Agronomic and economic evaluation of irrigation strategies on cotton lint yield in Australia

2012 ◽  
Vol 63 (7) ◽  
pp. 647 ◽  
Author(s):  
Davide Cammarano ◽  
José Payero ◽  
Bruno Basso ◽  
Paul Wilkens ◽  
Peter Grace

Cotton is one of the most important irrigated crops in subtropical Australia. In recent years, cotton production has been severely affected by the worst drought in recorded history, with the 2007–08 growing season recording the lowest average cotton yield in 30 years. The use of a crop simulation model to simulate the long-term temporal distribution of cotton yields under different levels of irrigation and the marginal value for each unit of water applied is important in determining the economic feasibility of current irrigation practices. The objectives of this study were to: (i) evaluate the CROPGRO-Cotton simulation model for studying crop growth under deficit irrigation scenarios across ten locations in New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland (Qld); (ii) evaluate agronomic and economic responses to water inputs across the ten locations; and (iii) determine the economically optimal irrigation level. The CROPGRO-Cotton simulation model was evaluated using 2 years of experimental data collected at Kingsthorpe, Qld The model was further evaluated using data from nine locations between northern NSW and southern Qld. Long-term simulations were based on the prevalent furrow-irrigation practice of refilling the soil profile when the plant-available soil water content is <50%. The model closely estimated lint yield for all locations evaluated. Our results showed that the amounts of water needed to maximise profit and maximise yield are different, which has economic and environmental implications. Irrigation needed to maximise profits varied with both agronomic and economic factors, which can be quite variable with season and location. Therefore, better tools and information that consider the agronomic and economic implications of irrigation decisions need to be developed and made available to growers.

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 943-954
Author(s):  
Blessing Masasi ◽  
Saleh Taghvaeian ◽  
Prasanna H Gowda ◽  
Daniel N Moriasi ◽  
Patrick J Starks

HighlightsWater availability challenges have increased interest in cotton production in Oklahoma.An attempt was made to understand the feasibility of growing cotton in all counties of Oklahoma.Many areas in Oklahoma have sufficient thermal conditions for cotton production.Potential cotton lint yields generally increase from northern to southern areas of the state.Abstract. With the expansion of planted area, Oklahoma is increasingly becoming a major cotton producing state in the United States (U.S.). However, the feasibility of growing cotton in all counties of Oklahoma has not been determined. In this study, a heat unit based model was used to estimate the potential cotton lint yields (PCLYs) for all 77 counties of Oklahoma using 38 years (1981-2018) of air temperature data. PCLYs were estimated for optimal (no stress) conditions. The long-term total heat units (THUs) were more than 1000°C·d in 99% of counties, an indication that many areas in Oklahoma may have conducive thermal conditions for cotton production in most years. Similar to the THUs, the PCLYs generally increased from the northern to the southern counties of the state, and long-term averages ranged from 407 to 2472 kg ha-1. About 97% of the counties achieved long-term average PCLYs of at least 1000 kg ha-1. However, the results showed significant interannual variability of the estimated PCLYs in each county over the 38-year period. Low and high PCLYs mostly coincided with years characterized by cool and warm growing seasons, respectively. Reductions of PCLY ranging from 6% to 29% were observed when planting was delayed by just one week from the optimized planting date. This indicates that cotton producers need to carefully consider planting date to maximize cotton lint yield. As THUs were the only factor considered for calculating PCLYs in this study, future research should incorporate other variables such as rainfall and heat stress to improve PCLY estimations. Keywords: Air temperature, Planting date, Soil temperature, Yield gap, Yield variability.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pengcheng LI ◽  
Shulin WANG ◽  
Hong QI ◽  
Yan WANG ◽  
Qian ZHANG ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Long-term rotary tillage has led to the deterioration of cotton production in northern China. This deterioration is due to the disturbance of topsoil, a dense plough pan at the 20–50 cm depth, and the decreased water storage capacity. A 2-yr field experiment was performed from 2014 to 2015 to explore a feasible soil tillage approach to halting the deterioration. The experiment consisted of four treatments: replacing the topsoil from the 0–15 cm layer with the subsoil from the 15–30 cm layer (T1); replacing the topsoil from the 0–20 cm layer with the subsoil from the 20–40 cm layer and subsoiling at the 40–55 cm layer (T2); replacing the topsoil from the 0–20 cm layer with the subsoil from the 20–40 cm layer and subsoiling at the 40–70 cm layer (T3); and conventional surface rotary tillage within 15 cm as the control (CK). Results The results indicated that the soil bulk densities at the 20–40 cm layer in T2 were 0.13 g·cm− 3 and 0.15 g·cm− 3 lower than those obtained from CK in 2014 and 2015, respectively. The total nitrogen (N) and the available phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) contents from the 20–40 cm layer in T2 and T3 were significantly higher than those in CK and T1. The amount of soil water stored in the 0–40 cm layer of T2 at the squaring stage of cotton was 15.3 mm and 13.4 mm greater than that in CK in 2014 and 2015, respectively, when the weather was dry. Compared with CK, T2 increased cotton lint yield by 6.1 and 10.2 percentage points in 2014 and 2015, respectively, which was due to the improved roots within the 20–60 cm layer, the greater number of bolls per plant and the higher boll weight in the T2 treatment. Conclusions The results suggested that soil replacement plus subsoiling would be a good alternative to current practices in order to break through the bottleneck constraining cotton production in northern China. Replacing the topsoil in the 0–20 cm layer with the soil from the 20–40 cm layer plus subsoiling at the 40–55 cm layer would be the most effective method.


Agronomy ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 834 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongyun Gao ◽  
Hui Ma ◽  
Aziz Khan ◽  
Jun Xia ◽  
Xianzhe Hao ◽  
...  

Due to the changing climate, frequent episodes of drought have threatened cotton lint yield by offsetting their physiological and biochemical functioning. An efficient use of irrigation water can help to produce more crops per drop in cotton production systems. We assume that an optimal drip irrigation with low mepiquat chloride application could increase water productivity (WP) and maintain lint yields by enhancing leaf functional characteristics. A 2-year field experiment determines the response of irrigation regimes (600 (W1), 540 (W2), 480 (W3), 420 (W4) 360 (W5) m3 ha−1) on cotton growth, photosynthesis, fiber quality, biomass accumulation and yield. Mepiquat chloride was sprayed in different concentration at various growth phases (see material section). Result showed that W1 increased leaf area index (LAI) by 5.3–36.0%, net photosynthetic rate (Pn) by 3.4–23.2%, chlorophyll content (Chl) by 1.3–12.0% than other treatments. Improvements in these attributes led to higher lint yield. However, no differences were observed between W1 and W2 in terms of lint and seed cotton yield, but W2 increased WP by 3.7% in both years. Compared with other counterparts, W2 had the largest LAI (4.3–32.1%) at the full boll stage and prolonged reproductive organ biomass (ROB) accumulation by 30–35 d during the fast accumulation period (FAP). LAI, the average (VT) and maximum (VM) biomass accumulation rates of ROB were positively correlated with lint yield. In conclusion, the drip irrigation level of 540–600 m3 ha−1 with reduced MC application is a good strategy to achieve higher WP and lint yield by improving leaf photosynthetic traits and more reproductive organ biomass accumulation.


2017 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 599-601
Author(s):  
Dan Paul Stefanescu ◽  
Oana Roxana Chivu ◽  
Claudiu Babis ◽  
Augustin Semenescu ◽  
Alina Gligor

Any economic activity carried out by an organization, can generate a wide range of environmental implications. Particularly important, must be considered the activities that have a significant negative effect on the environment, meaning those which pollute. Being known the harmful effects of pollution on the human health, the paper presents two models of utmost importance, one of the material environment-economy interactions balance and the other of the material flows between environmental factors and socio-economic activities. The study of these models enable specific conditions that must be satisfied for the economic processes friendly coexist to the environment for long term, meaning to have a minimal impact in that the residues resulting from the economic activity of the organization to be as less harmful to the environment.


1986 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 140 ◽  
Author(s):  
BH Downing

Examination of data on dietary preferences of sheep, goats and cattle suggests that different grazing systems are desirable for each of the three major woodland types (belah-rosewood, mulga, poplar box) examined. Competition for herbs, frequently palatable to all animal species, indicates that goats and sheep are unsuitable for joint use either in heavily wooded country or where annual herbaceous production is less than 200 kg-ha. Supplementary feeding, fire and judicious stocking are proposed as a strategy for inducing goats to eat a proportion of unpalatable shrubs. The literature provides little helpful information on how rangelands in the Western Division should be managed. No reports are given on comparisons of grazing systems, such as rotational grazing, rotational resting, and continuous grazing. No guidance is given on grazing after burning of the rangeland. Recommendations are generally against the use of goats for control of woody plants, whereas local observation shows this to be an apparently effective practice. The recommendations are mostly based on experimental procedures which, although suitable for detecting animal dietary preferences in the short term, are less appropriate for investigation of the effects of grazing on range condition in the long term. Some suggestions are made towards a different approach for: investigating the effects of grazing by sheep and goats on rangeland condition, and the economic implications of this in terms of animal production.


1998 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 239-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim A. Dowd ◽  
Ralph M. Monaco ◽  
Jeffry J. Janoska

1986 ◽  
Vol 78 (3) ◽  
pp. 534-538 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. L. Kittock ◽  
R. A. Selley ◽  
C. J. Cain ◽  
B. B. Taylor

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