Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID UT_2023_Barker

Forage crop water use under subsurface drip irrigation in Utah

Institute: Utah
Year Established: 2023 Start Date: 2023-09-01 End Date: 2024-08-31
Total Federal Funds: $34,310 Total Non-Federal Funds: $40,090

Principal Investigators: Burdette Barker

Project Summary: Utah is in an ongoing drought, and Utah farmers and policymakers are looking at ways to use less irrigation water to grow crops. One possible way to do this is to water with subsurface drip irrigation (SDI), which involves burying drip irrigation lines under the ground. Very little research has been done in Utah and the surrounding areas on this type of irrigation, particularly for hay and pasture crops that are grown on most of Utah’s agricultural lands. We propose to collect data that quantifies crop evapotranspiration (the combined plant transpiration and evaporation from the soil) and other irrigation water uses in SDI fields and nearby sprinkler-irrigated fields to show a direct comparison between these methods. We also propose to collect data showing how well SDI irrigation performs to guide future SDI design for hay and pasture crops in Utah and the Intermountain Region.