water

Kansas farmer might just get the last laugh

Farm and Food

Alan Guebert

In a recent telephone conversation, a southwest Kansas farmer casually noted that he had stopped growing irrigated corn some years back because ‘it cost too much.’ Curious, I asked what it cost to irrigate an acre of corn in his arid, cattle-feeding-and-corn-hungry corner of the state.

‘It wasn’t the money,’ he quickly explained, ‘it was the water.’

Most years, he said, he had applied about 18 inches of water per acre to produce a 200-bushel crop. ‘That was about 2,500 gallons of water per bushel, and I just thought that was too much. So I went back to wheat and milo.’

Right now, most ag irrigators from Boston to Bakersfield are either laughing out loud or snickering quietly at this farmer for not doing what most would have done: keep irrigating. Or, in this case, use 10,000-year-old groundwater to grow a subsidized commodity crop in an increasingly arid region of the country to likely feed a meat animal or an ethanol plant.

And, legally, the snickerers are right. In almost every agricultural area in the nation, there are no laws to keep farmers, ranchers and agbiz from using their Stone Age water to grow, process and market any 21st century crop they choose — even if it takes 2,500 gallons to grow one bushel of corn or one gallon to grow one, likely-to-be-exported, almond.

So far, that is. As public awareness of private water use grows, so does the pressure on how local, state and federal governments allocate today’s dwindling supplies. More importantly, because of agriculture’s overall thirst — 70% of water usage worldwide is sucked up by farming and ranching — agriculture is the biggest, fattest, slowest target in every effort or idea to re-allocate it.

This year’s building drought only adds urgency to those calls. In fact, on April 4, the U.S. Drought Monitor, a joint effort by the University of Nebraska (Lincoln), the U.S. Department of Agriculture , and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , released an updated map that shows ‘76.7% of the North American Great Plains’ experiencing dryness that ranges from ‘Abnormally Dry,’ the lowest level, to ‘Drought-Exceptional,’ the highest level.

That means virtually every agricultural acre west of the Missouri River in the U.S. and the majority of the productive Canadian provinces from the Great Lakes through the Rockies begins the 2022 growing season with either ‘abnormal’ dryness or much worse.

California, the biggest U.S. agricultural state by far, already faces unprecedented pressure to restrict water usage. After a promisingly wet early winter, reported by the New York Times in late March, ‘January and February represented the driest two-month start to a year on record.’

Most of that shortfall is tied to the ‘dismal’ winter snowpack, a key source of water in California, that stands at only 39% of normal. Already, a recently announced joint state/federal project hopes to spend some of its nearly $3 billion to keep 824,000 acre feet of water, or 268 billion gallons, in the state’s rivers and out of northern California rice fields.

Alarmingly, however, even though 268 billion gallons is a massive amount, it will supply only 1.6 million California households — in a state with 14.4 million — with enough water for one year. And that’s if the plan succeeds. The rest, and the state’s 4.4 million businesses, will continue to scramble for whatever else can be begged, borrowed, or …

Today’s rapid climate change will make it worse. Already, forecasters suggest 10%, or 500,000 acres, of California’s productive San Joaquin Valley need to be permanently fallowed ‘by 2040 to achieve sustainable water usage.’

Who wants to tell those about-to-be-fallowed farmers that their water will soon be someone else’s?

Not me, but those farmers — and, sooner than later, every U.S. farmer and rancher — will face similar news. As such, my Kansas farmer friend might just get the last laugh.

Alan Guebert is an agricultural journalist. See past columns at

19 Likes

Today’s rapid climate change will make it worse. Already, forecasters suggest 10%, or 500,000 acres, of California’s productive San Joaquin Valley need to be permanently fallowed ‘by 2040 to achieve sustainable water usage.’

Who wants to tell those about-to-be-fallowed farmers that their water will soon be someone else’s?

I hope they start with the farms owned by the Saudi’s who grow water intense crops to ship home. Sorry, no link, but remember reading a shocking article about that, possibly from a link from this board. A quick google shows this Saudi farm in AZ, depleting their water tables to ship hay back home to the dairies: https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/ej-montini/201…

Multiple others on the page: https://www.google.com/search?q=saudi+farms+in+arizona&r…

It’s bad enough depleting our water table to feed ourselves.

IP

10 Likes

cgrinder, the topic of water is an important Macro topic. However, your post will probably be pulled by the TMF staff because you have copied so much that it violates copyright rules.

If you post on METAR:

  1. Don’t post more than a few small snips.

  2. Add a link to the original article so we can read the entire thing.

  3. Add your own opinion but clearly differentiate what is yours from what you have copied. I do this by using a different font. < tt> < b> Leave out the spaces. Then put < /tt> < /b> to go back to the regular font and put [end quote] before you continue with your own ideas.

Of course, follow the METAR rules:
No partisan politics.
No personal insults.
No religion.

Wendy

6 Likes

I wonder why the farmer didn’t mention the corn silage produced in addition to the bushels of corn.

The average is 10 to 30 tons per acre.

It’s not just the corn that makes the money.

Kansas is not a top corn producer for the very reason the article stated. Irrigation is expensive. You see a lot more corn grown in the northern and north-eastern portions of the state.

gcr

1 Like

Some residential wells in Michigan are going dry or salty as the aquifer is depleted, but the state virtually gives water away to bottling companies.

Residents outraged by new water deal allowing Nestle to pump millions of gallons from Michigan

Nestle pays $200 per year to pump 1.1 million gallons of water each day

https://www.clickondetroit.com/consumer/2018/07/18/residents…

Texas doesn’t give it’s oil and gas away.

Lifted by revenue pulled from the Permian Basin in West Texas, the state’s oil and natural gas industry paid $13.9 billion in taxes and royalties in fiscal 2020, or around $38 million/day, according to a top industry group.

https://www.naturalgasintel.com/permian-fueled-revenue-lifts…

Steve

6 Likes

I hope they start with the farms owned by the Saudi’s who grow water intense crops to ship home. Sorry, no link, but remember reading a shocking article about that, possibly from a link from this board.

The Saudis are formidable “job creators”. The have the bulk of the US Congress on their payroll.

intercst

7 Likes

Some residential wells in Michigan are going dry or salty…

Why would they go salty?

DB2

The Saudis are formidable “job creators”. The have the bulk of the US Congress on their payroll.

Link?

DB2

Steve: Texas doesn’t give it’s oil and gas away.

Texas does allow various water bottling entities to bottle lots of water for cheap.

1996 article: Water Grab
Why farmers and big-city folk are at war over water. Plus: Jane Nelson for comptroller?
https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/water-grab/

*while in East Texas, Henderson County farmers have lost a fight to stop Ozarka Spring Water from pumping 72,000 gallons a day from Roher Spring*.

I can’t find a link, but there have been reports, through the years, that the costs to Ozarka are nominal?

Ozark is a subsidiary of Nestle?

Texas ground water rights are “who ever has the biggest straw, can suck as much water out if the ground as they want”.

ENVIRONMENT : Huge Catfish Farm Could Tip the Scales of Texas Water Law : The gushing well that feeds the operation has rekindled a long-running controversy over public needs and the rights of landowners.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-12-24-mn-975-st…

Pucek hit a big gusher and a bigger controversy.
It wasn’t oil he found, but water. Lots of it. When drillers made the strike in the spring, it was something of huge proportions, **a fountain that spurted some 50 feet high** and nearly washed away the drilling rig. It is believed to be one of the world’s largest man-made artesian wells, producing about 30,000 gallons of water a minute.

Snip

The sheer size of the catfish farm got people’s attention. Pucek uses **43 million gallons a day**--enough for a city of 220,000 and a fourth of what nearby San Antonio uses.

Snip

Texas and California, the states that are the two biggest users of ground water, are the only Western states that have no statewide ground water regulations. Texas regulates surface water, such as rivers and lakes, but not ground water. **Landowners in the state have virtually unlimited rights to pump water.**

:sun_with_face:
ralph

2 Likes

Why would they go salty?

Fresh water is lighter than salt water, so the top layer in the aquifer is fresh. Salinity increases with depth. I read somewhere along the line that Dow Chemical started in Midland Michigan, because it could drill down to the brine at the bottom of the aquifer, pump the brine up and recover the minerals. As the fresh layer is depleted, the salt water migrates upward.

Dry wells, salty crops forced Ottawa County to confront groundwater crisis

https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-environment-watch/dry-well…

It wouldn’t be so bad if the state charged a reasonable fee to the bottling companies to help pay for water security for the rest of the state, filtration plants or pipelines to the lakes, but they don’t. The Flint water crisis started when the city shifted from the Detroit water system, which draws from Lake Huron, to drawing from the river in the city, but not treating it properly, to cut cost.

Steve

2 Likes

Wendy i would have done that if i knew the rules and if i would know how to link it…

i am not very computer savy and thanks for explaining it to me

Los Angeles lives on the edge of a desert. However…

Plan for controversial Huntington Beach desalination plant rejected
www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/vote-likely-thursday-on-cont…
The California Coastal Commission Thursday unanimously rejected a controversial plan to build a desalination plant in Huntington Beach…Back in 2017, the California State Lands Commission unanimously approved the $1 billion private project which has been planned along Pacific Coast Highway.

DB2