Mobile Irrigation Lab now stationed in Garden City

Kansas State University Research and Extension has established a Mobile Irrigation Lab (MIL) to provide education and technical assistance to irrigators of Kansas and it is now stationed at Southwest Research and Extension Center, 4500 E. Mary, Garden City, Kan.

The Mobile Irrigation Lab has a classroom equipped with computers, irrigation decision making or management software, and equipment to conduct field evaluations of irrigation systems. The MIL classroom allows on-site, hands on educational activities with specific emphasis on using the computer software developed for irrigation management and system evaluation.

Specific educational and technical assistance activities include:

--Irrigation management:

KanSched, an ET-based irrigation scheduling program, has been developed and is available to aid irrigators for making irrigation scheduling decisions. This is a tool that helps the producer to track soil water status. Crop starts using reserve soil water as it grows. The daily consumption is estimated using climatic data collected in a weather station. The estimated water use calculated using daily weather data is known as ET or Evapotranspiration. The software allows tracking multiple fields with one entry of ET data. Hands-on computer training will be offered to producers.

--Irrigation system evaluation:

MIL is loaded with IrriGages that are used to evaluate the distribution uniformity of center-pivots. This is becoming more important as the pump capacities are declining with the decline of groundwater or aquifer water level. An on-site analysis can be completed with on-board software. Irrigation fuel cost evaluation software is another tool available to compare fuel cost for different energy source or evaluate the performance of the power unit to standard performance criteria.

--Resource conservation:

With improved irrigation scheduling and system efficiency, irrigation water resource and energy conservation may be accomplished.

--Cropping system strategy:

Educational activities include evaluation of current cropping practices, information on conservation-based agricultural practices, alternative crops, and other improved agronomic management issues.

Funding assistance for the MIL program is partially provided by the State Water Plan Fund through Kansas Water Office and also by the Kansas Corn Commission, and the Departments of Biological and Agricultural Engineering and Agronomy, Kansas State University.

MIL Team Members include K-State Faculty, Danny Rogers, Mahbub Alam, Gary Clark, Dale Fjell, and MIL coordinator Kent Shaw. The Team also includes Gary Gold, Darl Henson, and Whitey Whitehill, County Extension Agents of Stevens, Grant, and Finney Counties respectively.

The producers are encouraged to avail the service by contacting local K-State Research and Extension Office for MIL program. Special emphasis is given to the following ten counties: Finney, Grant, Gray, Haskell, Kearny, Meade, Scott, Seward, Stanton, and Stevens counties. However, the service is available to all counties in the state of Kansas.

MIL is a combination of class room and field laboratory IrriGages installed in the field to evaluate sprinkler distribution uniformity.

For more details please visit www.oznet.ksu.edu/mil.

Date: 3/22/05