Economic Advantages of Soil Moisture Probes on the Texas Southern High Plains

Title: Economic Advantages of Soil Moisture Probes on the Texas Southern High Plains

As water resources become more scarce throughout the Southern High Plains, farmers will need to find alternative management methods to achieve profitability. Strategic irrigation management will help ensure producers are irrigating at the right place and at the right time. Soil moisture probes can be an invaluable tool that can help producers know when to irrigate, but the cost of the technology may not be economically profitable.

Since 2005, the Texas Alliance for Water Conservation (TAWC) has worked directly with producers in over nine counties in the Southern High Plains to demonstrate technologies and management practices to support water conservation efforts.  There are over 30 demonstration sites that cover over 5,000 acres representing monoculture, multi-crop, and integrated crop-livestock systems.  Irrigation systems represented on the sites include furrow, Low Energy Precision Application (LEPA), Low Elevation Spray Application (LESA), Mid-Elevation Spray Application (MESA), Subsurface Drip Irrigation (SDI), and dryland.  Producers in the TAWC are provided with soil moisture probes to assist them with their irrigation requirements.

The objective of this project is to determine the amount of water savings and economic advantages of using soil moisture probes on a 125 acre drip irrigated cotton farm in Lubbock, Texas. Budget data will be used from the TAWC along with neutron probe data to analyze the timing and amount of irrigation water applied. The amount of water saved will be calculated in addition to the reduction in cost savings from not pumping. Profitability calculations will include the cost of the neutron probes and the cost of the probe subscription.