Irrigators whose water supply is limited by groundwater allocations or reduced surface water supplies can learn strategies and guidelines to manage their water by attending a deficit irrigation management workshop sponsored by University of Nebraska Extension.

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The Deficit Irrigation Management Workshop for Limited Annual and Multiyear Water Supplies is scheduled for Dec. 7 at the Monsanto Water Utilization Learning Center at Gothenburg, from 9 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. The learning center is on Highway 47 about 2 miles south of the Gothenburg Interstate 80 interchange.

There is a $25 registration fee, and preregistration is requested by Dec. 4 to allow for a lunch count.

To register, contact Chuck Burr, Extension Educator at the UNL West Central Research & Extension Center in North Platte, at 308-696-6740 (email chuck.burr@unl.edu); or Extension Educator Gary Stone at the Panhandle Research and Extension Center in Scottsbluff at 308-632-1230 (email gstone2@unl.edu). A downloadable brochure with a registration form that can be printed, completed and returned also is available at panhandle.unl.edu.

UNL specialists Derrel Martin, Irrigation Engineer; Raymond Supalla, Agricultural Economist; and Gary Hergert, Agronomist, will present results from several years of research on management of limited irrigation water supplies. They will address how irrigators can plan for either one-year or multiple-year periods.

Attendees will receive tools and guidelines to plan and manage limited irrigation water supplies to maximize net returns and reduce risk. Recent crop responses to water stress will be examined, along with the impact of irrigation pumping capacity. Guidelines will be presented for situations when pooling of water supplies is allowed.

The UNL specialists also will address how producers can make decisions about investments to improve irrigation technology to abate limited water supplies.

Topics will include:

•Deficit irrigation management

•Crop response to water

•Predicting yield and economics

•Plans for single field and single year

•Multiple fields and multiple years

•Implementing plans

•System capacity and other issues

•Tour of Monsanto facilities

While the workshop is primarily dedicated to water management from a producer’s perspective, the tools and study results are also useful for evaluating water policy alternatives. Results have been used to draft deficit irrigation insurance pilot programs and to assess the economic impact of water policies on producers and the regional economy.