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Show UJQtor prooroiii aide irrignf ion Aepotdlng to charts which have been prepared showing accumulated water use by plants, the number of days . this moisture will last can be deter mined In addition, the amount of water that must be added to bring the soil back to field capacity can also be determined. Results of this year's studies now a wide range . of application efelciencles. Wheel move sprinkler efficiencies ef-ficiencies varied from 30 to . 80 of the water being uniformly uni-formly applied, strong winds and over application were major factors for the lower efficiencies. Also part of the water management program is a suggestion to have the soil near field capacity going into in-to winter if possible. The moisture will aid plants in withstanding the stress of winter. The soil tends to remain somewhat warmer with this added water, thus creating a more favorable favor-able environment for plant roots. This practice will also help to provide water to plants in the drying months before the first irrigation, ensuring that the crops will get a good start early In the ! season. - j i The Soil Conservation Service in Beaver has been working on an irrigation water management program this past summer. The first objective of the water management program is to adjust irrigation schedules sched-ules so that the water applied ap-plied does not greatly exceed ex-ceed what the soil can hold at any given time. Excess Ex-cess water percolates down below the root zone and will be lost for plant use. There is a large potential to save water, as well as nutrients nu-trients and power costs associated as-sociated with pumping, especially es-pecially during non peak use periods, by scheduling irrigations irri-gations to fit the consumptive use of the crop. The second objective of water management is to irrigate ir-rigate before the plants are stressed, or when 40 to 50 of the available water has been withdrawn. Again it is important to add only enough water to bring the soil back to its field capacity. The SCS has a few tools to aid in the evaluation of moisture content in the soli. Perhaps the most useful and versatile tool is a punch type auger. The auger is used to-take to-take samples at different depths in the soil profile. The moisture percentage can be determined fairly accurately ac-curately by a simple feel and appearance method, i. - -- |