Calendar Events

Celebrating 75 years of Southern High Plains Agricultural Advancements
On August 29, 2013, the Conservation and Production Research Laboratory at Bushland, Texas will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the first experiments conducted at the research facility. The laboratory has been a joint venture between the State of Texas and United States Department of Agriculture since its inception, with the current team members being USDA Agricultural Research Service and Texas A&M AgriLife Research. In the aftermath of the dust storms of 1934, federal funding for the laboratory was secured and, in 1938, the first experiments were conducted. Since then, the laboratory has conducted research in many areas including: 1) wheat breeding and genetics; 2) beef production; 3) efficient water use in irrigated and dryland farming; 4) environmental quality and management; 5) pest management and alleviating plant stress; and 5) wind energy, bioenergy and alternative crops. The program on August 29, 2013 will begin with a scientific tour at 9 a.m., continue with featured speakers at the sponsored lunch and seminar speakers in the afternoon, and end with an evening program and supper. The day's activities will highlight the impacts of past and current research on the profitability and sustainability of Southern High Plains agriculture. Come join us for part, or all of the day for a program that will feature research advancements that helped to transform the "Great American Desert" of the 1800's to the "World's food basket" of the 21st century. For additional information contact co-chairs of the Program committee: David Brauer (806-356-5769; david.brauer@ars.usda.gov) or Jerry Michels (806-354-5806; gmichels@ag.tamu.edu) or visit the following web site: http://www.cprl.ars.usda.gov.

In The News

Association of Agricultural Scientists of Indian Origin (AASIO)’s Outstanding Agricultural Scientist  Award in 2011 Dr. Prasanna Gowda, research agricultural engineer at the USDA-ARS Conservation and Production Research Laboratory, Bushland, Texas is the recipient of the Association of Agricultural Scientists of Indian Origin (AASIO)'s Outstanding Agricultural Scientist Award in 2011. This award was presented to him at the AASIO annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas by the President of the Soil Science Society of America Dr. Charles Rice. Dr. Gowda's research programs focus on remote sensing based irrigation water management and watershed modeling.

Projects

Center Pivot Automation and Control Irrigation management research at the Conservation and Production Research Laboratory includes automatic irregation scheduling and control of center pivot systems using wireless sensor modules and networks. Real-time measurement of crop canopy temperature and microclimatological data are being used as inputs to calculate a daily stress index and irregation trigger for efficient use of irregation water. Contact Dr. Susan O'Shaughnessy ( Susan.OShaughnessy@ars.usda.gov) for additional information.

Featured Publication

2012. Colaizzi, P. D., R. C. Schwartz, S. R. Evett, T. A. Howell, P. H. Gowda, and J. A. Tolk. 2012. Radiation model for row crops : II. Model evaluation. Agron. J. 104(2): 241-255.
Manuscript in Adobe format (2 MB).

Relatively few radiation transfer studies have considered the impact of varying vegetation cover that typifies row crops, and methods to account for partial row crop cover have not been well investigated. Our objective was to evaluate a widely used radiation model that was modified for row crops having sparse to full vegetation cover. The radiation model was combined with geometric view factors based on elliptical hedgerows that account for the spatial distribution of row crop vegetation, and this approach was compared with the more commonly used clumping index approach. Irradiance measurements included transmitted and reflected visible and shortwave, outgoing longwave, and total net radiation. The model used optimized parameters for corn (Zea mays L.), grain sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench], and cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.). The elliptical hedgerow and clumping index approaches resulted in similar model agreement; however, the former resulted in up to 7.3 W m-2 smaller RMSE and up to 7.5 W m-2 smaller mean bias error compared with the latter. Both approaches resulted in similar model sensitivities to inputs, which varied +25% or -25%. Calculated shortwave irradiance fluxes were most sensitive to leaf area index (LAI; -3.25), canopy width (-1.94), ellipsoid leaf angle parameter (-0.77), and visible leaf absorption (-5.54) when LAI = 2.95 m2 m-2, and visible soil reflectance (0.89) when LAI = 0.21 m2 m-2. Calculated outgoing longwave irradiance and net radiation were most sensitive to the soil directional brightness temperature (0.55 and -0.61, respectively) when LAI = 0.21 m2 m-2.

Wetting Front

Volume 13, Number 1, December 2011

Feature Articles:

Scintillometry for ET Mapping Applications: A Lysimetric Evaluation [P.H. Gowda and T.A. Howell]
Water News in Texas: An Ogallala Update [David K. Brauer]

Volume 13, Number 1, _December 2011(1.9 MB in "pdf")

New Publications

REMM Publications

2011. Cole, N.A., Todd, R.W., Parker, D.B., Rhoades, M., Mason, A.M. 2011. Ammonia emissions from a commercial feedyard measured using passive samplers and a box model[abstract]. Journal of Animal Science. 89, E-Suppl.1:757. 
Manuscript in Adobe format (69 KB) 

2011. Rice, W.C., Gowda, P. 2011. Influence of geographical location, crop type, and crop residue cover on bacterial and fungal community structures. Geoderma. 160:271-280.
Manuscript in Adobe format (802 KB)

2011. Todd, R.W., Cole, N.A., Casey, K.D., Hagevoort, R., Auvermann, B.W. 2011. Methane emissions from Southern High Plains dairy wastewater lagoons in the summer. Animal Feed Science And Technology. 166-167:575-580. 
Manuscript in Adobe format (505 KB)

2011.. Vick, B.D., Almas, L. 2011. Developing wind and/or solar powered crop irrigation systems for the Great Plains. Applied Engineering in Agriculture. 27(2):235-245.     
Manuscript in Adobe format (301 KB)      

2011. Waldrip, Heidi M., Zhongqi He, and M. Susan Erich (2011) Effects of Poultry Manure Amendment on Phosphorus Uptake by Ryegrass, Soil Phosphorus Fractions and Phosphatase Activity. Biol Fertil Soils 47(4)407-418
Manuscript in Adobe format (505 KB)

2012. Waldrip, H.M., Todd, R.W., Cole, N.A., Li, C., and W.Salas (2012) Estimation of ammonia emissions from beef cattle feedyards in the Southern High Plains with process-based modeling. Symp. Reactive N (Nr) from agriculture: Emission, consequence, and management, ACS National Meeting and Exposition, August 19-23, 2012, Philadelphia, PA
Manuscript in Adobe format (19 KB)

2012. Wang, Y., He, Z., and Waldrip, H. (2012) Capillary electrophoresis application in metal speciation and complexation characterization. In Capillary electrophoresis: Fundamentals, Techniques and Applications. He, Z. (ed.), Nova Publishers, Hauppage, NY. log number 276900

SWMRU Publications

2012.Bordovsky, J.P., Cranmer, A., Colaizzi, P.D., Lamm, F., Evett, S.R., Howell, T.A. 2012. Investigating strategies to improve crop germination when using SDI. Proceedings of the Central Plains Irrigation Conference. February 21-22,2012, Colby, Kansas. p.117-132.
Manuscript in Adobe format (261 kb).

2012. Casanova, J.J., Evett, S.R., Schwartz, R.C. 2012. Design of access-tube TDR sensor for soil water content: Testing. IEEE Sensors Journal. 12(6):2064-2070.
Manuscript in Adobe format (4 MB).

2012. Casanova, J.J., Evett, S.R., Schwartz, R.C. 2012. Design of access-tube TDR sensor for soil water content: Theory. IEEE Sensors Journal. 12(6):1979-1986.
Manuscript in Adobe format (4 MB).

2012. Chavez, J., Evett, S.R. 2012. Using soil water sensors to improve irrigation management. Proceedings of the Central Plains Irrigation Conference. February 21-22, 2012, Colby, Kansas p. 197-202.
Manuscript in Adobe format (631 kb).

2012. Colaizzi, P. D., S. R. Evett, T. A. Howell, F. Li, W. P. Kustas, and M. C. Anderson. 2012. Radiation model for row crops: I. Geometric view factors and parameter optimization. Agron. J. 104(2): 225-240.
Manuscript in Adobe format (2 MB).

2012. Colaizzi, P. D., R. C. Schwartz, S. R. Evett, T. A. Howell, P. H. Gowda, and J. A. Tolk. 2012. Radiation model for row crops: II. Model evaluation. Agron. J. 104(2): 241-255.
Manuscript in Adobe format (2 MB).

2012.Colaizzi, P.D., Oshaughnessy, S.A., Evett, S.R., Howell, T.A. 2012. Using plant canopy temperature to improve irrigated crop management. Proceedings of the Central Plains Irrigation Conference, February 21-22, 2012, Colby, Kansas. p. 203-223.
Manuscript in Adobe format (410 kb).

2012.Colaizzi, P. D., S. R. Evett, T. A. Howell, P. H. Gowda, S. A. O'Shaughnessy, J. A. Tolk, W. P. Kustas, and M. C. Anderson. 2012. Two-Source Energy Balance Model: Refinements and Lysimeter Tests in the Southern High Plains. Trans. ASABE 55(2): 551-562.
Manuscript in Adobe format (371 kb).

2012. Evett, S.R., R.C. Schwartz, J.J. Casanova, and L.K. Heng. Soil water sensing for water balance, ET and WUE. Agric. Water Manage. 104:1-9.
Manuscript in Adobe format (1,015 kb).

2012. Evett, S.R., R.J. Lascano, T.A. Howell, J.A. Tolk, S.A. O'Shaughnessy, P.D. Colaizzi. 2012. Single- and dual-surface iterative energy balance solutions for reference ET. Trans. ASABE 55(2):533-541.
Manuscript in Adobe format (1 MB).

2012. Hernandez, J.E., P.H. Gowda, T.A. Howell, J.L. Steiner, F. Mojarro, E.P. Nunez, and J.R. Avila. 2012. Modeling groundwater levels in the Calera aquifer region in central Mexico using MODFLOW. Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology B 2:52-61.
Manuscript in Adobe format (682 kb).

2012. Howell, T.A., Evett, S.R., O'Shaughnessy, S.A., Colaizzi, P.D., Gowda, P. 2012. Advanced Irrigation Engineering: Precision and Precise. Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology. A 2(2012)1-9.
Manuscript in Adobe format (4 MB).

2012.Howell, T.A., Oshaughnessy, S.A., Evett, S.R. 2012. Integrating multiple irrigation technologies for overall improvement in irrigation management. Proceedings of the Central Plains Irrigation Conference, February 21-22, 2012, Colby, Kansas. p. 170-186.
Manuscript in Adobe format (2 MB).

2012. Lamm, F.R., Howell, T.A., Bordovsky, J.P. 2012. Erraticity of sprinkler irrigated corn in 2011. Proceedings of the Central Plains Irrigation Conference, February 21-22, 2012, Colby, Kansas. p. 88-101.
Manuscript in Adobe format (450 kb).

2012. Lamm, F.R., Bordovsky, J.P., Schwankl, L.J., Grabow, G.L., Enciso-Medina, J., Peters, T.R., Colaizzi, P.D., Trooien, T.P., Porter, D.0. 2012. Subsurface Drip Irrigation: Status of the Technology in 2010. Transactions of the ASABE. 55(2):483-491.
Manuscript in Adobe format (298 kb).

2012. O'Shaughnessy, S.A., S.R. Evett, P.D. Colaizzi, and T.A. Howell. 2012. Grain sorghum response to irrigation scheduling with the time-temperature threshold method and deficit irrigation levels. Trans. ASABE 55(2):451-461.
Manuscript in Adobe format (1 MB).

2012. Porter, D.O., P.H. Gowda, T.H. Marek, T.A. Howell, J.E. Moorhead, and S. Irmak. 2012. Sensitivity of grass- and alfalfa reference evapotranspiration to weather station sensor accuracy. Applied Engineering in Agriculture, 28(4):543-549.
Manuscript in Adobe format (850 kb).

2012.Samui, P., P.H. Gowda, T. Oommen, T.A. Howell, T.H. Marek, and D.O. Porter. 2012. Statistical learning algorithms for identifying contrasting tillage practices with Landsat Thematic Mapper data. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 33 (18):5732-5745.
Manuscript in Adobe format (355 kb).

2012.Samui, P., Gowda, P., Oommen, T., Howell, T.A., Marek, T.H. 2012. Statistical learning algorithms for identifying contrasting tillage practices with Landsat Thematic Mapper Data. International Journal of Remote Sensing. 33(18):5732-5745.
Manuscript in Adobe format (5 MB).