Growing Corn and Sugar Beets with Feedlot Effluent, Air Injection, and Subsurface Drip Irrigation System in Western Nebraska
Publication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 149, Issue 3
Abstract
As a state with the most irrigated agricultural land in the United States, Nebraska relies on freshwater resources for its irrigation. In addition to these conventional water sources, using nonconventional alternatives for crop production can be important during water shortage times. In this research, effluent from a feedlot lagoon was used as an irrigation water source at a subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) system for corn (C) and sugar beet (SB) production in western Nebraska during the 2019 and 2021 growing seasons. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of air injection on C and SB yield when using feedlot runoff as an irrigation source in a SDI system. Results indicated that air injection treatment (O), compared to noninjection treatment (NO), increased corn yield by 5.50% in the 2019 growing season, yet differences were not significant. During the 2021 growing season, O significantly increased corn yield by 9.17% (). Differences in irrigation water productivity (IWP) of NO () and O () were not significant during the 2019 growing season while significant differences in IWP of NO () and O () were observed during the 2021 growing season (). In sugar beets, no significant difference was observed in crop yield or sucrose yield between O and NO during both growing seasons. Differences in IWP were not significant during the 2019 growing season (NO: , O: ) and 2021 growing season (NO: , O: ).
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Data Availability Statement
All data, programs, and codes used are available upon request from the corresponding author.
Acknowledgments
We greatly appreciate the funding support from Nebraska Environmental Trust for project #19-192. We also want to thank Mr. Les Kampbell, Logan Van Anne, and the summer interns for their help in collecting data and samples for this project. We greatly appreciate the associate editor and two reviewers’ comments that significantly improved this manuscript.
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Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 149 • Issue 3 • March 2023
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© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Apr 27, 2022
Accepted: Nov 9, 2022
Published online: Jan 13, 2023
Published in print: Mar 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Jun 13, 2023
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