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Those costs are known, and outside of California and Nebraska, almost no crops are irrigated. As far as transporting crops to markets? That's actually a succes
by kickout 5y ago
Those costs are known, and outside of California and Nebraska, almost no crops are irrigated.
As far as transporting crops to markets? That's actually a success story. Rail hauls most of the crops from Montana to the PNW (if exporting to China). Rail is dirt cheap and efficient, as any true HN reader will know. :)
- stonogo 5y agoFor context, the "almost no crops" that are irrigated comprises about fifty-five million acres, a little over 7% of cropland & pastures. Removing pastures from this data is difficult, but since we're only looking at three hundred million acres primary cropland in the US, we can confidently approximate between a tenth and a sixth of primary crops are irrigated. 1 - https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/Todays_Reports/reports/acrg0619.pdf https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/Todays_Reports/report...
- thehappypm 5y agoDo you know if things like sprinklers count as irrigation? I grew up spending a lot of time in Delaware which is tons of farmland, and I remember seeing lots of weird watering devices and sprinklers.
- kickout 5y agoYes, they absolutely do. https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2017/june/understanding-irrigated-agriculture/ https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2017/june/understanding...
- kickout 5y agoI believe around 50% of that 55M acres are hay/forage/pasture. Nebraska and Colorado are easily top players. I underestimated the delta. Point remains there isn’t a ton a irrigated production for commodity crops (corn/soy/wheat/cotton)