Agricultural Irrigation

With irrigation season winding down, your final decisions are some of the most important — see how these growers are managing their schedules to prepare for harvest.

Ready to stretch your irrigation dollar farther while setting your soil up for next season? A smarter late season strategy taps into your field’s remaining stored water — save on costs, protect yields, and make room for offseason rain. Here’s how to do it right.

The CropWatch Weekly Irrigation Newsletter now includes a new feature: a short video series demonstrating weekly irrigation scheduling in real time.

In 2024, Nebraska Extension launched the Weekly Irrigation Newsletter to share timely insights on irrigation decisions, featuring three growers located in Nebraska. Due to the positive feedback, we are continuing the program in 2025. In each of their corn fields, we installed a set of three Watermark (Irrometer) sensors at 1-, 2-, and 3-foot soil depths to track soil moisture throughout the growing season. A rain gauge was also installed to monitor both rainfall and irrigation events. These instruments are connected to an IC-10 datalogger (Irrometer), which records data at one-hour intervals. With a telemetry system in place, the data is transmitted remotely, allowing for timely irrigation decisions.

Forages vary greatly in water-use efficiency, defined as pounds of forage produced per inch of water applied. In general, warm-season (C-4) forage crops are more water-use efficient than cool-season (C-3) crops. Further, annual forages use water more efficiently than perennial forages. So, legumes — like alfalfa — tend to be less water efficient than grasses.

In April 2025, we launched the first version of our mobile irrigation management app, PLAN. At the time of release, we promised that an irrigation scheduling tool would be made available, specifically designed for producers who don't have access to soil moisture probes. We're thrilled to announce that this scheduling feature is now live and ready for use by all Nebraska producers. This CropWatch article provides a comprehensive, step-by-step guide to help you navigate this new tool within the app.

Cutting irrigation doesn’t have to cut yield — as groundwater allocations take effect, 2024 field data show high corn yields are achievable within new NRD limits. Now’s the time to adopt proven scheduling tools and strategies to make every inch count.

Your crop is talking. Crop ET helps you listen. Use crop evapotranspiration to know when and how much to irrigate.

Results from a series of UNL field trials in 2024 that compared traditional irrigation practices with data-driven scheduling tools highlight the potential for smarter irrigation to boost sustainability and reduce costs on the farm.

Advanced tools like soil moisture sensors, variable rate irrigation, and precision nitrogen management are driving gains in input efficiency and on-farm profitability.

Unlock real-time, in-field decision-making with UNL's new PLAN mobile app — bringing irrigation insights, crop water use and weather data straight to your fingertips.

With unrelenting drought this growing season, early preparation of irrigation systems and the right scheduling tools could be the difference between high yields and costly water stress.