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ARS Home » Plains Area » Lubbock, Texas » Cropping Systems Research Laboratory » Plant Stress and Germplasm Development Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #115497
Title: DEVELOPMENT OF BIOTIC TO AUTOMATE DRIP IRRIGATION SYSTEMS

Author
item Mahan, James
item WALLACE, ELIZABETH - WESTERN STATE OK UNIV
item BANKS, J - OK STATE UNIV
item Burke, John
item Upchurch, Dan
item Wanjura, Donald

Submitted to: National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/1/2000
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: The Biological Identified Optimum Temperature Interactive Console (BIOTIC) is an irrigation scheduling method developed by the USDA/ARS in Lubbock, TX. The method has been extensively tested under experimental conditions and has been issued a U.S. patent. This multi-year field test of BIOTIC was initiated by a research partnership in a cooperative project funded by the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology to evaluate BIOTIC in a production environment and field studies were carried out in 1998 and 1999. Since in-season rainfall in both years was virtually nonexistent, irrigation signals were generated almost daily during the growing seasons. These results demonstrate the system to be reliable and capable of providing irrigation scheduling at least 99% of the time during a growing season. The device was maintained in the field by non-technical personnel with minimum onsite time required. It is concluded that BIOTIC can be used effectively in a production agricultural setting.

Technical Abstract: The Biological Identified Optimum Temperature Interactive Console (BIOTIC) is an irrigation scheduling method developed by the USDA/ARS in Lubbock, TX. The method has been extensively tested under experimental conditions and has been issued a U.S. patent. A multi-year field test of BIOTIC was initiated by a research partnership in a cooperative project funded by the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology. The purpos of the study is to evaluate BIOTIC in a production environment and field studies were carried out in 1998 and 1999. In both years irrigation signals have been generated almost daily during the growing season (77 of 87 in 1998 and 72 of 86 in 1999). The absence of significant in-season rainfall made for essentially complete reliance on irrigation. In both years the dates for which irrigations were not indicated were correlated with periods of low air temperatures. Rainfall events did not result in missed irrigation signals. In both years the system proved to be reliable providing irrigation scheduling at least 99% of the time and was maintained in the field by non-technical personnel with minimum onsite time required.