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Show Lean best uea of irrigation noDr Allowing for variations in soil type and soil fertility, it takes around 5 inches of irrigation water per ton of alfalfa hay "produced in Utah. This water requirement has been noted by USU irrigation engineers studying to closely pinpoint production per unit of water. Greater production per unit means more effective use of irrigation water, says Richard E. Griff in, extension irrigation specialist, Utah State University. This is im -portant when irrigation " water is limited and when costs of pumping water are increasing. As and example, Griffin said, the farmer who finds he is putting on 10 inches of water per ton of alfalfa hay produced will soon realize real-ize that he needs to make some changes in his irrigating. irrigat-ing. Realistically, however, under field conditions with unavoidabe losses, he can't expect to meet the 5 -inch crop requirement with less than about 7 inches of water applied during the season. Much Ipss smnliraHnn Af- ficiency adds to much to the costs. Increasing costs, Griffin believes, are the main motivating force for irrigators to change their practices. As power bills for pumping irrigation water increase, he expects to see more farmers strive to increase in-crease the efficiency of their Irrrigation methods. More will learn how to use effective ef-fective irrigation scheduling. sched-uling. The extension specialist says they will seek understanding under-standing of soil-water -plant relationships so they can schedule irrigation according accord-ing to needs of the crop and to replace the amount of water that has been extracted from the soil. Utah State University Extension Ex-tension Service stands ready to help growers learn and apply the principles and the information that will gain them greatest benefit in use of their irrigation water,. Griffin said. |