CALF_News_April_May_2021

14 CALF News • April | May 2021 • www.calfnews.net By Larry Stalcup Contributing Editor T heir mission is to prime the pump of High Plains water conservation. And stakeholders in the celebrated Ogallala Aquifer are pooling their knowledge to enhance the threatened gargantuan groundwater source – one that supports nearly one- fifth of the nation’s wheat, corn, cotton and cattle production. During the recent virtual Ogallala Summit, crop and livestock producers, agronomists, ag researchers, engineers and water policy developers were among many who Zoomed into the forum. It would have made irrigation pioneers proud. The 174,000-square-mile Ogallala is the lifeblood for much of High Plains’ agriculture. But after supplying irriga- tion to farms from South Dakota down to Texas since the 1950s and earlier, the aquifer has been shrinking for years. Decades of irrigation and failure of the Ogallala to recharge has forced the cap- ping of hundreds of dried-up irrigation wells. Hundreds more struggle to pro- vide enough supplemental water needed to produce anything close to trend-line or average yields. In the southern High Plains, most irrigators have strived to improve water use efficiency. They saw water scarcity coming. For many, it has been through using low-energy precision application (LEPA), surge flow, subsurface drip or other water-saving measures. With better technology through precision ag, more efficient nozzling, smart- phone apps to control watering systems remotely and other advancements, those improvements continue across Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming. The summit highlighted produc- ers and others who are taking further voluntary conservation steps. Some use voluntary Water Conservation Areas (WCAs) to streamline water manage- ment and reduce withdrawals from the Ogallala. Others are enrolled in Master Irrigator programs. Additional programs aim at educating producers about better conservation techniques that improve efficiency. And there are more teaching efforts with 4-H, high school, college and other groups as targets. Among innovative growers partici- pating in the summit was Gina Gigot, who with her brother, Marc, manages a large livestock and crop operation out of Garden City, Kan. Virtually everything grown on their farm is for silage, hay or pasture to support either their feedyard, dairy or grazing. Gigot said they considered the WCA program after studying information they obtained from the 2018 Ogallala Summit. “We knew we needed better water conservation,” she said. “We needed to raise corn and other crops in sandy soils with less water.” Consistency was essential to their WCA. They switched pumping from 8 Ogallala Ogallala Summit Confronts the Aquifer's Adversities Continued on page 16  The Ogallala Aquifer supports production of one-fifth of the nation’s corn, wheat, cotton and cattle production. But key areas are seeing major water level decline. Saving the