| |
![NRCS This Week mast head](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090117125849im_/http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/news/thisweek/images/mastheaddshadow3.jpg)
New Texas Initiative Targets Water Conservation
![NRCS Chief Bruce Knight (second from left) visits a Texas Alliance for Water Conservation demonstration site to learn more about the project’s potential](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090117125849im_/http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/news/thisweek/images/knightlowresmed.jpg)
NRCS Chief Bruce Knight (second from left) visits a Texas Alliance for
Water Conservation demonstration site to learn more about the project’s
potential |
NRCS, SARE, and Texas Tech University are teaming up to reduce agricultural
water consumption across the Texas High Plains. Texas Tech University researcher
Vivien Allen along with her management team and NRCS conservation agronomist
Monty Dollar will be able to demonstrate their water-conserving farming
strategies in an effort to control the dropping water level in the Ogallala
aquifer thanks to a $6.2 million State grant. Allen’s team, the Texas Alliance
for Water Conservation, is also using the opportunity to test their
moisture-conserving systems across 4,000-acres on 26 farms and ranches. NRCS
Chief Bruce Knight visited some of the demonstration sites last June to learn
more about the project’s potential.
Cotton in Texas remains a huge industry, with about one-quarter of the total
U.S. cotton supply coming from the state’s High Plains region. Yet, with water
levels declining in the Ogallala aquifer, the main water source for northern
Texas growers, scientists are seeking water-conserving alternatives to
monocultured cotton.
The research began six years ago when Allen received the first of two grants
from the SARE program and developed an innovative cotton, cattle and forage
rotation that not only reduces water use by 23 percent, but also yields higher
profits. The state initiative, championed by state Senator Robert Duncan, which
made headlines because of its dollar amount and potential positive impact on
water use, will further advance that research.
Much of the High Plains region relies on the Ogallala for water, including
Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico and Texas. In Texas,
the High Plains region has been targeted as a high priority under EQIP, and most
of those funds are awarded for highly efficient irrigation practices, Dollar
said.
“The declining aquifer greatly affects us,” added Dollar, a member of the team
for Allen’s SARE-funded research and the new demonstration project. “Irrigation
water is instrumental in producing profitable yields that sustain our
operations. Yet, we’ve got to learn to live with less water. We’re going to find
out if we can do that.”
Starting in the early 1940s, when Texas farmers began irrigating from wells
drilled into the Ogallala, irrigation proved a reliable inexpensive practice. As
water levels in the Ogallala drop, however, cotton farmers face increased fuel
costs to extract water.
By contrast, Allen’s research focuses on diversifying into profitable rotations
that use less water. Under the state project, producers will test diversified
systems, with the conservation team measuring their water use.
“The producers will apply these water-conserving strategies, giving us practical
data from the field,” Dollar said. For instance, some farmers will rotate
pasture grasses with cotton for forage or grazing; others will over-seed
cool-season cereal crops into cotton for cover crop protection, livestock
grazing or harvest.
Project leaders look forward to the next step.
“The thing that’s really unique about the demonstration project is the
cooperation among producers and state and federal entities” said Rick Kellison,
a producer and the director of the demonstration project.
“This is a novel approach, the next era of research,” said Allen. “Now, in
addition to the four replicated systems on the research farm, we have 26 ways
additional ways to test systems in real-time conditions on farms under the
producers’ management. It’s enormous.”
About SARE
Since 1988, the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program
has helped advance farming systems that are profitable, environmentally sound
and good for communities through a nationwide grants program. The program,
administered by the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension
Service, USDA, funds projects and conducts outreach designed to improve
agricultural systems and natural resources.
NRCS field office professionals frequently collaborate on SARE-funded projects
and are valuable partners to the SARE program. NRCS staff serve on SARE’s
national Operations Committee, on regional Administrative Councils, on State
committees and are actively engaged as technical advisers and collaborators on
SARE-funded research grants around the U.S.
![Map of the four SARE regions: North Central, Northeast, South, and West](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090117125849im_/http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/news/thisweek/images/SARE%20map.gif)
For more information, visit
the SARE website or for more information about the regional SARE programs, click on the region
area of the map below.
Your contact is Diana Friedman, SARE
research associate, at 301-504-6422.
| | |