This dataset consists of agronomic calendars for each growing season (year) when sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.)] was grown for grain or forage at the USDA-ARS Conservation and Production Laboratory (CPRL), Soil and Water Management Research Unit (SWMRU) research weather station, Bushland, Texas (Lat. 35.186714°, Long. -102.094189°, elevation 1170 m above MSL). Sorghum was grown in 1987, 1988, 1991, 1993, 1997 through 1999, 2003 through 2007, 2014, and 2015. Depending on experimental objectives, sorghum was grown on one, two, or four large, precision weighing lysimeters, each in the center of a 4.44 ha square field. The four fields were contiguous. The fields were designated northeast (NE), southeast (SE), northwest (NW), and southwest (SW), and were themselves arranged in a larger square with the fields in four adjacent quadrants of the larger square. In 2003 and 2004, cotton was grown on only one large weighing lysimeter in rotation with sorghum. In 2015, the NE and SE fields were irrigated with subsurface drip lines and the NW and SW fields were irrigated with a linear move sprinkler. Irrigation was by linear move sprinkler system in 1987 through 2007. Sorghum was sometimes grown as a dryland crop, sometimes as a fully irrigated crop, and sometimes as a deficit irrigated crop. Irrigations designated as full were managed to replenish soil water used by the crop on a weekly or more frequent basis as determined by soil profile water content readings made with a neutron probe to 2.4-m depth in the field. Irrigations designated as deficit typically involved full irrigation to establish the crop. A crop calendar for each season lists by date the pertinent agronomic and maintenance operations (e.g., planting, thinning, fertilization, pesticide application, lysimeter maintenance, harvest). For each season there is one crop calendar for each two lysimeters (NE and SE, and/or NW and SW).
These datasets originate from research aimed at determining crop water use (ET), crop coefficients for use in ET-based irrigation scheduling based on a reference ET, crop growth, yield, harvest index, and crop water productivity as affected by irrigation method, timing, amount (full or some degree of deficit), agronomic practices, cultivar, and weather. Prior publications have focused on ET, crop coefficients, and crop water productivity. Crop coefficients have been used by ET networks. The data have utility for testing simulation models of crop ET, growth, and yield and have been used for testing, and calibrating models of ET that use satellite and/or weather data.
See the README for descriptions of each data file.