The drought monitor, as of Tuesday, Feb. 17th, indicates a improvement from last week with moderately dry in extreme northwest and along the Missouri border and a parts on the Oklahoma border in Southwest and South Central Kansas. Our area is in good shape. The six to ten day forecast (Feb. 24 to 28) indicates a 70 to 80% chance of likely above normal for temperatures and near normal for precipitation. The eight to 14-day forecast indicates (Feb. 26 to March 4) indicates a 60 to 70% chance of likely above normal for temperatures and a continued near normal for precipitation.
Last week, we briefly outlined the water challenges facing Kansas, from declining ground and surface waters to who uses the water. Here, we are simply focusing on the amount of water and not the challenges regarding quality. Today, how or can we make our water resources sustainable well into the future? Not an all inclusive list but some general ideas that are out there for discussion.
• It’s been a while now since first adopted, and the adoption is slowly picking up out of necessity, but intensive groundwater management units are an effective tool in decreasing irrigated water use and heading toward sustainability. Some in Northwest Kansas have seen significant stabilization of groundwater levels. Without going into tremendous detail, a group of producers in a given area come together and agree to decrease groundwater usage. The goal is to head towards sustainability while maintaining economic viability. Currently for this and other work, the Kansas Legislature has so far proposed increasing funding to 25 million dollars, but nothing is certain yet.
• The reality is that we have over appropriated groundwater and that has to change. We need to retire/decrease water rights and allocations. This is tricky in Western Kansas as it effects not only irrigated crop production but has much broader implications. The cattle, feedlot, and beef processing industry are the cornerstone of the economy. Losing feed for cattle production, corn, could have a ripple effect on and cripple the cattle industry. So, not only do we need to decrease water usage but find more water efficient ways to produce corn and look for alternative crops as feed sources for the cattle industry. This will not only require research on the crop side of the equation but also work and research on the feedlot side.
• Finally, part of the previous bullet point involves cultural practices. We need to do everything we can to store and conserve soil water: decrease or eliminate tillage, build organic matter level, improve soil structure and water holding capacity. From fertility to pest control, do everything possible to improve water use efficiency by minimizing plat stress. Alternative, or nontraditional, crops be developed as alternatives to corn.
And pray for rain.
Dr. Victor L. Martin is the agriculture instructor/coordinator for Barton Community College. He can be reached at 620-792-9207, ext. 207, or martinv@bartonccc.edu.
