The Arkansas Irrigation Scheduler

In the US Mid-South, annual rainfall is generally sufficient for limited crop production, but periods of drought during the growing season make irrigation essential for optimum yields. However, factors such as cloudy weather, rainfall, and temperature swings caused by the movement of weather fronts all complicate irrigation scheduling. The Arkansas Irrigation Scheduler has been in use for over twenty years in Arkansas and surrounding states, with the current version released in 2008. The current version retains most of the objectives of the earlier versions, with the exception of being field-, rather than system-based, allowing users to view the soil water status of more of their fields at one time and group the fields as they feel most appropriate. Other changes made the program easier to learn, allowed the user to take advantage of more extensive weather data if it is available, and made the program applicable to more areas than before. Crop coefficient functions developed in the region are needed, but are not currently available. Future versions of the program may be limited to the internet, but no internet version is currently available for public use. In addition to improving yields, using the program to properly schedule irrigation can save energy and therefore money by reducing unnecessary pumping, and help to alleviate water shortages being experienced in many agricultural areas.