Irrigation is essential for stabilizing yields in the High Plains as rainfall variability challenges farmers.
Rainfall ranges from 10 inches in eastern Colorado and western Kansas to 60 inches in the wetter southern and eastern regions of Arkansas, water is often the difference between a bumper crop and dust. Irrigation ensures stability, boosts yields and supports livelihoods in an area that is a source of food, feed, fuel, and fiber to millions in the region, across the United States and the world.
But with aquifers like the Ogallala declining and climate variability on the rise, the stakes have never been higher. Irrigation plays a critical role, and farmers know every drop counts.
(Above photo) Irrigated soybeans in Keith County, Nebraska, are watered by the Ogallala Aquifer. The vast underground reservoir reaches as far south as Texas, where it has declined as much as 36% since the 1950s. In Nebraska, the Ogallala has decreased by just 0.34% on average, according to analysis of U.S. Geological Survey reports, although the state’s southwest counties are showing a much greater decline. (Photo courtesy of Bill Spiegel.)
According to the 2023 U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, from the Irrigation and Water Management Survey, there were 309,375 farms with 61 million acres equipped for irrigation across the U.S. The High Plains states collectively accounted for 31.5% of the farms and 41.9% of the acreage.
- Nebraska led the way with 8.4 million irrigation equipped acres, primarily for corn and soybeans.
- Texas followed with 5.1 million acres, including cotton and sorghum.
- Arkansas had nearly 4.6 million acres equipped for irrigation, mainly for cotton and rice.
- Colorado and Kansas each had more than 2.5 million acres.
- Colorado and Montana each had more than 1.5 million acres equipped for irrigation, supporting wheat and barley production.
- Wyoming acreage equipped with irrigation totaled about 1.4 million.
- South Dakota, Oklahoma and New Mexico had smaller, but growing irrigated equipped acreages.
- Irrigated soybeans in Keith County, Nebraska are watered by the Ogallala Aquifer. The vast underground reservoir reaches as far south as Texas, where it has declined as much as 36% since the 1950s.
A summary of the area and number of farms equipped with irrigation by state in the High Plains is shown in Figure 1.
Crops irrigated in the High Plains
USDA-NASS data reveals that 49.6 million acres of harvested cropland were irrigated across the U.S. in 2023. Nearly half of that harvested cropland was in the High Plains. The key crops irrigated in the High Plains (in descending order of area) include:
- Corn: The dominant irrigated crop, essential for livestock feed and ethanol production.
- Soybeans: Increasingly irrigated due to demand for oil and protein meal.
- Pasture/Hay: Supports livestock operations, ensuring forage availability.
- Cotton: Requires consistent moisture for optimal fiber quality.
- Rice: Primarily irrigated in Arkansas and Texas.
- Wheat: Irrigation boosts yields, particularly in drought-prone areas.
- Sorghum: A drought-resistant crop benefiting from supplemental irrigation.
Irrigation brings opportunity with yield
Irrigation significantly enhances farm productivity, stabilizing yields and boosting economic returns. Across the High Plains corn and soybean yields have improved. It has turned the wheat state of Kansas into a corn state. In 2024, farmers in Kansas harvested 748 million bushels of corn from 5.8 million acres while bringing in 307 million bushels of wheat from 7.15 million acres. The yield capability of corn allows for fewer acres to be used as compared to wheat. Soybean production in Kansas for 2024 totaled 155 million bushels from 4.42 million acres.
Corn is a thirsty crop, requiring upward of 1 inch of water weekly during key growing periods. Across Kansas rainfall and soil types vary significantly.
In the Flint Hills of eastern Kansas, Lance Rezac, a farmer near Onaga, and most recently the chairman of the U.S. Soybean Export Council, and a director on the United Soybean Board, grows row crops and raises cattle. Some of his farmland is on sandy soil that does not retain water. In 1999, he installed his first pivot irrigation, which was manufactured in 1979, to improve corn yield potential and provide stability during hot, dry conditions.
For Rezac, corn grown on dryland with no irrigation might yield 180 bushels per acre during a good year. With irrigation he achieves 240 acres per acre, a one-third increase in productivity. However, during a hot dry year when he runs irrigation his corn might yield 180 bushels per acre because otherwise, he would only get 100 bushels without irrigation, which would be a 44% loss in productivity.
Corn provides Rezac with the greatest benefit. Soybeans are irrigated, but they require more attention, and it is not conclusive how much water to apply for maximum gain, he said.
In western Kansas, Kurt Maurath farms row crops on silt loam soil near Oakley. He also is a director on the Unted Soybean Board. His soil can hold 2 inches of water per foot. He first installed a center pivot for his farm in 1988. Today about 15% of his farmland is equipped for irrigation and the rest is dryland. Using irrigation, Maurath had a similar yield response like Rezac.
Maurath uses various technologies to irrigate his farmland. Pulling water from the Ogallala Aquifer, he and other farmers are conscientious of the need to maximize water use. With the help of technology and adjustments to irrigation patterns, he has been able to reduce his water usage while improving yield capability. For example, he installed “hose drops” from his pivot to keep water closer to the ground as the plant grows. This reduces evaporation and allows him to get 97% of the irrigated water on the ground. Before he used the hose drop, he relied on the overhead sprinkler on the pivot. The overhead sprinkler was able to deliver 55% of the water to the ground.
Both Rezac and Maurath use smartphone apps to monitor their irrigation operations. They can turn on or off or adjust patterns as needed. This allows them to limit the number of trips to the field while allowing them to manage fields further away from their base.
Maurath uses soil probes in his fields to monitor the moisture profile. While those probes do not sync with sensors that are mounted on the pivot, he is able to monitor them through his smartphone app. He can calibrate pivot speed and direction depending on the profile from the soil probes. There are experiments to sync the sensers to the pivot, but doing so is expensive. The equipment on the pivot is equipped with rain gauges, thermometers and video cameras.
With the camera Maurath can zoom in and monitor for weeds and insect damage from the comfort of his office or wherever he might be. Drip irrigation is another advancement as water is applied from below the ground at the root level. With drip irrigation evaporation is minimized and can be used in odd-shaped fields over any topography. Rezac and Maurath have considered drip irrigation and are cautious using it since the system is installed 10 inches to 12 inches below the ground.
Flood irrigation has been used for decades, but it is more laborious and requires more water to get maximum benefit.
It is not just irrigation technology that helps reduce water usage, but through the layering of tools and resources. For example, seeds have been bred to be more drought tolerant, the use of variable rate planters allow for more precise planting of seeds and adopting strip and no-till practices to build up soil organic matter aids in water retention.
Maurath sees the influence of artificial intelligence as the next valuable tool. With AI, the ability of integrating autonomous pivots and the promise of satellite imagery, he envisions customized algorithms for his operation to maximize the use of water while minimizing the amount used.
Water crisis is real, so are solutions
As mentioned earlier and as brought up by Maurath, water availability is a concern. The Ogallala Aquifer has many users including farmers for irrigation and municipalities for drinking water. However, its supply of water is being depleted faster than it is being replenished. As Maurath said, farmers know this and are striving to do something about it through technology and other means.
Lucas Haag, PhD, associate professor at the Kansas State University Northwest Research-Extension Center in Colby, highlighted how farmers are adjusting. He noted some states regulate water use while other states do not. This creates tension for those near the state borders that share the same water resources. The issue is not just pumping water from an aquifer, but also from all sources including surface water. And most water matters are surface water oriented, especially managing ground water.
Haag discussed how farmers are taking it upon themselves to self-regulate. One such group is the Sheridan Six, which is a group of determined farmers who voluntarily conserve a certain amount of water over a specific number of years. Their objective is to limit themselves to 55 inches of water use over five years. What they are doing is deploying techniques, technologies and farm practices to manage water usage for maximum productivity on their operations. Since setting up this group in 2013, they have reduced their water usage by at least 20% compared to others who do not participate.
Through such self-imposed efforts farmers can prove that conserving water is beneficial and through proper farmland management they can achieve favorable outcomes. Haag collaborates with farmers using his research to help conserve groundwater. And farmers are hearing the message by seeing the research results.
Haag noted that dairy farms have moved into Kansas to be near an available supply of feed and relative proximity to different consumer markets. He cited one dairy that moved from Pennsylvania to Kansas 25 years ago that has been working with a consumer package goods company to minimize its water use footprint. Dairies use a fair amount of water for care and milk production. They also need hay and silage that often requires irrigation.
This farm set out to reclaim water while condensing the milk to remove water and send concentrate to the customer, Haag said. While water use in a dairy is insignificant compared to row crops, efforts to conserve water require everyone in the commodity value supply chain to implement programs to reduce its use of water.
Keith Grimm, founder of MWI Valley, works with farmers to install and service their irrigation systems. Based in Hiawatha, Kansas, and founded in mid-2000s, MWI Valley mostly serves farmers in a 75-mile radius and working with some that are up to three hours away. Since 2012, Grimm has worked with the Kansas state legislature to change surface water regulations to store surface water in ponds for irrigation purposes. He says that Kansas gets a fair amount of rain, but at the wrong time. Being able to store surface water allows farmers to use it when needed and as conditions require.
The legislation is under review and requires ongoing education of elected officials and regulators. Grimm regularly testifies before the Kansas legislature who have been favorable toward farmer efforts to conserve water usage.
At Kansas State University’s Kansas River Valley and East Central Kansas Experiment Fields near Topeka, Eric Adee, professor and agronomist in charge, manages water usage at that farm. The soil at the research farm has a high sand content, up to 60%, and does not hold moisture.
Without irrigation farmers would be limited to what they can grow. They are dependent on irrigation.
At peak water use on corn, they use one-third of an inch of water through evapotranspiration. Peak watering depends on the time of year, growing cycle and weather conditions. Adee said if the irrigation system broke down and did not run, they would start losing yield on their crops.
As a research farm, he can assess various techniques and technologies while other researchers and Extension agents from K-State will use plots at the farm to conduct their own research. There is a proposal to use drip irrigation to quantify its benefits. Based on other studies, he expects drip irrigation will be 30 to 40% more efficient than the next best irrigation technique.
Irrigation comes with a cost
Irrigation requires considerable investment, with farmers spending $3 billion on irrigation equipment and $3.3 billion on energy costs in 2023. Farmland Partners, a publicly traded real estate investment trust that “purchases, leases, and manages high-quality farmland through North America,” reports that water related assets (groundwater, irrigation improvements and drainage improvements) combined are the second highest categories on its balance sheet. During fiscal year 2024 that ended Dec. 31, irrigation improvements alone totaled $28.9 million out of assets that totaled $868.6 million.
Costs to install and operate irrigation vary by type of system. And each system has its pros and cons. Farmers across the High Plains primarily rely on center-pivot irrigation (for one operation a new system costs about $170,000, up from $30,000 for the first system the operation purchased in the late 1980s) followed by flood irrigation (requires extensive land work) and drip irrigation (upward of $4,000 per acre) that is growing in popularity but still limited.
Each system can pull water from various sources including wells, surface water, aquifer, or ponds. Each of these have their own cost structures depending on size and scope. There are then several types of pumps using various fuel types. Each fuel type, whether diesel, gasoline, natural gas, propane, or electricity has its own cost structure. Technology also has a cost. For example, the use of soil probes costs about $1,500 per probe for one year. Another type of probe can cost $5,500 plus an annual subscription. And each field requires several probes
to get a good profile. Using electronic nozzles on pivots requires up to 250 units depending on the size of the pivot and those are expensive relative to their benefit, but improving, nonetheless.
The future could be hot and dry, but having adequate water is possible
Irrigation is a vital tool for High Plains agriculture, balancing economic costs, with yield benefits.
As water resources face increasing pressure, sustainable irrigation practices will be crucial for long-term viability. While the capital cost and cost of operating irrigation has increased to elevated levels, the diminished use of irrigation could be more costly. By integrating expert perspectives, technology and pertinent data, irrigation will have a long-lasting role in shaping the future of High Plains farming.
Ken Eriksen can be reached at [email protected].
