The use of rainfall, temperature, and actual transpiration in some crop-weather investigations

Abstract

This paper reports various investigations of the effects of meteorological factors on the yields of crops in England and Wales. The investigations were undertaken primarily with the objects of seeing (a) whether variations in temperature had any direct effect on yields, and (b) whether Penman's concept of actual transpiration gave a better measure of the overall effect of rainfall than the use of a multiple regression on variates representing total rainfall and its distribution.The effect of temperature and its seasonal distribution on the yields of wheat on various plots of the classical wheat experiment on Broadbalk field at Rothamsted was studied in conjunction with rainfall and its seasonal distribution, using the regression method devised by Fisher. Variations in temperature were found to show no effects on the final yields.The relationship between actual transpiration and yield was investigated for the Broadbalk field and for sugar beet and potatoes, using average yields determined by sampling methods, for various districts in England and Wales. For sugar-beet virus yellows infection, and for potatoes blight attack, were also taken into account.No relationship between actual transpiration and wheat yields on Broadbalk field was found, but sugar beet and potatoes both showed a positive association between actual transpiration and yield except for sugar beet in the Spalding area, where there is a high-water table. Actual transpiration was in general more effective than a regression on total rainfall and its distribution accounting for variations in yield. As might be expected virus yellows and blight also account for a good deal of the variation in yield.

Number of kernels in wheat crops and the influence of solar radiation and temperature

“…Average seasonal changes in total solar radiation and temperature at two wheat growing locations, CIANO (Mexico) and Rothamsted (U.K.) CIANO ( has been studied by various correlative techniques. With wheat this had generally revealed negative correlations of yield with temperature (Thompson, 1975;Desjardins & Ouellet, 1980;Michaels, 1981), but not always (Buck, 1961), and sometimes positive correlations with radiation or sunshine hours (Welbank, Witts & Thome, 1968;Borojevic & Williams, 1982). However, in no study has variation in the number of kernels been examined explicitly.…”

Variation between years in growth and nutrient uptake after anthesis of winter wheat on Broadbalk field at Rothamsted, 1969–84

“…Previous attempts to relate the seasonal variation in yield on Broadbalk to weather factors have been disappointing (Yates, 1969). Grain yields tended to be less when winter rainfall was above average (Fisher, 1924;Buck, 1961) and were small with severe drought, as occurred in 1976 (Dyke et al 1983). By widening the study to include properties other than grain yield, we made a further attempt to understand the effects of seasonal variation in weather on the behaviour of winter wheat.…”

Computer simulation of the irrigation potential of corn on high water-holding capacity soils in Iowa

“…They concluded that the soil-moisture estimates obtained from their procedure produced a better relationship with yields than raw rainfall and temperature variables because the estimates were expressions of factors on which the crops were directly dependent. Parks and Knetsch (1959) Gilbert (18 8 0) on the Broadbalk wheat experiment in Rothamsted and the subsequent multiple-regression analysis of Fisher (1924) and Buck (1961), concludes that yields may be adequately described by a linear regression when one climatic factor, such as rainfall or lack of it, dominates over all others. Hanks (1974), in a description of a model for predicting plant yield, shows a strong linear relationship between evapotranspiration and relative corn grain yield for both actual data and results predicted by a computer model.…”