Two Year Comparison of Warm Season Legume Production with and without Drip Irrigation In the Summer In a Semiarid Region of West Texas.

Legumes have many beneficial uses including soil enrichment, green manure, feed for economically important wildlife species, and healthy forage for livestock. In the second year of this experiment four legume varieties: cowpea (Vigna unguiculata “Red Ripper”), mungbean (Vigna radiata), cowpea (Vigna unguiculata “Iron and Clay”), and lablab (Lablab purpureus) were all planted in a clay soil with and without a drip irrigation system, in a randomized complete block design. A total of four blocks were planted, each containing one replication of three rows of each legume. This experiment was designed to determine if drip irrigation would be a suitable method for growing legumes for forage in a semiarid environment. The four legumes that were compared were selected due to their suitability as forage species for goats. Around the time of flowering, the plants were harvested to examine morphological characteristics and leaf nitrogen (N) concentration. Plant leaf area was significantly higher (P = 0.0993) in lablab (3,180.7cm²) than mungbean (1,194.0cm²) with cowpea intermediate. Plant aboveground dry weight was significantly (P = 0.0243) higher for lablab (39.672g) than cowpea “Red Ripper” (19.497g), mungbean (12.579g) and cowpea “Iron and Clay” (15.414g). The total plants per hectare for the site were not significantly different between the irrigated and non-irrigated sections.  Leaf nitrogen concentration differed significantly between species (P = 0.0749) with lablab (3.70%) significantly higher than mungbean (3.30%) and cowpea intermediate. Differences between this year’s crop data and last year’s are discussed.