and irrigated environments compared with the other DT hybrid and the non-DT hybrid.
Advances in Agricultural Systems Modeling, 2014
An agricultural system model can help optimize limited irrigation for higher grain yield and water use efficiency (WUE) across varied climatic conditions. In this study, the Root Zone Water Quality Model (RZWQM2) was first calibrated to simulate soil water, ET, and corn (Zea mays L.) yield under a range, 40 to 100% of crop ET under well-watered conditions (i.e., ET c , calculated by the reference ET and crop coefficient), of irrigation treatments from 2008 to 2011 in Colorado. The model was then used to explore grain yield responses to irrigation levels of 40, 60, 80, and 100% ET c (the Shuttleworth-Wallace ET, ET sw , was used as a surrogate for ET c in the model) under 300, 400, and 500 mm of total irrigation water and to provide guidelines to manage limited irrigation using weather data from 1992 to 2013. With 500 mm of irrigation water, high grain yield and WUE were obtained from the 100% ET sw for the vegetative stage and 80 to 100% ET sw for the reproductive stage. With 400 mm of irrigation water, high grain yield and WUE were simulated at 80 to 100% ET sw irrigation targets between the vegetative and reproductive stages. With 300 mm of irrigation water, however, meeting 100% ET sw at the reproductive and 60% ET sw at the vegetative stage achieved the highest grain yield and WUE. Simulations showed that meeting the crop water requirement during the reproductive stage is more important than during the vegetative stage to achieve high grain yield and WUE under water-limited conditions. Abbreviations: CoAgMet, Colorado Agricultural Meteorological Network; CV, coefficient of variance; LAI, leaf area index; MD, mean difference; ME, model efficiency; RZWQM2, Root Zone Water Quality Model (version 2.6); UAN, urea-ammonium nitrate; WUE, water use efficiency.
Development of Deficit Irrigation Strategies for Corn Using a Yield Ratio Model
Applied Engineering in Agriculture, 2011
Competition for water is increasing while a growing world population requires more food production. It is critical to develop and implement efficient deficit irrigation strategies, and to predict the impacts of deficit irrigation on yield. South Dakota State University Management Software was used to simulate center pivot irrigation and corn yield at seven locations across the Great Plains with historical weather data. Thirty irrigation strategies were evaluated across three soil water holding capacities and three pumping rates. Yield ratio was calculated based on a normalized transpiration ratio. Strategies with high water use efficiencies performed well across all treatments and locations. The recommended maximum yield strategy is 30-60-30 (strategies were defined by the minimum available soil water (%) for early, middle, and late season). Recommended deficit strategies are 15-50-0, 0-30-0, and 0-15-0 for minimal, moderate, and severe water restrictions. Annual variation in yield is greatest when water is most limited.
How Do Precipitation and Irrigated Ratio Interactively Impact Corn Yield
2011
In this research, an econometric model has been constructed and estimated to study the relationship between precipitation, irrigated ratio and crop yield. The model was based on the weather and yield data in the southwest part of the State of Georgia. The econometric model includes three sets of explanatory variables: principal components of temperature and precipitation, precipitation distribution index (PDI) and de-trended irrigated ratio. The estimated results showed that detrended irrigated ratio is significant in almost all of the models. PDI also helps improve the goodness-of-fit of the model. However, PDI is not highly correlated to detrended irrigated ratio as expected. An explanation for this could be that Georgia irrigated ratio is still low and farmers’ response to weather change is slow.
2020
OF THESIS EFFECT OF MANAGEMENT DECISIONS ON CORN YIELD PRODUCTIVITY AND STABILITY IN ENVIRONMENTS WITH CONTRASTING WATER AVAILABILITY Corn (Zea Mays L.) is a grain crop with large productivity, but also elevated evapotranspiration demand, making it highly susceptible to periods of water stress occurring during critical reproductive stages. Environmental conditions in Kentucky make it possible to grow corn under rainfed conditions, but the crop is still likely to experience water stress during some times of the growing season depending on the year and location. There is limited information on the size of the yield gap due to water stress in Kentucky, and the timing and intensity of water deficit. In addition, evaluating the interactive effects of hybrid maturity and planting Population may allow management recommendations that increase corn yield productivity and stability for irrigated and rainfed conditions in Kentucky. This thesis is structured in three chapters that analyze diffe...
Frontiers in Big Data
Variable rate irrigation (VRI) may improve center pivot irrigation management, including deficit irrigation. A remote-sensing-based evapotranspiration model was implemented with Landsat imagery to manage irrigations for a VRI equipped center pivot irrigated field located in West-Central Nebraska planted to maize in 2017 and soybean in 2018. In 2017, the study included VRI using the model, and uniform irrigation using neutron attenuation for full irrigation with no intended water stress (VRI-Full and Uniform-Full treatments, respectively). In 2018, two deficit irrigation treatments were added (VRI-Deficit and Uniform-Deficit, respectively) and the model was modified in an attempt to reduce water balance drift; model performance was promising, as it was executed unaided by measurements of soil water content throughout the season. VRI prescriptions did not correlate well with available water capacity (R 2 < 0.4); however, they correlated better with modeled ET in 2018 (R 2 = 0. 69, VRI-Full; R 2 = 0.55, VRI-Deficit). No significant differences were observed in total intended gross irrigation depth in 2017 (VRI-Full = 351 mm, Uniform Full = 344). However, in 2018, VRI resulted in lower mean prescribed gross irrigation than the corresponding uniform treatments (VRI-Full = 265 mm, Uniform Full = 282 mm, VRI-Deficit = 234 mm, and Uniform Deficit = 267 mm). Notwithstanding the differences in prescribed irrigation (in 2018), VRI did not affect dry grain yield, with no statistically significant differences being found between any treatments in either year (F = 0.03, p = 0.87 in 2017; F = 0.00, p = 0.96 for VRI/Uniform and F = 0.01, p = 0.93 for Full/Deficit in 2018). Likewise, any reduction in irrigation application apparently did not result in detectable reductions in deep percolation potential or actual evapotranspiration. Additional research is needed to further vet the model as a deficit irrigation management tool. Suggested model improvements include a continuous function for water stress and an optimization routine in computing the basal crop coefficient.
Transactions of the ASABE, 2013
South-central Nebraska is one of the most extensively irrigated areas in the U.S., with over 65,000 active irrigation wells, and maize is the major agronomical crop produced. Maize production in this region requires supplementary irrigation for maximum productivity. Effective on-farm implementation of full and limited irrigation practices for potential improvements of crop productivity requires knowledge of locally developed crop yield response to water functions. In this study, the effects of full and limited irrigation practices on maize (Zea mays L.) plant height, leaf area index (LAI), grain yield and biomass production, actual crop evapotranspiration (ET a), yield production functions, yield response factors (K y), and harvest index (HI) were investigated. Field experiments were conducted in 2009 and 2010 under center-pivot irrigation at the