Agronomic Calendars for the Bushland, Texas Winter Wheat Datasets

This dataset consists of agronomic calendars for each growing season (year) when winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) 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). Winter wheat was grown for grain on two 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. 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 followed by limited or no irrigation in the later winter and spring. 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 a crop calendar for the two lysimeters. In the 1989-1990 seasons the NW and SW lysimeters and fields were planted to winter wheat, and in the 1991-1992 season the NE and SE lysimeters and fields were planted to winter wheat.
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 by the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP), and by many others for testing, and calibrating models of ET that use satellite and/or weather data.