Nebraska No. 1 in irrigation

LINCOLN --- Nebraska now ranks as the nation's No. 1 irrigation state. In slipping past California, Nebraska has more irrigated farmland acres than any other state. The Cornhusker state accounts for about one of every six acres of U.S. irrigated farmland, according to the U.S. 2007 Census of Agriculture.

By the end of 2007, Nebraska had 8.5 million acres under irrigation. Nebraska added 560,000 irrigated acres from 1997 to 2002 and another 930,000 acres between 2002 and 2007.

The growth comes as the number of irrigated acres is declincing in many parts of the country and could signal looming significant limitations on future irrigation, according to Bruce Johnson, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln agricultural economist. Some areas of Nebraska are over-irrigated, Johnson wrote in the current issue of "Cornhusker Economics."

Johnson said the increase puts certain areas of the state at risk for being classified by state water managers as over-appropriated, which means water demand isn't sustainable with existing supply. About 30,000 irrigated acres may have to be changed to non-irrigated farmland acres as a result, he said. "We have a very precious water resource in this state ... and we're developed pretty much to the max," Johnson said.

While it is not surprising that Nebraska has been in an irrigation expansion mode for several years, what is surprising is that other major irrigation areas of the country have reduced irrigated acreage, Johnson said.

California dropped 900,000 acres between 1997 and 2007, with the bulk of that decline between 2002 and 2007. Johnson attributed the drop to multiyear drought conditions and an ever-growing demand for water by the state's metropolitan areas. California's irrigation acres stood at 8.2 million in 2007, down from 8.71 million in 2002.

Among other major irrigation states, only Arkansas has experienced consistent growth, Johnson said. Texas, which shares part of the vast Ogallala Aquifer with Nebraska, reduced irrigation on about 750,000 acres between 1997 and 2007 as aquifer levels declined due to overuse.

Johnson said the quality of the state's irrigated agriculture is impressive. Three of every four irrigated acres is under center-pivot irrigation. In 2005, an estimated 52,000 center-pivot systems operated in Nebraska, and that number has increased, he said.

Nebraska's irrigated acreage is spread across all 93 counties, but there is considerable variation. Areas of the state not over the Ogallala Aquifer, such as extreme southeast Nebraska, and areas with more marginal cropland like the western Sandhills region, have limited acres under irrigation. The majority of cropland is irrigated in other counties. Custer and Lincoln counties experienced the largest increases in the 10-year time period, 61 percent and 56 percent, respectively.

"Although Nebraska is the leading state in irrigation, the state has essentially reached its maximum development limits," Johnson wrote in the Cornhusker Economics newsletter. "Major portions of Nebraska are already designated as either fully appropriated or over-appropriated."

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