Evaluación del rendimiento de materia seca en festuca bajo pastoreo directo, con diferentes manejos de riego

Supplemental irrigation is an alternative to promote the increase and stability of pasture yield, especially in the context of increasingly frequent forage crises caused by the annual variability of precipitation and the low water storage capacity of our soils.

In a context of growing irrigation capacity in Uruguay, it is essential to define technical coefficients for the proper management of irrigation in pastures, which will achieve improvements in productivity while ensuring the sustainability of natural resources.

Two irrigation thresholds for fescue under grazing conditions were used to determine whether greater depletions of available soil water content resulted in better utilization of precipitation, while ensuring that dry matter production did not decrease.

The incorporation of irrigation produced twice the dry matter compared to rainfed conditions in a particularly dry year, where precipitation was the lowest in the last 30 years.

Using higher irrigation thresholds, around 65% depletion, seems to be better than allowing only 30% depletion, as there were no differences in annual dry matter production.

The total water consumed and the irrigation water used over the study year were practically the same between both treatments. In the frequent irrigation treatment, watering occurred more than three times compared to the spaced irrigation, which has operational implications and energy cost considerations.