No Till Notes: Water Conservation, Part 3

Water conservation in irrigated crop production has to be viewed as a systems approach to conserving water. As I stated in previous articles, I think water conservation starts with improving the performance of the soil.

Another key component to a systems approach to water conservation is choosing a dynamic crop rotation for your farm or ranch. The crops you choose to produce have to be profitable, provide a good agronomic rotation, be relatively high in water use efficiency, and require less irrigation for high yields.

On our farm we have chosen an irrigated crop rotation of corn, field peas,...