ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Agron.
Sec. Field Water Management
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fagro.2025.1496198
Understanding the Impact of Irrigation Scheduling on Water Use Efficiency in Corn and Soybean Production in Humid Climates: Insights from On-Farm Demonstration
Provisionally accepted
- Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States
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Irrigation plays a key role in boosting crop yields, supporting crop diversity, and reducing the impact of climate variability, especially in regions like the Great Lakes region where seasonal water availability can be unpredictable. Improving irrigation water use efficiency (WUE) is critical for ensuring long-term water sustainability. This study explores water use efficiency (WUE) in southwest Michigan's humid climate, focusing on improving irrigation management practices. Several different volumes and frequencies of irrigation (30%, 50%, and 60% Maximum Allowable Depletion) were examined as experimental treatments to better understand their impact on crop productivity. Despite testing an array of different experimental irrigation treatments, we found no statistical differences but noted unequal averages and data spreads. These trends suggest more samples, under typical climatic conditions, are needed to distinguish which irrigation approaches enhance WUE. We also contrasted producers' methods with experimental treatments, highlighting the challenges of optimizing WUE in the region's climate and soil conditions even with experience in irrigation management. This study was conducted as a demonstration study for the benefit of producers, with the intention of providing a reference for their irrigation management practices.monitoring technologies can also make precision irrigation more accessible for small-and mid-sized farms, promoting more sustainable and efficient water use across the agricultural sector.
Keywords: irrigation, Scheduling, Humid climate, On-farm demonstration, corn, Soybean Not applicable Brenden Kelley: Conceptualization, methodology, Formal analysis
Received: 13 Sep 2024; Accepted: 08 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kelley, Dong, Chilvers and Das. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Younsuk Dong, Michigan State University, East Lansing, 48824, Michigan, United States
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.