 The following is a production of New Mexico State University. In New Mexico, drought is a life-and-death situation for farmers and ranchers. Even irrigated crops fall well below yield expectations during years of severe persistent drought. It was the drastic droughts of the 1950s in this region that made water delivery one of the key engineering challenges in this state. But not all regions have adequate storage or water delivery systems. Water loss is high, simply in moving irrigation water down open canals for long distances. New Mexico State University is working with water uses throughout the state to help improve efficiency and management of valuable water resources. There are several factors to consider to optimize water usage in severe drought situations. One way to approach optimization of landscape and agricultural irrigation is to look at the actual plant water needs, the timing of irrigation water application and the irrigation efficiency of the water system. There are aesthetic and community benefits derived from using irrigation, creating vegetative moths that anchors soil allow respite from the weather and other climate elements. In New Mexico, less than 15% of the state's acres are irrigated. 90% of total production cropland requires irrigation. Homeowner irrigation systems, however, make up a larger portion of the total irrigation use. Irrigation technology is based on available resources, soils, salinity, water requirements, drainage, land shaping and water delivery systems. Here in Wella Lupa County, we're working on a project to maintain and optimize our water, the use of plastic piping underground. We presently on the Agriculture Hispanic Center have a 16-inch pipeline that we put underground and then from that 16-inch pipeline we have a riser, we come up and we go to an alfalfa system and the system is the riser on top and then the bonnet and out of the bonnet we have our water but it has maintained and saved us a high cost of having to maintain a ditch and then optimize our water as we get it on the surface. Plant water use is being evaluated on various crops and landscape plants to ensure optimization of applications. If we can know more about the moisture needed with each plant type, then irrigation scheduling can be organized to limit water waste or loss. Through research, much of the information on specific plant needs has been determined and this work continues in order to improve timing and water needs for crops and home landscapes. We're here in southern New Mexico in a pecan orchard and the grower here, Jeff Graham, has had trouble being able to get his water allocation onto the land here. We've had some drought conditions and he's been short on his water allocation. We've been looking at some different ways to get water onto the property here. The soils are pretty light and so we've looked at a sprinkler system and the sprinkler system will do a more adequate job of covering the root zone area here in the orchard and be able to wet the root zone down. We have some sensors that we've installed to measure the moisture in the ground and see whether the sprinkler is carrying the moisture down to the depth that we needed for the tree roots and the sensor also is picking up what the water content of the soil is. Jeff is able to download this information onto his computer and develop a graph from that that shows how the soil is being depleted as far as moisture and then he can time his irrigation when to start the sprinklers up or if he has a year that he does have some water allocation then he can go ahead and flood the field. We also have a tensiometer in the field and the tensiometer is a device that's been used for several years by different parts of the ag industry but it is a tool that also can be used so we're kind of comparing the two instruments to see if they're reading the same information but both these will give a farmer an indication of where their moisture content is and when they need to irrigate. In both the landscape and agricultural commodities water use models and soil moisture monitors have been tweaked to optimize water use, limit overuse and utilize climate data and knowledge of plant water use in order to provide water need that is economically feasible. Soil moisture sensors can use real-time plant needs with soil moisture status to minimize water use in crops and landscapes across the state. At Artesia, an evaluation of moisture sensors has led to a joint project with Sandia Labs research to determine actual plant needs and system costs. Water in the Picos Valley is very critical and agriculture gets blamed for diverting a lot of water but in reality it uses very little water, it only uses what the plant uses and that's what we're trying to determine, how much water does the plant need and how to most efficiently apply that water so that we don't lose water to other places in the ecosystem. We're going to more and more with the pivot irrigation systems and our farmers this is a new system for them, they've never used it before and so they have a learning curve on learning how to use that pivot system and by using this type of technology we're able to teach them how to irrigate with the pivot irrigation system so they don't have to take that six or seven years experience it takes to learn how to do it right, they can do it within one or two years and reduce their cost, reduce their maintenance and reduce their losses. Satellite technology can now beam soil moisture readings from remote locations in the field to researchers while at the same time saving farmers valuable time in interpreting data and limiting erosion from wind or water to crops. Here at Arteja this year in the 2005 growing season we're scanning with a new probe to us anyway a probe that can measure soil moisture with depth we're scanning several probes or several profiles, several soil profiles across the valley all the way from Loving to hopefully we'll be up in Roswell this summer and we're trying to quantify just how much water, how quickly that water is used in the soil that soil is really a great reservoir for holding water but of course our crops are using it and any kind of practices that we can take on from a agronomic point of view and conserve that water from evaporation and letting it get into the crop is perhaps the best method to conserve soil water. The use of drip irrigation on drought tolerant crops such as cotton has led to new research avenues such as variety selection and limited water use for crops in New Mexico Research addresses needs and how to knowledge to implement rotations that not only conserve moisture supplies but also provide efficiency and other inputs such as fertility needs and pest control Drip irrigation is an excellent resource to use in New Mexico particularly on a variety of crops in particular some of the tap-rooted crops such as cotton one of the reasons is because it provides a ready supply of irrigation water right when the plant needs it at that particular growth stage and likewise it can be easily monitored through something like the watermark moisture sensors are some of the others with that with drip irrigation we actually have the water come through the tubing and actually provide the supply that we need for the crop again with drip irrigation we see some special uses that will be a big advantage in New Mexico In recent years we've been applying drip systems to our farm because of the efficiency of water since we've had drought in the past two or three years we've been trying to economize on the water what water we save with the drip systems we utilize in other areas where we don't have wells or we're not able to get water efficiently into some fields we've noticed that our yields have stabilized with the drip system because we are able to apply water much more efficiently drought is related to heat and salinity in our region so if we improve drought tolerance in cotton we can also improve heat tolerance and drought tolerance so therefore increase in cotton yield and improve fiber quality so what we have been doing and trying to do is to use genetics and genomics technology to identify those drought responsive genes to map those genes on cotton genome and then to evaluate the functions with drought tolerance then we will use DNA markers associated with those drought tolerance genes to transfer them into high yielding cotton varieties this strategy is called molecular breeding because we are using molecular markers to assist us in our breeding program NMSU's agricultural science centers located across New Mexico are working to optimize water use experimenting with different timing and systems of irrigation they have been able to find economical and efficient systems to help producers and homeowners save water at the Clovis Science Center crop management under row, pivot and drip irrigation allow clients in the region to see firsthand the irrigation efficiency that can be obtained under intensive management we are very fortunate here at the Clovis Science Center to have just received this brand new center pivot irrigation system I think it is going to help tremendously in our research efforts here since this station was created back in 1949 all the variety trials and research efforts have been irrigated with row water or furrow irrigation not only is that the most inefficient type of irrigation that there is not very many producers in this area using furrow irrigation anymore and so I think the biggest advantage to this center pivot system is going to be that we will be able to conduct research that producers can relate to a little bit better because it is actually what they are doing on their own farms and they can relate to it a little bit better more so than in the past eventually we would like to get subsurface drip irrigation here at the station as well that would allow us to compare the efficiencies of both pivot and subsurface irrigation and also the water use efficiencies of the various crops grown in our area at Farmington the NMSU Science Center is working with specialty crops as well as irrigation supplies to optimize water use in the Navajo Nation the Navajo agricultural products industry has computerized all of their irrigation pivots to develop crop regions that are optimized the Science Center is working to show that even specialty crops can be managed using minimal water knowledge of the crop and its growth cycle can help in minimizing the impact of introduced crops to the region but at the same time provide a means to be economical and save moisture here we are in San Juan County at the NMSU Agricultural Science Center we are looking at ways to judiciously use San Juan River water and by doing that we are trying to grow popular trees on old abandoned rectangular fields for Navajo agricultural products industry we've got ten different clones here that we are looking at to see how they can produce under our local soil conditions elevated soil pH and how well they can use the river water you'll notice some of them are doing very very well this particular clone OP367 is about thirty feet high on average after what is it three years and then some of the other clones you can see down the way are not doing so well we're using surface irrigation surface drip irrigation it's a micro system where we use limited amounts of water and it's applied along this drip line we're looking at the popular trees because Western Accelsior located in Mancus just further north from here is an Accelsior company which shreds aspen but they're looking for a long term sustainable source of raw material and the popular tree can be substituted for the aspen and used to shred and make the Accelsior that you use at home in your cooler pads in the summertime in urban areas up to fifty percent of the total water used goes towards irrigation of landscapes a lot of this water could be saved not only through appropriate plant selection but through irrigating appropriately here at the Ag Science Center at Farmington we've initiated a zero-scape demonstration garden where we're demonstrating appropriate plants for the native landscapes not only are we demonstrating some of this plant species that are appropriate towards the area but also we want to identify the water requirements of these plants so that we can make recommendations on irrigation scheduling in this garden it's split into four different sections and each section is irrigated differently section number one receives no water whatsoever but just natural rainfall last year that amounted to about seven inches here in Farmington the second area receives about twenty percent of our reference ET value that we compute from the weather station this amounted to about forty to fifty gallons of water per plant per season or about one to two gallons per week during the summer the medium irrigation plot is forty percent of that reference ET value and it receives about two to three gallons of water per week per plant the high irrigation level receives about a hundred gallons of water throughout the year, 120 gallons per water and about three or four gallons of water per week plants are irrigated using a above ground drip irrigation system consisting of manifolds and then distribution lines to each plant we're developing a database using the information we collect here so that we can make recommendations to the citizens of New Mexico and plants that they can select for their landscapes and also the water requirements and irrigation recommendations for those plants at Los Lunas, use of the sun is the energy system that optimizes use of shallow water supplies on high value crops such as grapes the center has introduced technology not only on valuable vegetation that can conserve and preserve New Mexican soils but has also provided information on specialized water systems hundreds of farmers and ranchers in the region and around the state have been briefed on how to efficiently pull up water from shallow surface supplies for use in irrigation as well as for water supplied to livestock and wildlife solar panels can capture the sun's energy to pull shallow water supplies up and through drip irrigation systems or into water troughs to provide needed moisture in remote locations here at the Ag Science Center in Valencia County, middle real grand of New Mexico we've got a project using solar energy to run a drip system on our grapevine unfortunately we're in an area where we've got a water system we can drill down about 9 feet, get it 70 gallons of water a minute we put in a 2 inch well right here we've got a solar panel about 30 by 40 inches span that will run our drip system we've got in, this is actually an experimental vineyard basically a half acre we're running a drip line with half inch emitters there's two to each one of these vines we're able to save an awful lot of water in that regard versus flood irrigation the farming community here in the middle real grand is extremely interested in saving water and getting good high quality water using a drip system here we're able to reduce the amount of water we use also one of the things that's happened to us the last several years with the droughts we've had 5 or 6 years of running drought in the Mexico it makes the water real short late in the season so we're able to use this drip system on this shallow well to water our grapes way into October and even into November if we need to here in Socorro County many of our local producers are looking to these solar paneled units to produce water for livestock and wildlife here at the National Sevillette Refuge they've been very effective in utilizing this new technology as the new technology decreases in price it's becoming very competitive with most of our local windmills for livestock production these units are now able to keep up with the large amounts of water that are needed for livestock production and even the small amount of water that's used for our wildlife our solar powered water systems are commonly made up of three components our solar units which some of these have the free on tracking devices that can maintain with the sun so that they maintain a constant flow of water supply all day long a storage tank and then often times whatever drinker that we're going to be supplying either wildlife or livestock with continuing research and outreach through New Mexico State University has been key in optimizing water use in the state the Tucumcari Science Center is introducing the use of a biological control agent to limit weed spread a mite is being used to control bindweed and testing is being conducted on forage rotations to maximize soil moisture within different soil depths the main focus of the research program at the Agricultural Science Center at Tucumcari in Quay County has mainly to do with forage crops, irrigated perennials like pastures and alfalfa but occasionally we also work with other things like the field bindweed mite we have several projects going on right now one has to do with the migration of the mite throughout the plant because we know that different seasons of the year it'll be found at different places on the plant but also we're working with herbicides to measure their effect on mite-infested bindweed and here we have a demonstration of one of those herbicides that was sprayed last fall this side was sprayed with herbicide this side was not and then we came back and sprayed with another herbicide so that all we see this spring is bindweed or where there is no bindweed where it's been treated the mite, actually when the bindweed is growing the mite feeds on leaf tissue or photosynthate that's made by the leaves and prevents that from going to the root system it causes the leaves to fold along the mid vein where the feeding is done and reduces photosynthetic area and also reduces the amount of photosynthate or sugars that are translocated to the root system as you can see field bindweed is very invasive it covers an area, very healthy bindweed competes very well with other plants we've noticed lately that it's only when the bindweed has been weakened by the mite that other plants like these grasses can start invading any plant will compete with water for whatever the desirable crop is we work mainly here with alfalfa and we know that well-managed, well-watered, well-fertilized alfalfa harvested properly that is protected from insects and diseases and other pests can compete very well with field bindweed in fact we are certain that well-managed alfalfa will not have very much bindweed in it it's a very good competitive crop because they compete in the same part of the root zone for water and nutrients but the alfalfa is more competitive than the field bindweed when it's managed properly in Currie County we are doing some bindweed trials out north of Clovis about 30 miles on some dryland farmland it is a three-way rotation with wheat, grain sorghum and fallow land and we are actually using a wide variety of chemical applications and with that we are also looking at the possibility of the bindweed mite we feel like that we get a better control of the bindweed if we burn it back with a chemical first and it gives the bindweed mite an opportunity to get a hold and doesn't have as much work to do to get the job done as the mite eats the bindweed it gnaws off the nodule so that it can't put out another runner and if it's got a bunch of runners already it can't go ahead and get control of that but when we burn it back then it can get underground or even right at the surface of the ground and can eat those nodes off to where it can't ever put out another runner and therefore it will kill the plant so we are all familiar with the definition of a weed which is a plant not desired or a plant out of place in agricultural settings these are pretty obvious they are not the plants that are growing in the field that we desire to harvest we are well aware that plants need water for growth and these weeds need water for growth as well and a lot of times they compete with desirable plants for water what we are not aware of is that a lot of times they use excessive water that could be used for other purposes for example some of our common weeds that we find throughout New Mexico on an individual plant level use 20 to 30 gallons of water to complete their life cycle if we scale that up to an acreage with a 10% infestation that can be 2 to 3000 gallons of water that these weeds use per acre and that's only a 10% infestation if we were to increase an area we would get more water used so water use can be quite excessive depending upon the species and simply by eliminating these plants you are going to eliminate their need to have water for growth and you have more growth water for the crops as well as more water for other uses whether it's agricultural or urban uses providing research and outreach to clients throughout New Mexico the Cooperative Extension Service the experiment stations and science centers are working with local residents and landowners to optimize water supplies and the use of irrigation and plant material people demand more information on optimization, reliability and maintenance on the use of asecias or hand dug irrigation systems here at the Alcalde Science Center I'm working with Sam Fernald a water resource specialist at New Mexico State University on a unique project that's looking at asecia hydrology asecia being the local Spanish term for the traditional irrigation ditches that were put in for the most part a few hundred years ago and these asecias tend to be earthen lined we're looking to see how much water seeps out of these asecias and how that water influences shallow groundwater levels and shallow groundwater quality farmers in this area as they deal with water rights adjudication want to know of the water they have a right to how much makes it back to the river and perhaps be able to claim credit for that water also we would like to determine to what extent this water that seeps out of the asecias is stored underground only to be released later downstream and perhaps this seepage and the storage going on may be a significant factor in remaining in stream river flows here at the Alcalda Science Center which is located in the northern part of New Mexico about 30 miles north of Santa Fe we're looking at some apple trees right here the apple industry is probably one of the basic industries up here in northern New Mexico when we talk about fruit of course the apples are the number one crop as we take a look at what we're doing here at the Science Center we're using cover crops within our rows to keep the moisture to stop the trans evaporation of our waters one of the systems that we use up here in northern New Mexico of course are the micro systems micro systems are micro spray systems has a head on top of a pipe that throws out a micro spray of water of course we can control the amount of water that we apply on our fields over here at the same time we can control the amount of water that we put on these fields with the micro spray systems we can actually control the amount of water that we apply and only apply enough water to maintain our trees and also to maintain our grass and legume covers that we have within our rows at the lion decker in Fabian Garcia's setters near Las Cruces in the southern portion of New Mexico Alfa Varieties testing examines and secures better variety selection and planting programs to optimize ground cover and pasture forage use of expert software optimizes irrigation system parameters on a crop by crop basis so our laboratory is taking a genetic engineering approach to produce drought tolerant alfalfa so what we have done is identified genes that have a role in drought tolerance we have used molecular tools to identify and isolate these genes these genes have then been put into alfalfa using transgenic approaches the approach that we do take is to engineer the gene in the test tube put it back into plants and then test the plants in the greenhouse we're here at the lion decker plant science research farm in southern New Mexico in Donyana County where the major emphasis of my alfalfa breeding program is to develop alfalfa cultivars that use water more efficiently and therefore use less irrigation water what I need to point out is that drought is the most significant environmental stress factor limiting crop productivity in the United States this field that we're standing in represents a five-year field and laboratory study that's supported by both state and federal funds to develop molecular, genetic and biochemical tools to improve drought tolerance in alfalfa which is the most important cultivated forage in the United States we're evaluating several hundred populations here for their ability to produce forage yield using 50% less water once we identify drought tolerant populations those tolerant populations are being characterized for unique biochemical traits that protect photosynthesis and plant productivity from drought induced damage these populations are also being characterized for how they partition their carbohydrates to both shoots and roots to help them persist and survive over time we're also tracking several hundred genes in each of these populations and have determined that many of these genes are actually activated under drought stress ultimately we integrate both the field and the laboratory data using genetic linkage analysis methods to determine which of these genes and biochemical traits are suitable candidates for us to advance for DNA marker technology development so that we can develop improved cultivars of alfalfa that use water more efficiently producers have a lot of options when it comes to scheduling irrigation and a lot of tools one of the tools is a climate-based irrigation scheduling tool that is available on the New Mexico climate center this data can be acquired by clicking on the New Mexico climate stations selecting a irrigation management and growing degree day climate retrieval system selecting the climate stations of interest including the HORT experiment station in Las Cruces, New Mexico and then selecting the crop of interest when you hit the retrieve form you will get back the date the air temperature, the relative humidity soil temperature, solar radiation and reference ET along with information on the ET or water use of the crop on a daily basis that then is the amount of water that needs to be applied with a drip irrigation system or this information stuck into a spreadsheet to determine when to schedule using flood irrigation from crops to landscapes water use in New Mexico has long been limited and has required efforts by farmers and homeowners to be economical and to preserve water everyone has a share in optimizing water use in the state to conserve supplies for the future maintaining erosion protection from wind and water can help toward preserving the green aesthetics in the state more water is wasted by dripping faucets and overuse in homes than an irrigation supplied to landscapes and crops irrigation can give back to shallow water supplies and provide moisture to the air while maintaining green plant material to protect precious soils in the state New Mexico State University is working throughout the state to provide current, indispensable information on crop use in landscapes and in food and fiber production be water wise and irrigation efficient around the home, landscape and across the fields conserve water supplies to sustain the populations of New Mexicans for years to come contact your county extension office or your local agricultural science center for more information on water use efficiency and optimizing irrigation systems Additional information can also be found online at www.cahe.nmsu.edu The preceding was a production of New Mexico State University The views and opinions in this program are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of the NMSU Board of Regents