Alfalfa Hay Grown with Municipal Waste Water and Pump Water

Abstract

The influence of municipal waste water on the growth and yield of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) was studied in field experiments near Buckeye, Ariz., in 1974 and 1975. The crop was planted in October of each year at a seeding rate of 22.4 kg/ha (20 lb/acre). Approximately 150 cm (60 in) of irrigation water were applied in flood irrigations each year. The response of alfalfa to two irrigation treatments: (i) pump water from local wells (control) and (ii) municipal waste water from Phoenix and pump water in a 50:50 mixture was compared by sampling the first harvest in selected fields. The hay was harvested when 10% of the alfalfa stems had one or more flowers. Alfalfa irrigated with the waste‐water and pump‐water mixture produced taller plants and higher yields of hay than did alfalfa grown with pump water alone. Total protein in the hay and in vitro dry matter disappearance (IVDMD) of the hay was the same for alfalfa grown with both sources of irrigation water. When municipal waste water was mixed with pump water high in total soluble salts, the salt content of the mixture was reduced and the quality of the irrigation water was improved. The higher hay yields obtained when alfalfa was irrigated with the waste‐water and pump‐water mixture than when grown with pump water alone probably resulted from lower concentrations of soluble salts in the water mixture than in the pump water.

Effect of Beverage Industry Effluent Irrigation Growth, Yield and Quality of Sunflower

“…There was no deleterious effect of the beverage industry effluent on the quality of sunflower oil due to beverage industry effluent. Day et al, (1982) reported that wheat grain quality was not affected by sewage effluent irrigation. Similar observations were reported by Mohan Singh et al, (1993), Babu et al, (1996) and Sharma et al, (2011).…”

Soil chemical changes resulting from irrigating with petrochemical effluents

“…Preliminary work has also been reported on the irrigational utility of petrochemical wastewater (Schmidt et al 1975;Al-A'ama and Nakhla 1995;Aziz et al 1995;Sastry and Sundaramoorthy 1996;Hussain et al 2002). Some works have been done on the performance of a few crops irrigated with wastewaters discharged from various sources (Day et al 1979;Chakrabarti and Chakrabarti 1988;Greene et al 1980;Day et al 1981;Reddy et al 1990;Herpin et al 2007). The present study was designed to attain comprehensive information on the effect of treated-gas processing effluent on soil characteristics temporally and to assess its suitability as an alternate source of fresh water irrigation.…”

Nitrogen and Salt Leaching from Two Typical Texas Turf Soils Irrigated with Degraded Water

“…Land application of degraded water has been widely regarded as an effective option to reduce fresh water amount used for agricultural and municipal irrigation (Thomas et al, 2006). For example, treated municipal wastewater has been successfully land-applied to grow crops and turfgrass (Day et al, 1962(Day et al, , 1982Day and Kirkpatrick, 1973;Duan et al, 2011;Mancino and Pepper, 1992).…”