Does Irrigation Pay During the Hottest and Driest Summer in Texas History? A Case Study of Irrigated Cotton Farms in the Southern High Plains

Texas has experienced the worst single year drought in state history in 2011, leaving many cotton producers questioning their irrigation practices in the face of such harsh conditions.  Typically, Southern High Plains cotton farmers depend on irrigation as a supplement to adequate subsoil moisture, timely rainfall and moderate summer temperatures.  The 2011 growing season has seen records broken for temperature extremes and duration, as well as lack of rainfall.  In this scenario most irrigated producers have been unable to keep up with the water demand of typically planted cotton acres. 

As the summer of 2011progressed it became obvious that some fields had adequate irrigation capacity to meet the demands of the cotton crop, while many others did not.  In desert regions of the Western United States producers only plant what they can fully irrigate, assuming there will be little to no rain during the growing season.  At current prices these operations appear to be profitable.  Traditionally, it has worked well in the Southern High Plains to stretch water resources to their limit and count on rainfall for a large portion of crop needs.  As we move into the future, producers need to know which irrigation strategy will be most likely to succeed.  Therefore, a group of cotton producers and researchers cooperated to develop case studies based on recent experiences to evaluate the various irrigation alternatives facing growers in coming seasons.  Those alternatives will be analyzed and compared for relative profitability.