New technology to increase irrigation efficiency

Excerpt

California's El Dorado Irrigation District (EID) has used a neutron probe for nearly 30 years to assist commercial growers with irrigation scheduling. The EID Irrigation Management Services (IMS) program monitors 312 sites for 100 growers on a weekly basis with a neutron probe and provides suggested irrigation dates and run times. Irrigation scheduling information is emailed to the grower the same day the depletion information is gathered.

EID received USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Conservation Innovation Grant funding to place four Watermark sensors, one thermistor, and one AM400 data logger at 50 monitoring sites representing a number of soil types and elevations to test the range of conditions found in the district.

The neutron probe is being used to generate site-specific calibration curves so that the sensor readings can be correlated, if possible, to inches of water depleted. This will allow the current crop coefficient models to be retained to provide irrigation scheduling predictions. The ultimate goal is to replace the neutron probe with permanently placed soil moisture sensors and access this information remotely. This will allow EID to greatly expand the IMS program and reduce resource demands at the same time.

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