An Agronomist's Note on the Transition of Irrigation on the Texas High Plains.

Irrigation on the High Plains is first and foremost a matter of economics. Irrigation is essential for stabilizing yields in the region’s semi-arid environment, but as irrigation becomes limited by groundwater district restrictions and/or declining well capacities, irrigated producers are evaluating production practices and considering the profitability of crop selection with limited water. Currently, planted corn acreage in this region is approximately 550,000 acres, but cropping practices are shifting as a result of the inability to meet corn water requirements during peak reproductive stages specifically in the southern and western High Plains. While summer production acreage remains predominately grain and fiber crops, there is an increasing number of producers with limited well capacity who are considering limited acreage planted to cash crops such as potatoes, pickling cucumbers, pumpkins, watermelons, squash, snap-beans, carrots, and chilis. Regionally, this is a small fraction of irrigated production only accounting for approximately 20,000 acres, and while these crops can potentially have a high water demand, on limited acreage producers are able to meet the crop water requirements within the boundaries of regional water district’s restrictions and with reduced well capacities. In such scenarios, the producer’s remaining production acreage is often planted to drought tolerant crops such as sorghum or cotton that is either deficit irrigated or dryland. While there is greater risk incorporating vegetables due to insurance dynamics, this scenario allows producers to achieve a greater net return than is possible with only deficit irrigated and/or dryland grain or cotton production. With limited well capacities, producers are not simply switching to dryland production or even deficit irrigation; they are searching for avenues to compensate for reduced net returns as irrigation production declines. While this is currently viewed a regional niche, it is a potential solution to economic sustainability of irrigated production with limited well capacities.