This dataset consists of agronomic calendars for each growing season (year) when maize was grown for grain 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). Maize was grown for grain on four large, precision weighing lysimeters, each in the center of a 4.44 ha square field. The four square fields are themselves arranged in a larger square with the fields in four adjacent quadrants of the larger square. Fields and lysimeters within each field are thus designated northeast (NE), southeast (SE), northwest (NW), and southwest (SW). Irrigation was by linear move sprinkler system in 1989, 1990, and 1994. In 2013, 2016, and 2018, two lysimeters and their respective fields (NE and SE) were irrigated using subsurface drip irrigation (SDI), and two lysimeters and their respective fields (NW and SW) were irrigated by a linear move sprinkler system. Irrigations 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. 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 year there is a crop calendar for the two east lysimeters (NE and SE) and another calendar for the two west lysimeters (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 maize 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 by the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP), by OPENET, and by many others for testing, and calibrating models of ET that use satellite and/or weather data.