Water News Archive

As the growing season draws to an end and we put away our gardening equipment, it’s also important to store any remaining pesticide products properly to prevent contamination and maintain product effectiveness for next year. But even more important, being careless with pesticide storage is an open invitation to disaster, in the form of a pesticide poisoning or spill which could contamination ground or surface water.

Cover crops are a proven method for increasing soil health by reducing soil erosion, increasing soil organic matter, and improving soil structure. Cover crops also have the potential to positively impact water quality by reducing nitrate leaching and nutrient runoff. While cover crops are growing in popularity in Nebraska, there are significant planting challenges. To address these challenges, interseeding has been proposed as an alternative planting method to increase cover crop success.

Irrigation decisions in the Testing Ag Performance Solutions (TAPS) farm management competitions ranged widely this year, even amid a drought throughout the region. According to rainfall gauges located near the TAPS fields, 8.92 inches of rainfall was collected from May 1 to Sept. 30, 2022. The following is a brief summary of the irrigation decisions made in each competition this year.

Chicken, Beef, Swine and Dairy are all manures. All are valuable, but are they equal? Absolutely not. I could rank them by smell, another by their nutrient content, another by proximity to them, and yet someone else could separate them for their ability to influence soil health charateristics. This article will discuss a little about the different kinds of manure and explain why not all of this valuable product is created equal.

At the end of the season, a nitrate test can help determine whether the crop was under-, adequately or over-fertilized with nitrogen, resulting in the potential to significantly reduce input costs.

With the two consecutive dry seasons in 2021 and 2022, there is likely a considerable amount of unused nitrogen left in the soil, which could be used for the 2023 crop. With the higher fertilizer prices, such fertility adjustments for next crop can be profitable as well as environment friendly. So, it is recommended to test your soil and account for all sources of nutrients for the next crop.

Currently, most of the state is in at least a moderate drought, with many areas affected by severe, extreme, and even exceptional drought conditions. The Farmer’s almanac is calling for a cold, dry winter, again, so moving into that with drought conditions already could be devastating to our plants.

The 2022 Platte River Basin Conference and 3rd Playa Research Symposium will be held Monday, October 24th to Thursday, October 27th at the Younes Conference Center in Kearney, Nebraska. Join leaders from Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, and beyond to discuss the interrelated perspectives needed to create vibrant, resilient solutions for the future of the people and wildlife who depend on the Platte River Basin. Conference topics include:

Factors such as the amount of water a soil can hold, the amount of water a crop will use until it reaches maturity, and the maximum allowable soil water depletion should be considered when deciding the last few irrigations of the season.

Do you have questions about your private drinking water supply?  How about wellhead protection, including the management of your private sewage treatment system?  Send your questions by clicking on the ‘Email Us’ feature in the lower right corner on this web page.  Questions will be addressed by Nebraska Statewide Extension Associate for Domestic Water & Wastewater, Becky Schuerman and/or other Extension Water Team Staff.

Part 5 of a six-part series on the dams, reservoirs, power generation and some diversion dams located on the North Platte River. The series will follow a chronological order of the history and construction of these projects.

Phosphorous is an essential plant nutrient. Phosphorous can also lead to impaired water quality in surface water like lakes and ponds. Applying phosphorous responsibly is important to turfgrass growth and to water ecosystems.

Part 4 of a six-part series on the dams, reservoirs, power generation and some diversion dams located on the North Platte River. The series will follow a chronological order of the history and construction of these projects.

With silage harvest coming up quickly, manure application will soon follow. Because silage is often the first crop to come off the field, it allows for earlier manure application and thus an earlier cleanout of pens before winter. As that manure application plan develops, include best stewardship practices for optimum rates and preferred application methods in final decisions.

The first dam and reservoir on the North Platte River after it enters from Colorado is Seminoe. Seminoe dam is part of the Kendrick Project intended to generate hydropower and expand irrigation in central Wyoming. The project, called the Casper-Alcova Project, was authorized in 1933 under the National Recovery Act during the Great Depression. The project was renamed the Kendrick Project in 1937. The Kendrick Project also includes the Alcova dam, reservoir and the Casper-Alcova Canal.

All lawn sprinkler systems, whether they are in-ground or above ground, have flaws.  Some of the biggest are gaps and overlaps. Actually, a well designed irrigation system, or the use of above ground spray heads utilizes overlaps in the form of “head-to-head coverage”.  This involves water from one head spraying all the way to the adjacent head and vice versa.  Since twice as much water is applied near the head as is at the end of the water stream, an even amount is applied if the system has good head-to-head coverage.

Leading into the sixth year of appropriation shortfalls, Nebraska Mesonet weather stations that are not contracted specifically by clients are slotted for closure to cut costs and reduce labor overhead.

The main barriers to adoption of new technologies in irrigation include cost and ease of use. These scientific methods need to be cost-effective and feasible for farmers to adopt. Today, using soil water monitoring equipment provides the most effective method for farmers to make data-driven irrigation scheduling decisions to apply the minimal amount of water while achieving optimal yields. However, the costs in labor and equipment limit their use. So, research continues to focus on developing lower-cost methods to schedule irrigation that results in putting on just the right amount of water. Since producers do not have time to do detailed work with large amounts of data often generated using SIS methods, the automation of SIS methods would likely provide incentives to producers by saving their time and, simultaneously, reducing the irrigation applications and producing optimal crop yield.

When the Reclamation Act passed by Congress in 1902 and the United States Reclamation Service was created, studies were conducted to determine where water projects could be constructed. Initially, the Sweetwater River (Sweetwater Project) was considered to construct a dam at “Devils Gate” to provide irrigation water. However, insufficient flows in the river did not justify the construction of a dam. The Reclamation Service then determined that a dam would be constructed on the North Platte River in the Fremont Canyon approximately 47 miles southwest of Casper, Wyoming.

The Platte River, then the North Platte River, and then the Sweetwater River were the series of water courses across Nebraska into Wyoming east of the continental divide for a pathway across the country that “followed the water.” This was the most traveled route across the continent for early trappers — the California, Mormon, Oregon, Overland and Pony Express trails. Over 400,000 people followed these trails to California, Oregon and Washington, bypassing the “Great American Desert”, not knowing that in the future — with irrigation water development — this area would be the breadbasket for the country.