Water News Archive

Tall fescue tolerates dry periods better than KBG due to a deeper root system that uses moisture deeper in the soil. However, it does not have the physiological ability to go dormant to avoid dying from drought. If tall fescue begins to turn off color from a lack of water, it requires irrigation.

Warm summer temperatures prompt vegetable crops to grow and thrive. Keeping garden vegetable crops hydrated is crucial for these plants thriving as water is essential to the photosynthesis process, plant growth, and production. When water availability is reduced, carbohydrate production in the plant, the building block of plant nutrition, decreases significantly. That decrease leads to reduced growth, vigor, and crop production potential. Here are some very simple tips to help provide the needed moisture levels in vegetable and fruit crops.

Drought-stressed Crops and Yield Potential

Drought is a common occurrence in Nebraska. The UNL Beef Drought Management Planning page is designed to help beef producers design a drought management plan and to provide ideas to consider before and during a drought.

The key to knowing the correct setting for a chemigation pump is to first determine how many acres per hour the pivot will cover at the desired irrigation application depth or rate.

Every month the UNL Animal Manure Management Team produces graphics on the benefits of manure application and manure best practices and we want your help sharing them. The graphics are for educational purposes and for use by the public. Oftentimes the graphics we create include a link to an article featured on the UNL manure website, manure.unl.edu.

The estimated crop water use for Nebraska Panhandle crops for the previous week and the upcoming week is shown in this table. It is based on data gathered and calculations made by Gary Stone, Nebraska Extension educator, and Dr. Xin Qiao, extension irrigation and water management specialist, both based at the UNL Panhandle Research and Extension Center in Scottsbluff.

Study Reviews Farmer Irrigation Scheduling Tendencies in Dry Years.

Weekly Weather Update: June 8, 2023

Estimated Crop Water Use for June 5-11, 2023

Featuring the Republican River, which holds the record for the worst flood in Nebraska history.

Part 3 of the Nebraska Rivers series focuses on the Loup River drainage system, which originates in the Sandhills.

Water is life! In Nebraska, approximately 85 percent of people receive their drinking water from groundwater resources. This includes individual homeowners living in suburban and rural areas, as well as the majority of towns and cities across the state. Because of Nebraska’s relative wealth of groundwater resources, we often tend to overlook the vital role water plays in the everyday lives of Nebraskans and our state as a whole.

One of the most important factors in getting plants off to a good start is watering. Overall, the best guidance is to water to the bottom of the roots and to keep the roots of new plants moist, not soggy or dry. Inserting a screwdriver into the soil will help with determining the moisture content by gaining a sense required to push it in and also to feel the soil particles that stick to the blade. If they feel muddy, then water is likely being applied too often; if it’s dry and powdery, then it needs to be applied more frequently.

Part 2 of a six-part series that will cover the major rivers and their respective drainages found in Nebraska, with some geography and history about Nebraska’s rivers.

This year’s 4Rs Field Day will focus on up-to-date research information and demonstrations on all three major crop nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

The Soil Health Nexus is excited to debut two new resources on the Soil Health Toolbox! Two Soil Health Nexus members, Francisco Arriaga, Associate Professor and Extension Specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Anna Cates, Assistant Professor and State Soil Health Specialist at the University of Minnesota, recently published a long-awaited whitepaper exploring the connection between soil health and water quality.

Extension recommendations for calculating the amount of nitrate-nitrogen in irrigation water and optimal timing of applications to reduce the cost of nitrogen inputs in irrigated corn.

Industry experts shared snowpack/snowmelt runoff estimates for the upper North Platte River basin, updates on UNL irrigation management research and progress on replacing the Goshen/Gering-Ft Laramie tunnels that collapsed in 2019.

This new series by Nebraska Extension Educator Gary Stone highlights the main rivers in Nebraska and their impacts across the Midwest and Northern Plains. Part 1 of a six-part series that will cover the major rivers and their respective drainages found in Nebraska, with some geography and history about Nebraska’s rivers.