West Texas Water

West Texas Water

The Crop That Will Save South Plains Agriculture

by

Looking across the South Plains during a certain time of year yields a sight of snow white cotton from as far as the eye can see. The little cloud puffs are what West Texas is famous for. But, soon the area may be known for another crop.

Sorghum1

According to Chuck West, Ph.D., a professor in the department of plant and soil science and a top researcher for the Texas Alliance for Water Conservation, sorghum is the crop of West Texas’ future.

West said sorghum is a forage crop. He said sorghum is used as food for animals, particularly cattle. The price of beef is high right now, with large cows being sold for almost $300 a head. With a price like that, sorghum is becoming more important to area farmers and ranchers.

“This offers an option for producers in the area to switch from some of their high water consuming crops to lower water consuming pasture, forage crop that can then be grazed or fed to the animals,” West said, “and end up making some good profit.”

With no end to the drought happening any time soon, West said low-water crops like sorghum are becoming more reliable than other options. He said sorghum does not need to be irrigated as often or as much to be fruitful. Sorghum only needs 20 to 22 inches of irrigation to be successful, while most cotton species need anywhere from 16 to 40 inches in dry climates.

West said other forage crops, such as old world bluestem grass, are being produced in higher quantities in the dry Texas area. West said many farmers are planting different crops throughout their land in order to produce the most profit.

“People are now diversifying there, instead of putting an entire pivot of cotton; they may do half a circle of cotton irrigated, the other half, maybe, dry land cotton or dry land sorghum,” West said. “Next time you’re up in an airplane looking down on a circle, you’ll notice that more and more of them are not uniform full circles. They’ve got different textures and different pieces of the pie.”

Ken Rainwater, Ph.D., former director of the Texas Tech University Water Resources Center and professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering, agreed sorghum is a profitable crop in West Texas. He said farmers who switch to low-water crops like sorghum now rather than later are doing more for the current water stability issue.

Sorghum2

“People are already making those conversions, making crop choices, and you’ll see that continue to happen,” Rainwater said. “Each farmer is making annual choices typically based on the farm bills and the risks they manage, insurance payments and all those things about which crops to raise and when to plant them and how to get an acceptable amount of yield.”

Tech professor and agriculture economist Darren Hudson, Ph.D., also agreed dry land crops are the best choice in today’s West Texas climate. He said farming techniques that will alleviate the need for more irrigation are better choices economically.

“A lot of farmers maybe switch to grain sorghum instead of growing corn. They’ll grow grain sorghum, which requires less water. Things like that. Limited tillage systems where they don’t turn the soil over as much. It increases the chemical use but decreases the water requirement. There’s a number of strategies out there.”

West said researchers are focusing on sorghum and other dry land crops to learn more about how they can help West Texas farmers.

The Big Issue: ALS Or Water Conservation?

by

Searching “Texas ALS Ice Bucket Challenge” on YouTube brings up 327,000 videos, including ones from Texas Tech University. Searching “Texas Drought” results in 63,800 videos — just a fraction of the first search. Which one would you most likely look up?

If every “Texas ALS Ice Bucket Challenge” participant on YouTube used two gallons of water to complete the dare, that would be around 654,000 gallons. The average family of four uses 400 gallons of water a day, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. So, at a 400 gallons per day rate, it would take a f0ur-member family over four years to use 654,000 gallons of water.


Tanner Hockensmith, the executive director of the ALS Association in Texas, said it was hard to say how much the campaign had raised as of August, but it was more than last year.

“This morning (August 29), we found out we crossed the $100 million mark, nationally, from July 29 until today,” Hockensmith said. “This time last year, in the same time frame, it was like $2.2 million. So, obviously, there’s an exponential increase, which is pretty amazing.”

ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects the spinal cord and nerve cells in the brain. Hockensmith described it as being trapped inside one’s body, where you cannot make your muscles move but are still mentally aware of what is going on.

Hockensmith said this has been the most awareness the disease — commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease — has received in a while.

“I think we’ll look back and see that this was a pivotal point in time for ALS,” Hockensmith said. “There was one more pivotal point in time: obviously when Lou Gehrig was diagnosed and gave his famous farewell from baseball. That was 75 years ago.”

Water

Chuck West, assistant professor in plants and soil sciences, said he had seen the ice bucket challenge. West, Ph.D., said central and western Texas have been in a drought for years. Despite the amount of rain the area has received recently, he said people should still be wary of how much water they use.

West said city dwellers are not the only citizens using excessive amounts of water. West works with local farmers to teach them how to properly and most effectively irrigate their crops. He said the amount of water used on landscapes, both in the city and on the farm, is problematic.

“Lawn water is a major use of water in urban areas,” West said. “Whereas a cotton farmer might apply 16 or 18 inches of water during the whole growing season, a person who waters their lawn frequently is putting on 60 inches a year. It’s unbelievable.”

West gave numerous examples of how to conserve water in the city. He said he personally has showering down to one minute and uses only two gallons of water.

“You turn it on for 15 seconds, and during that time you wet your body down, you wet your hair” West said. “Then, turn it off. Then, you do your shampoo and, you know, scrub. Then, turn it on for 45 seconds and rinse yourself off. That’s 60 seconds of water.” (Editor’s note: This is sometimes known as a “Navy shower.”)

Hockensmith said water conservation issues have come up frequently during this activism campaign. He said some people have gotten creative with how they complete the challenge to raise awareness for both issues.

“I think Matt Damon did it best; I mean, he used toilet water,” Hockensmith said. “Get water out of your pool, and poor it on yourself and back into your pool. I think there’s ways you can still do the challenge and still be conservative with water.”

Hockensmith said he thinks one reason the campaign became so popular is because water is easily accessible for everyone.

Although the campaign was not started by the ALS Association, Hockensmith said it has been a blessing to the cause.

“People like to be connected,” Hockensmith said, “and so this is a way people were instantly connected with celebrities and politicians — and their neighbor down the street. It was an act of celebration. It was an act of standing with people with ALS.”