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<br />12 <br /> <br />SCS and WPRS are actively coordinating salinity control efforts in the <br />l\:) Grand Valley. Off-farm lateral design and on farm planning are discussed <br />~~ frequently by a technical coordinating committee formed to handle such <br />c..v matters. <br />1'\.; <br /> <br />SCS transferred $23,000 to the SEA-AR, to initiate a monitoring program to <br />study the effects of onfarm irrigation improvements. SEA, through existing <br />cooperative agreements, has contracted wih the Agricultural and Chemical <br />Engineering Department of Colorado State University (CSU) to do this work. <br />The initial monitoring report is due in January 1981. Work is proceeding on <br />development of a long-range onfarm monitoring program. <br /> <br />SCS, in conjunction with SEA, meets regularly with the contractors and <br />suppliers who are fabricating the new automated irrigation equipment. These <br />people have been very receptive to USDA suggestions for improved equipment <br />design. <br /> <br />Planning has been initiated on five wildlife ACP referrals. Practices <br />planned include ponds, tree plantings, food plots, fencing and grass seeding. <br /> <br />SEA-AR has studied the practicality of level basin irrigation in the Grand <br />Valley for the past four years. Alfalfa, corn and small grains, the field <br />crops common to the Grand Valley, have been produced on the basins. <br />Management practices have been refined to the point that yields of all crops <br />can be obtained which significantlY exceed averages for the Grand Valley. <br />Gross irrigation water applications are approximately 50% of those used on <br />the traditional graded surface irrigation systems in the valley. Surface <br />runoff i~ completely eliminated and uniformity of water distribution is <br />increased. Measurements of soil salinity indicate no increases, and in some <br />cases, decreasing salinity levels under the level basin irrigation regime. <br />Automation and scheduling of surface irrigation is simplified for the level <br />basins because once the desired gross water application is determined, this <br />amount can be metered onto the basins with no allowance needed for runoff. <br /> <br />As a result of the encouraging production on the small experimental basins, <br />three new level basins were completed in the spring of 1980. These basins <br />are each approximately 4.5 acres in area, a size that could be practical for <br />many farms. Alfalfa and barley have been established on the basins. Studies <br />of methods of quiCkly restoring productivity on the cut and fill areas will <br />be stressed in 1981. <br /> <br />Also, because of encouraging research results, several small level basins, <br />about 12 acres total, have been installed by a group of private irrigators <br />with assistance from USDA's onfarm improvement program. <br /> <br />SEA-AR is also carrying out two additional studies in the Grand Valley <br />through cooperative agreements with CSU. One of these studies concerns <br />potential problems of sedimentation in buried pipelines. A review of <br />literature and study of theory has resulted in criteria for designing and <br />operating pipelines to prevent significant deposits of sediments in the sizes <br />and concentrations that are common in the Grand Valley irrigation supply. A <br />current phase of this study is also considering improved design for pipeline <br />intakes so that a maximum amount of sediment might be excluded at that <br />point. Under a second cooperative study, effects of minimum tillage, that <br />might be satisfactory for production of row crops under graded surface <br />