Research of test plots, diverse company products and eight farmers’ input helped a private researcher and consultant to determine cotton farmers need more information about how specific varieties perform under various levels of water availability, reports Southwest Farm Press.
“We ought to know how much water it will take to make one bale of cotton with a specific variety and how much and when to apply it and how much moisture we have in the profile. We don’t always know that,” says Bob Glodt, president of Agri-Search in Plainview.
Yields are the benchmarks.
“We want to determine how much 1 inch of water or 2 inches of water buys in yield,” Glodt said.
Some varieties do not take advantage of increased irrigation.
“That was an eye-opener. When we irrigate, that comes out of our back pocket as opposed to free irrigation, rainfall. Not all varieties are created equal in response to increased water. And not all varieties respond the same to lower water regimes.”
Cotton farmers need to look at several factors to determine when and how much to irrigate. Variety selection is one of those factors. Tools to help growers are the Texas Alliance for Water Conservation’s (TAWC) potential evapotranspiration (PET) data found at www.tawcsolutions.org and Texas Tech Mesonet data.