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Tag Archives Irrigation — page 3

A team of researchers have published a paper that shows irrigation of cattle feed crops is the greatest consumer of river water in the western United States.
News

The challenge of raising beef and dairy in a desert

Science Notes: Irrigation to feed crops for cattle in western U.S. drops river levels

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Humans are using freshwater resources faster than they can be naturally replenished. In the western United States, for example, water extractions from the Colorado River have exceeded total river flow, causing rapid depletion of water storage reservoirs. In addition, as these water sources dry up, species of fish, plants and animals are also adversely impacted. […] Read more
Watermelons head to market in California.
Crops, News

Managing water for farming on a large scale

California’s most recent drought has pushed farmers to become more water-use efficient

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The drought may be over but water continues to be a top-of-mind issue in California — particularly for its US$50 billion a year agriculture sector. Most of the state’s rainfall happens in the north and most consumption in the agricultural and urbanized south, which has created a complex water distribution network anchored by two main […] Read more
Plant biology professor Evan DeLucia and his colleagues found that increasing crop yields and hotter conditions expected by midcentury will lead to a need for crop irrigation in the Midwest.
News

Higher crop yields increase need for Midwest irrigation

Science Notes: As corn crops get bigger with more yield, they will need for more water

If crop improvement and warming trends continue into the future, Midwestern corn growers who today rely on rainfall to water their crops will need to irrigate their fields, a new study finds. This could draw down aquifers, disrupt streams and rivers, and set up conflicts between agricultural and other human and ecological needs for water, […] Read more
(Lindsay Irrigation video screengrab via YouTube)
Machinery

Ontario power utilities offer farm water pump rebate

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Ontario farmers buying certain types of high-efficiency water pumping systems for irrigation, horticulture or stock watering could now be up for rebates. Hydro One and Niagara Peninsula Energy (NPEI) on Friday announced the AgriPump rebate program, which the two electricity utilities described as the first plan of its kind in the province. For farmer customers […] Read more
A young commercial date palm planting in California’s Coachella Valley. (RF Lee photo courtesy ARS/USDA)
Crops

California rules led to near 25 per cent cut in water use

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Sacramento | Reuters –– Residents and businesses in drought-stricken California cut back water use by nearly 25 per cent from June 2015 through the end of February 2016 — enough to supply nearly six million people for a year, officials said Monday. The state’s first ever mandatory cutbacks in water use were imposed by Democratic […] Read more
Wheat under irrigation on Ravenshoe Station near Hay, New South Wales. (Arthur Mostead photo courtesy Murray Darling Basin Authority/MDBA.gov.au)
Crops

Drought exposes cracks in Australia’s acclaimed water market

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Sydney | Reuters — A pioneering Australian scheme to improve the management of water in the world’s driest inhabited continent is facing its first real test as an intensifying El Nino threatens crops and builds tensions between farmers and environmentalists. The three-year old management plan for the Murray-Darling basin, an area twice the size of […] Read more
Crops

California curtails some senior water rights due to drought

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Los Angeles | Reuters — California’s water board curtailed senior water rights on Friday in the state’s Delta, San Joaquin and Sacramento regions due to drought, in the first move of its kind during the current drought, officials said. The curtailment affects more than 100 senior water rights holders, with most of those located near […] Read more

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