IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jagris/v15y2025i2p146-d1564670.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Winter and Season-Only Irrigation with Late Summer Irrigation Termination Influences Alfalfa Dry Matter Yield and Applied Water Use Efficiency

Author

Listed:
  • Leonard M. Lauriault

    (Rex E. Agricultural Science Center, New Mexico State University, Tucumcari, NM 88401, USA)

  • Murali K. Darapuneni

    (Rex E. Agricultural Science Center, New Mexico State University, Tucumcari, NM 88401, USA)

  • Koffi Djaman

    (Agricultural Science Center, New Mexico State University, Farmington, NM 87401, USA)

  • Mark A. Marsalis

    (Agricultural Science Center, New Mexico State University, Los Lunas, NM 87031, USA)

Abstract

Increasing water scarcity for agricultural irrigation demands options to maximize yield with available water. Alfalfa ( Medicago sativa ) is a valuable crop in arid and semiarid regions and is considered a major user of irrigation water. Consequently, an area of established alfalfa was center-pivot-irrigated over two years according to one of four irrigation regimes, each with three replicates as strip plots. These were started after the last of the six harvests of the year, after seeding: winter-irrigated and throughout the growing season (winter full), winter-irrigated and terminated after the 4th harvest (winter limited), irrigated from mid-April, when canal water typically becomes available, and throughout the remainder of the growing season (season full), or typically-irrigated until the 4th harvest (season limited). Annual dry matter yield (DMY) was increased using winter irrigation compared to season-only irrigation (10.34, 8.94, 8.67, and 6.54 Mg ha −1 for winter full, winter limited, season full, and season limited, respectively, p < 0.0001, SEM 0.45). Irrigation termination after the fourth harvest with no winter irrigation significantly reduced annual applied water use efficiency (AAWUE) compared to all other treatments (9.08, 8.59, 8.82, and 7.38 kg DMY ha −1 mm −1 for winter full, winter limited, season full, and season limited, respectively; p < 0.0098, SEM = 0.38). Winter irrigation to fill the soil profile, followed by late summer irrigation termination, is feasible for increasing alfalfa productivity over season-only irrigation.

Suggested Citation

  • Leonard M. Lauriault & Murali K. Darapuneni & Koffi Djaman & Mark A. Marsalis, 2025. "Winter and Season-Only Irrigation with Late Summer Irrigation Termination Influences Alfalfa Dry Matter Yield and Applied Water Use Efficiency," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-14, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:15:y:2025:i:2:p:146-:d:1564670
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/2/146/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/2/146/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:15:y:2025:i:2:p:146-:d:1564670. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.