Moisture Storage on Fallowed Wheatland in the Great Plains

Abstract

Moisture storage data during the fallow period of annually cropped and alternately cropped-fallowed wheatland from 25 locations throughout the Great Plains were summarized and statistically analyzed. Data, representing over 450 crop-fallow periods, snowed that on the average 2.02 inches of water was stored during the fallow portion of an annual cropping system. Under an alternate crop-fallow system, an average of 3.96 inches of precipitation was stored between the harvest of one crop and the seeding of the next.The amount of moisture stored during the fallow period was found to be related to soil moisture content at the beginning of the fallow period, and the amount of precipitation during the fallow period. Moisture storage efficiency (percent of total precipitation stored) was greater in the northern than in the southern Great Plains.

Estimating the consequences of CO2-induced climatic change on north american grain agriculture using general circulation model information

“…Soil moisture at time of seeding exhibits large interannual variations, and has a strong influence on grain yield in the regions considered here (e.g., Mathews and Army, 1960). One approach to obtaining initial values for this variable would be to run the soil water balance submodels of the respective crop models continuously (i.e., between simulated harvest and the following planting date as well as during crop development).…”

“…Parameters for these distributions are chosen to produce first and second moments consistent with historically observed soil moisture data (e.g., Baier, 1971;Mathews and Army, 1960;Shaw, 1965). The distinction in distributional form is natural in view of the precipitation climatologies for the respective fallow (i.e., between-cropping) periods.…”

Row Spacing, Plant Populations and Moisture Supply as Factors in Dryland Grain Sorghum Production1

“…Weather Bureau at Amarillo, Texas. Rainfall was converted to inches of stored soil moisture by assuming an efficiency of storage of about 20% ( 4). At Amarillo, the estimated frequency of obtaining from 1 to 6 inches of available water in the soil profile at seeding is shown in Table 4.…”

The Nature and Function of the In‐field Rainwater Harvesting System to Improve Agronomic Sustainability

“…Application of water conservation measures during the fallow period is an important strategy to reduce crop production risk. Mathews and Army () developed a simple indicator, the rainfall storage efficiency (RSE), to express the efficiency of such measures: where…”