For Rob Coker, a farmer from Yazoo City, increasing irrigation efficiency is a no-brainer.

“Conserving water translates into saving money,” says Coker. “We pay to pump the water out of the ground only to lose some of it to runoff. As a farmer, I told myself it’s time to do a better job when irrigating.”

[caption id="attachment_20815" align="alignright" width="300"] Rob Coker, Mississippi soybean farmer[/caption]

For this reason, Coker, who raises soybeans, corn and wheat, started looking for ways to increase efficiency while irrigating, to not only save hard costs, but time and water as well. His search connected him with Mississippi State University Extension Irrigation Specialist Jason Krutz, Ph.D. Working with Krutz, Coker implemented the RISER and PHAUCET programs on several of his fields this year as a test run.

PHAUCET, or Pipe Hole and Universal Crown Evaluation Tool, is a computer program for use with furrow-irrigation systems. The program regulates water usage by program, analyzing several factors, such as pump capacity, pipe diameter, row lengths and differences in field elevation to determine the optimum hole size in the pipe and flow rate for each row.

RISER, or Row-crop Irrigation Science and Extension Research, is a multifaceted approach to water conservation. RISER uses a number of methods to increase irrigation efficiency, such as scheduling tools, soil moisture sensors and the PHAUCET program. This program helps promote good management practices for soybean irrigation.

The Mississippi Soybean Promotion Board (MSPB) funded projects in 2013 to evaluate the use of PHAUCET and RISER programs and the savings that can be realized from using them. In many cases, farmers can use various tools to improve their irrigation while seeing the same or, in some cases, improved yields. Increasing irrigation efficiency can mean a decrease in water, fuel and labor costs.

Spring rains delayed planting for Coker, as it did for many farmers around the state, which means soybean irrigation is also behind. However, Coker said he could already see improvement on his corn fields where he used the RISER program as a trial.

“I think we are more efficient,” says Coker. “We’re saving water and irrigating our fields more quickly. I feel like we’re just doing a better job overall.”

Watch our interview with Rob to hear how he is working to increase irrigation efficiency on his farm.

Throughout the remainder of the growing season and through the fall and winter, MSPB will follow the irrigation process on Coker’s farm and evaluate the results of the RISER program. Be sure to check back here for updates in the coming weeks and months.