The Cross Section, Volume 29, Number 6, June 1983 Page: 3
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June, 1983 THE CROSS SECTION Page 3
Surge Equipment and
How it works:
A valve in the timing
control box rotates
to open a hose which
fills the rubber
bladder inside the
bell with water. The
bladder compresses
against the pipe
cutting off the water
flow to the gated pipe.
Meanwhile the bladder
in the other bell
deflates allowing
water to flow to the
other set of gated
pipe.- ~!4-4
:~-
So 4,1r
. F
4 - -SURGE CONTROLS WETTING
Surge continues to capture the
imagination of area row water irriga-
tors as more tests and demonstrations
add to a growing body of evidence.
STEVE JONES-Lubbock
"Where I was normally watering
ground for about six to eight hours to
get out the end of the furrow on about
20 rows, with surge I watered 50 rows
in six hours.
"Wetting was basically about the
same if I had flood watered and I can
get across at least 60 to 70 percent
faster. Infiltration was good. I feel I
got just as much water on the lower
end as I did on the upper end and I
didn't collect as much tailwater.
"I figure it cost me about a third less
because I watered a lot less time."
Steve is surge watering 130 acres of
onions. They don't require deep water
~penetration since -the root zone is
shallow. For the same gpm pumped,
his surge watered six acres while his
normal set watered only 1.8 acres.
Steve watered on one hour intervals
with approximately 400 gpm and
surged each set three times. The only
disadvantage he saw was in having to
adjust the eight inch outlet to his six
inch equipment.
"1 think it will work fine on most
vegetables, with the possible exception
of watermelons because the vines get
into the row and may prevent getting
the water out. I would like to try just
to see what it would do."
DAVID STEPHENSON-Marble Farms,
Dimmitt
"We were trying to water up cotton
and were normally watering 60 rows
of diked, skip row cotton. With surge
we watered a total of 108 rows and
ran 24 hours on both the surge and
the continuous watered sets. The surge
watered sets got through the field in
probably 12 hours, but in order to getmally water 8 or 9 acres. It took a little
more time to regulate the rows so that
the water would run evenly and get out
close to the same time. You still have
to put some management into it. But
I am very impressed.
"The way we were hooked up to
the gas it was easy to figure the cost.
A 24 hour test on 15.7 acres ran $11.13
per acre in natural gas, and the normal
watering on 9.34 acres in 24 hours cost
$18.80 per acre. That's a dramatic
savings."BUSHLAND, Texas -Minimizing or
eliminating tailwater runoff f r o m
graded furrows utilizes a limited irri-
gation water supply to best advantage,
according to Dr. Arland Schneider,
USDA Agricultural Engineer. Eliminat-
ing tailwater by changing sets when
water reaches the end of the field
reduces set time by one-fourth to one-
third. This inexpensive change in
water management increases both the
amount of land irrigated and total pro-
duction from a limited supply of water.
Schneider, who is located at the USDA
Conservation and Production Research
Laboratory at Bushland, conducted the
research with Leon New, Texas Agricul-
tural Extension Service, Irrigation Spe-
cialist, and Jack Musick, another USDA
Agricultural Engineer.
The scientists conducted the furrow
irrigated study for two years on a field
that had 0.3 percent slope and was
three-eighths mile long. The soil was
Pullman clay loam which contained
about one-third each of sand, silt, and
clay; and had 1.5 percent organic mat-
ter and a pH of 6.5. The spring of the
first year was wet and the field was
not pre-irrigated. Three seasonal irri-
gations were applied after the crop
was planted. The second year was dry,
and the field was preplant irrigated.
In the summer of the second year, two
and four irrigations were compared. In
the first year, no tailwater time was
compared to two, four or eight hours
of tailwater runoff. In the second year,
no tailwater was compared to three
and six hours of runoff.
Schneider said, "Sorghum grain yield
in the first year was 5070 pounds per
acre for the whole field with no run-
off." When irrigation was continued
four and eight more hours to wet the
lower end of the field, yields increased
to 5370 and 5720 pounds per acre over
the entire field. The amount of irriga-irrigations and no tailwater, yield was
7000 pounds per acre. Three hours of
tailwater jumped the yield to 7250
pounds per acre, but yield dropped
back to 7040 pounds per acre with six
hours of runoff.
Schneider pointed out that eliminat-
ing or reducing tailwater increased the
amount of sorghum grain produced per
inch of irrigation water applied. For
example, with no runoff, 470 pounds
of grain were grown the first year for
each inch of irrigation water applied.
When eight hours of runoff were
allowed, only 370 pounds of grain were
produced for each inch of irrigation
water. The same trends in water use
efficiency occurred the second year.
While interpreting his research,
Schneider pointed out that frequent
small irrigations are best adapted to his
system for saving irrigation water.
Frequent irrigation keeps the upper
end of the field wet, and a higher per-
centage of applied water flows toward
the lower, drier part of the field that
has a high infiltration rate. "As a result,
irrigation water application varies less
over the whole field," he said.
Rainfall during an average summer
supplies about 30 percent of the water
required by a sorghum crop. Because
rainfall comes evenly over the entire
field, both wet and dry parts are
wetted. Thus, the combined water
supply from irrigation and rainfall is
more evenly distributed than irrigation
water alone.
Schneider says that when using the
system, during dry years, severe lodg-
ing can occur on the lower quarter of
the field. He proposes using a reduced
or dryland seeding rate on that part of
the field. A low plant population does
not use all of the water early in the
year, saving some for fall when lodging
might occur. Schneider says plans areTailwater Cut With
New Irrigation Systemthe lateral soaking in the skip rows we
ran the surge a lot longer and got some
tailwater. We got a good wetting."
David ran two wells and metered the
flow at 1020 gpm through the system.
Because he was watering so many
rows in the two surge sets, his furrow
stream was weak. He attempted to add
another well to the pipe and double
the furrow stream. But when the surge
flow changed sets it blew off the eight
inch bell and fitting. Ten inch bells
are available for greater capacity
systems.
"I knew it would have handled some
more water. I just don't know what its
capacity was.
"I was impressed with the system.
It watered 15 acres with the surge in
a 24 hour period where I would nor-DISTRICT TOOTS
ITS OWN HORN
For the first time in its 50 year his-
tory, says the U.S. Department of Agri-
culture, it is dedicating its annual Year-
book to natural resources. The High
Plains Water District has been honored
with an invitation to write a chapter
for the 1983 Yearbook of Agriculture
under the section devoted to "manage-
ment success stories."
The title of this year's Yearbook will
be "Natural Resources-Managing for
People." Introductory chapters will
describe the basic building blocks of
ecosystems and their inter-relation-
ships, according to the editors. The
rest of the book will be devoted to
selected case histories and reports on
current issues which describe some of
the important things that are being
done to recognize and manage natural
resource systems.
The Water District followed the lead
of the yearbook editors who suggested
the district's story "is the case history
of a district which has earnestly set
about learning (and teaching others)
how to live well with less water." The
story relates a multitude of water con-
servation ideas exportable throughout
the arid West.
A quarter million copies of the year-
book will be printed this Fall to be
distributed by members of Congress,
agencies of the Department of Agricul-
ture and others. Copies will go to
libraries, colleges and universities, Ex-
tension Service offices, State and Fed-
eral agencies, public schools, and other
groups and individuals.
James Mitchell, president of the
Board of Directors of the Water District
feels this opportunity to write a chap-
ter of the USDA's 1983 Yearbook ofAgriculture is a high compliment for
the Water District and for the people
of this area. "Our water conservation
efforts are being recognized on a
national level in a highly prestigious
publication."tion water applied ranged from 10.2
inches with no runoff to 14.6 inches
with eight hours of tailwater runoff.
The researcher said 3 of the 4.4 inches
of water applied during the last eight
hours ran off the field. Consequently,
only a small proportion of the water
applied during tailwater runoff soaked
into the soil where it could benefit the
sorghum.
According to the engineer, there was
no difference in yield in the upper half
of the fields. With no tailwater, yields
dropped about 30 percent three-
fourths of the way down the field. All
treatments were at full yield at the
lower end of the field where water
tended to pond regardless of the
amount of tailwater. Even with 8 hours
of runoff, yield decreased some three-
fourths of the way down the field.
In the second year, yields down the
field were about the same as the first
year. However, yields increased sub-
stantially when the number of seasonal
irrigations increased from two to four.
According to Schneider, with two irri-
gations and no tailwater, yield was
4980 pounds per acre. Yields increased
to 5310 and 5350 pounds per acre with
3 and 6 hours of runoff. With fouravailable at the Research Laboratory
for a seeding device that enables a
tractor driver to change seeding rates
while traveling across the field. Re-
duced seeding rate at the lower has
worked well in the LID (Limited Irriga-
tion Dryland) irrigation system devel-
oped by Dr. B. A. Stewart at the
Research Laboratory at Bushland. The
LID system is similar to Schneider's
system except that furrow inflow is
often stopped before the wetting front
reaches the end of the field.
Schneider says using this system
does not cost anything, but can in-
crease water use efficiency as well as
the amount of grain produced with a
limited amount of water. When tail-
water loss is not allowed, irrigation set
time is reduced by 25 to 35 percent.
This water can be used to water more
land. For example, with no tailwater
the first year, yield was 5070 pounds
per acre. If the tailwater had been used
to irrigate 30 percent more land, total
yield would have been 6590 pounds
from 1.3 acres. The 870 pounds of
grain at $5.00 per hundred weight
would return an additional $43.00 for
the irrigation water. "That could be
the difference between , profit and
loss," Schneider said.June, 1983
Page 3
T HE CR O SS S EC T IO N
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High Plains Underground Water Conservation District No. 1 (Tex.). The Cross Section, Volume 29, Number 6, June 1983, periodical, June 1983; Lubbock, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1533099/m1/3/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.