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UW-Madison Study Looks at Crop Benefits of Higher Water Tables
Wisconsin Ag Connection - 09/01/2015

Contrary to what most people think, a new study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison shows high water tables in farm fields can be a good thing. Researchers found high water tables, which are common in Wisconsin and throughout the Midwest, can provide much-needed water during drought and to crops planted in coarse-grained soils.

"Every soil type has a sweet spot in terms of the optimum water table depth for the highest crop yield," explains Samuel Zipper, a graduate student in the Freshwater and Marine Sciences Program in the College of Engineering, who says their study is the first to look at the interactions between water table depth, soil texture and weather.

While rains early in the growing season can waterlog fields, a high water table becomes an advantage later in the season, when the weather is drier and crops need the extra water to pollinate and produce grain.

Zipper found the benefits of a high water table, also called shallow groundwater, often outweighed the costs for crops in the coarse-grained soils and even many of the fine-grained soils in their study site, rendering higher crop yields, or groundwater yield subsidies.

"Surprisingly, even in a wet year, the net benefits of shallow groundwater outweighed the losses," he says.

Zipper adds that a better understanding of how groundwater depth, soil texture and the weather interact to affect crop yields can help farmers determine optimal field-draining depths that will help yields reach their full potential.

By comparing fields' yield performance in wet and dry years and connecting results to water table depth and soil texture, co-author Steven Loheide, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, explains they were able to map more precisely where fields are sensitive to drought or waterlogging and why, a technique with implications for precision agriculture.

The study was published in the journal Water Resources Research and is part of the Water Sustainability and Climate Project at UW-Madison.


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