Each week Dr. Xin Qiao, and I put out a weekly
crop water use numbers for the Panhandle area crops.
We get these num bers based on what the ET reading is
off an ET reading guage or what our local weather
stations indicate. It is the previous readings based off
the alfalfa crop. From those we take those reading and use
them and convert them to what the other crops
have used based on that crops certain crop growth stage
There's what they call a KC value that we multiple by the ET
number, and we come up with the estimated crop
water use for that crop at that crop growth stage.
Then we take and publish those on various websites
and in various news outlets. One is the panhandle research and extension
center water ag lab web page. You can find it there. You can find it on the UNL Crop Watch
web page each week and other news outlets.
So we want those numbers we put those out so growers can if they want
take those numbers and try to determine how much irrigation water
they would apply. So they would take that estimated
crop water use for the previous week subtract out any
precipitation and any water they may have applied.
then divide it by the estimated efficiency of their pivot and they'll come up with a number
if it is a positive number that would indicate
how much water they would need to apply through
their pivot to make up their difference. if it is a negative number
that would indicate they would not need to add anymore
water they are working on a balance. If they need more
information they can contact me Gary Stone at gstone2@unl.edu.