Woburn irrigation, 1960–8:IV. Design and interpretation

Summary

Results are given for a second period of 9 years, 6 on the pattern of 1951–9, with the last 3 years used for ad hoc management experiments. The meteorological specification of a year of ‘irrigation need’ was satisfied in 4 years: there were good responses in 5 years. During the first 6 years, out of twenty-four sets of crop yields (from eight different crops), very good responses were obtained on nine, good responses on eight, and zero or very slightly negative responses on the other seven.

A general theory of the inter-relationships of growth and water, and of growth and radiation, leads to an expression

k = 39ε t ha⁻¹ cm⁻¹,

as the maximum possible response to irrigation in terms of total dry matter produced, where ɛ is the fraction of solar radiation fixed by the crop (ɛ has a range 50–100 × 10⁻⁴ for good to very good farming) when irrigation is needed. The ‘need’ is defined through

Y = k(E_T + D_e − D_m),

where Y is the yield, E_T is the total potential evaporation, D_e is a limiting deficit up to which there is no check to growth, and beyond there is no growth, and D_m is the maximum deficit experienced by the crop at the time of measuring Y. The agronomic object of the experiments is to determine D_e, i.e. what reserve of soil water can be used by the crop before irrigation is necessary.