Dear Dr. Dzotsi,

The DSSAT models will try to continue running until simulation is
terminated, generally by harvest maturity, a scheduled harvest or a crop
failure.  It is not unusual for a growing season to pass a year
boundary.  When this happens, the crop model will look for the next
weather file in the sequence.  It looks like, in your case, the model is
going beyond a single boundary between two years.  This could be caused
by any of a number of errors in the FILEX.  A few possibilities that
come to mind include:

Mismatch between simulation start date and planting date (either
scheduled under *PLANTING or the planting window for automatic planting
under *SIMULATION CONTROLS).

Excessive sowing depth that delays emergence.

Low temperatures that delay maturity.  -- Check the format, units and
values in the weather files.

An error in cultivar coefficients that delay maturity.

Harvesting at an incorrect reported date, rather than at harvest maturity.

Specifying multiple years in the *SIMULATION CONTROLS section.

There is a chance that crossing the century boundary (e.g., starting the
simulation in 1999, and planting or harvesting in 2000) might cause
problems.

I hope this helps.  Without seeing the FILEX, I cannot guess where the
problem lies.


Dzotsi, Kofikuma wrote:

> Dear members,
>
> I am using DSSAT35 for simulating sowing dates effects on some chosen maize
> varieties in the southern region of Togo (West Africa). But whenever I run
> the simulations, the output file stops at the header SIMULATED CROP AND
> SOIL
> STATUS AT MAIN DEVELOPMENT STAGES giving the maturity details with the
> following message below them:
>
> File not found.  Create input file.
>
> File: VOGA0201.WTH   Line:     1   Error key: IPWTH
>
> VOGA0101.WTH (and not VOGA0201.WTH)   is my weather file but when I
> tried to
> rename VOGA0101.WTH to VOGA0201.WTH, the message would appear again asking
> for, this time, VOGA0301.WTH and so on.
>
> Can you help please?
>
> Kofikuma Dzotsi
> School of Agriculture
> Lomé, Togo

Regards,
--
Dr. James W. Hansen
Associate Research Scientist - Agricultural Systems
International Research Institute for Climate Prediction
P.O. Box 1000
Palisades, NY 10964-8000
USA

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