Agronomic Calendars for the Bushland, Texas Cotton Datasets

This dataset consists of agronomic calendars for each growing season (year) when upland cotton [Gossypium hirsutum (L.)] was grown for fiber and seed 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). In 2000, 2001, 2008, 2020, and 2021, cotton was grown on four large, precision weighing lysimeters, each in the center of a 4.44 ha square field. In 2002, 2010, and 2012, cotton was grown on two large, precision weighing lysimeters and their surrounding 4.44 ha square fields. In 2003 and 2004, cotton was grown on only one large weighing lysimeter in rotation with sorghum. 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. Irrigation was by linear move sprinkler system in from 2000 through 2012. In 2020 and 2021, the NE and SE fields were irrigated using subsurface drip irrigation (SDI), while the NW and SW fields were irrigated using a linear move system. Cotton 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.