Abstract
Increasing pumping costs and declining well capacities in regions like the Southern High Plains of Texas are requiring producers to adapt cropping practices for use with irrigation levels that vary between complete replacement of crop evapotranspiration (ET) to none (i.e., dryland production). Grain sorghum [ Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is a crop suited to both dryland and various deficit irrigation production systems. Our objectives were to (i) identify cultural practices (planting date, population, and cultivar maturity) that maximize sorghum grain yield for widely varying irrigation strategies; and (ii) consider effective means to allocate available water among irrigation strategies that maximizes the ratio of yield to ET, that is, water use efficiency (WUE). Using the model SORKAM and long‐term (1958–1999) weather records from Bushland, TX, we simulated sorghum grain yields on a Pullman soil (fine, mixed, superactive, thermic Torrertic Paleustoll) under dryland (rain) and three deficit irrigation levels (rain + irrigation = 2.5, 3.75, or 5.0 mm d −1 ) for all combinations of planting date (mid‐May, 15 May; early June, 5 June; and late June, 25 June), cultivar maturity (early, 95 d; medium, 105 d; late, 120 d), and plant density (12 and 16 plants m −2 ). For 2.5 mm d −1 irrigation level, simulated grain yields were maximized with either early or medium‐maturing cultivars planted in early June. In contrast, simulated sorghum yield and WUE increased with a mid‐May planting date and later‐maturing cultivars for irrigation levels of 3.75 and 5.0 mm d −1 . We conclude that spreading water to uniformly irrigate a field with 2.5 mm d −1 produces ∼16% less grain than concentrating the same water resources to variably irrigate a field at 3.75 or 5.0 mm d −1 with complementary (2:1 and 1:1) dryland areas.
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Claims 3
Claim · model-written summary
Simulated grain yield at 2.5 mm/d irrigation was maximized with early or medium-maturing sorghum cultivars planted in early June.
- Taxon
- Grain sorghum
Sorghum bicolore0 - Treatment
- planted in early Junee1
- Outcome
- grain yieldse1
- Direction
- maximizede1
- Qualifier
- For 2.5 mm d −1 irrigation levele1
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“For 2.5 mm d −1 irrigation level, simulated grain yields were maximized with either early or medium‐maturing cultivars planted in early June”
e0“Grain sorghum [ Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is a crop suited to both dryland and various deficit irrigation production systems”
Claim · model-written summary
Simulated sorghum yield and WUE increased with a mid-May planting date and later-maturing cultivars at 3.75 and 5.0 mm/d irrigation.
- Treatment
- mid‐May planting date and later‐maturing cultivarse2
- Outcome
- yield and WUEe2
- Direction
- increasede2
- Qualifier
- for irrigation levels of 3.75 and 5.0 mm d −1e2
SorghumNot reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e2“In contrast, simulated sorghum yield and WUE increased with a mid‐May planting date and later‐maturing cultivars for irrigation levels of 3.75 and 5.0 mm d −1”
e0“Grain sorghum [ Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is a crop suited to both dryland and various deficit irrigation production systems”
Claim · model-written summary
Spreading water to uniformly irrigate at 2.5 mm/d produces about 16% less grain than concentrating the same water on variably irrigated areas.
- Taxon
- Grain sorghumSorghum bicolore0
- Treatment
- spreading water to uniformly irrigate a field with 2.5 mm d −1e3
- Outcome
- graine3
- Direction
- lesse3
- Value
- ∼16%e3
- Comparator
- concentrating the same water resources to variably irrigate a fielde3
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e3“We conclude that spreading water to uniformly irrigate a field with 2.5 mm d −1 produces ∼16% less grain than concentrating the same water resources to variably irrigate a field”
e0“Grain sorghum [ Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is a crop suited to both dryland and various deficit irrigation production systems”
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Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.