Fieldprint Calculator: A Sustainability Analysis in the Texas High Plains

Since 2005, the Texas Alliance for Water Conservation (TAWC) has worked directly with producers in over nine counties in the Southern High Plains to demonstrate technologies and management practices to support water conservation efforts.  There are over 30 demonstration sites that cover over 5,000 acres representing monoculture, multi-crop, and integrated crop-livestock systems.  Irrigation systems represented on the sites include furrow, Low Energy Precision Application (LEPA), Low Elevation Spray Application (LESA), Mid-Elevation Spray Application (MESA), Subsurface Drip Irrigation (SDI), and dryland.  Budgets are collected from the TAWC producers for analysis on profitability and water use.

The TAWC is part of a pilot project with the National Cotton Council to develop economic and environmental performance-based production metrics for grower improvement. The budget data collected from the TAWC producers will be input into the Fieldprint Calculator, a sustainability tool developed by Field to Market: The Keystone Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture. Producers growing corn, cotton, and wheat will be evaluated by metrics for land use, soil conservation, soil carbon, irrigation water use, energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, and water quality. A regression analysis will be performed to identify the most significant metrics.