Subsurface Drip Irrigation Isn’t Rocket Science – But It Requires Management
With drought gripping much of the Great Plains and western states, and with groundwater reserves declining and water regulations increasing, growers and their CCAs are finding ways to get more crop per drop with precision irrigation.
Starting in 1993, CCA Bill Cox, agricultural consultant at CoxCo Ag Services in Las Cruces, NM, has helped his clients convert thousands of acres of center-pivot irrigation to the more water-efficient subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) systems, in which buried drip lines below the soil surface deliver water and nutrients directly to the plant’s root zone with minimal losses to surface evaporation or deep percolation.
With SDI, Cox’s growers are able to sharply reduce waste compared with other irrigation systems like furrow and center-pivot irrigation. That enables his growers to put more water to use for crop production, he says. But don’t confuse water use efficiency with water conservation, Cox stresses. The goal isn’t necessarily to use less water, but to get more production with the water that you have.
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Yesterday – July 10, 2014 – 
On Friday, July 25, 2014 at 1:00PM (Pacific Time), the Grange Network will be hosting a 60-minute, FREE webinar to discuss how irrigation uniformity and management affect plant health. Keith Backman, Consultant Manager of Dellavalle Laboratory will lead the discussion.
The use of flood and center pivot irrigation of crops via the waters of the Ogallala Aquifer is as hot a discussion topic as the current drought.
At Toro, we recently added 
Alfalfa growers may be encouraged to take a fresh look at 
We are excited to announce the latest upgrade to our popular AquaFlow