Corn Response to Drainage Water Recycling in a Blackoar Silt Loam.

Drainage water recycling utilizes on-farm ponds to store water for irrigation use later in the growing season. A site was established in 2009 that evaluated annual forage production of subsurface tile drainage and controlled drainage systems on a compared to a non-drained control. In 2015, the controlled drainage treatment was converted to a subirrigated treatment that allowed recycling of drainage water from a storage pond. The objective of this research was to evaluate corn response to drainage water recycling or drainage plus subirrigation (DSI) compared to free drainage (FD) and non-drained (ND) and quantify water applied for DSI. Grain yields were ranked DSI (12.8 Mg ha^-1) > FD (12.5 Mg ha^-1) > ND (12.0 Mg ha^-1) in 2016. Drainage water recycling could also help reduce nitrate and phosphorus loss.