Solving the irrigation puzzle in the Pacific Northwest

As the organic sector continues its 7% annual growth, growers are facing increasingly complex regulatory and agronomic hurdles. The CCA Organic Specialty certification is designed to give you the specific expertise needed to lead in this high-demand market.

Learn more. 

What are mean separation values, and how can Certified Crop Advisers (CCAs) use them? Being able to interpret mean separation techniques such as least significant difference (LSD), Tukey’s honestly significant difference (HSD), and Duncan’s test can help CCAs better understand if the yield difference between different treatments or different varieties is true or more likely attributed to chance.

In this video, which is part of the new “CCA Essentials” series, Dr. Alex Lindsey of The Ohio State University shows how LSD values and other statistical tools can be used to determine with a certain level of confidence if the difference between treatments is significant.

This video corresponds to the Crop Management Performance Objective: Understand how to use mean separation techniques such as least significant difference (LSD) values to interpret differences among varieties or hybrids.

As water supplies tighten across the Pacific Northwest, growers are turning to a combination of technology, data, and improved irrigation practices to get the most crop from every drop. Experts say maximizing center-pivot efficiency requires more than just new equipment—it also depends on regular maintenance, weather-based scheduling, soil moisture monitoring, and careful planning. From updated crop water-use research to high-efficiency sprinkler packages, a growing toolbox is helping producers and their CCAs balance yields, costs, and increasingly limited water resources.

Earn 0.5 CEUs in Soil & Water Management by reading the article and taking the quiz.