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Meet the Speakers
About this Session
Informing Future Irrigation Strategies Using Drought Status, Hydrological Conditions And Historical Rainfall Patterns
Presented by: Dr. Stacia L. Davis Conger, Assistant Professor, State Irrigation Specialist, LSU AgCenter
Louisiana is prone to naturally high rainfall variability and extreme weather conditions. The objective of this project was to develop more informed irrigation strategies using statistical regionalization of historical rainfall patterns, current drought status, and current hydrological conditions of water sources used for irrigation purposes. Results from the regionalization model showed that there are two distinct regions, representing North and South Louisiana, with differences occurring only during the irrigation months of June, July, and August. Combined with drought status and hydrological conditions, a webtool that notifies irrigators of recommended schedule adjustments was developed.
How To Use Technology To Gain Efficiency In Irrigation
Presented by: Nathan Holmes, Missouri Farmer
Lifelong farming experience in the mid-South has shown that irrigation takes more time and effort than is available in any given crop season. Though product costs may remain mostly stable, variable costs associated with time and effort can quickly overtake profitability of that crop season. A possible solution for minimizing these costs is to retrofit pumps with automated pump control (APC) technology. During this talk, Holmes will provide an overview of APC and how he has implemented this technology on his own farm. He will then explore alternative farm scenarios to establish a range of expected cost savings as well as water savings estimates attributed to using APC.
Nathan Holmes holds a B.S. in Agribusiness from Southeast Missouri State University and was raised on a Missouri farm where he began growing some crops as early as age 15. In addition to the family farm operation, he owns and operates Bold Cypress, LLC through which he has designed, developed, and now sells an automated pump control product called PumpTrakr.