Skip to main content
ARS Home » Southeast Area » Dawson, Georgia » National Peanut Research Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #371738
Research Project: Enhanced Sustainable Peanut-based Cropping Systems

Location: National Peanut Research Laboratory

Title: Irrigator Pro: progression of a peanut irrigation scheduling decision support system

Author
item Butts, Christopher - Chris
item Sorensen, Ronald - Ron
item Lamb, Marshall

Submitted to: Applied Engineering in Agriculture
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/9/2020
Publication Date: 10/27/2020
Citation: Butts, C.L., Sorensen, R.B., Lamb, M.C. 2020. Irrigator Pro: progression of a peanut irrigation scheduling decision support system. Applied Engineering in Agriculture. 36(5): 785-795. https://doi.org/10.13031/aea.13909.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.13031/aea.13909

Interpretive Summary: Irrigator Pro is a decision support tool for scheduling irrigation in peanut. It was released in 1995 as a rule-based expert system called EXNUT, using crop history, yield potential, soil type in addition to in-season irrigation/rainfall and maximum/minimum soil temperature. When it was originally released, it also provided recommendations for fungicide applications, and alerts to scout for either high or low temperature pests depending on field conditions. As computing platforms have progressed from desktop personal computers to mobile web-based platforms, Irrigator Pro has been updated and is now deployed as a web-based program and an application for mobile devices. The current version of Irrigator Pro is limited to irrigation scheduling only. The irrigation decisions are now based on in-field soil water potential measurements in addition to the traditional checkbook with max/min soil temperatures. Users are individual growers, extension agents, and agronomic consultants.

Technical Abstract: Irrigator Pro is a decision support tool for scheduling irrigation events in peanut. It was deployed in 1995 as a rule-based system using crop history, yield potential, soil type, in-season irrigation/rainfall and maximum/minimum soil temperature. As computing platforms have progressed from desktop personal computers to mobile web-based platforms, Irrigator Pro has been updated and is now deployed as a web-based program and an application for mobile devices. Irrigator Pro not only works for peanuts but has been modified to irrigate both corn and cotton. The irrigation decisions are now based on in-field soil water potential measurements in addition to the traditional checkbook with max/min soil temperatures. Users are individual growers, extension agents, and agronomic consultants. The objective of this manuscript is to document the initial development of Irrigator Pro as an expert system combining data and experiential knowledge and the progression from a checkbook-based decision support system to a hybrid system using observed weather data and soil moisture measurement. The background knowledge, equations, and thresholds for triggering irrigation recommendations are included.