Simulating Dryland Water Availability and Spring Wheat Production in the Northern Great Plains

Autor: Zhiming Qi, Lajpat R. Ahuja, Andrew W. Lenssen, Liwang Ma, Robert G. Evans, Brett L. Allen, Jalal D. Jabro, P.N.S. Bartling, William M. Iversen
Rok vydání: 2013
Předmět:
Zdroj: Agronomy Journal. 105:37-50
ISSN: 1435-0645
0002-1962
DOI: 10.2134/agronj2012.0203
Popis: Published in Agron. J. 105:37–50 (2013) doi:10.2134/agronj2012.0203 Copyright © 2013 by the American Society of Agronomy, 5585 Guilford Road, Madison, WI 53711. All rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. S wheat (Triticum aestivum L., excluding durum wheat) was harvested on 5.35 million ha of croplands in the United States in 2011, with 89.1% occurring in the northern Great Plains (NGP) states including North Dakota, Montana, Minnesota, and South Dakota. Montana had the highest percentage of spring wheat acreage (31.3%) among all spring wheat production states (National Agricultural Statistics Service, 2011a). Th e 2007 Census of Agriculture showed that about half of the spring wheat acreage in Montana was under a continuous spring wheat production system, while the other half was in a 2-yr spring wheat–fallow system. Most of this spring wheat area (95.4%) was rainfed (National Agricultural Statistics Service, 2007). Th e lack of available water for crop growth is the primary factor aff ecting dryland spring wheat production in the NGP. A spring wheat yield trial conducted at Sidney, MT, with >70 cultivars during 2005 to 2009 showed that the yield of dryland wheat was about 30% less than that of the irrigated crop (J. Eckoff , personal communication, 2010). Brown et al. (1981) reported that spring wheat yield increased 135 kg ha–1 with every centimeter increase in plant water use in Montana and North Dakota. A similar relationship between spring wheat yield and plant-available water was also found in the inland Pacifi c Northwest (Schillinger et al., 2008). Winter wheat yields in the central Great Plains increased by 141 kg ha–1 for every centimeter increase in plant-available water in the soil at planting (Nielsen et al., 2002) and by 125 kg ha–1 for every centimeter of water uptake aft er 13 cm of water use (Nielsen et al., 2011). Various management strategies have been proposed and applied to cope with soil water shortage for dryland spring wheat production in the NGP, including no-till and reduced tillage with residue mulching and crop rotations. Fenster (1973) reported that the soil water storage effi ciency increased from 16 to 31% in Montana by adding surface residue cover during summer fallow. Nielsen and Vigil (2010) reported that precipitation storage effi ciency during the fallow period of a winter wheat–fallow system increased from 20% with conventional tillage fallow management to 35% for no-till management in Colorado. In general, a higher percentage of residue cover would lead to higher soil water storage (Tanaka and Aase, 1987). Lenssen et al. (2007) documented that zero tillage oft en provided higher soil water content at planting; however, Deibert et al. (1986) found that a diff erence in water storage between no-till and tilled fi eld in North Dakota was not evident ABSTRACT
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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