Irrigation’s Impact on Agriculture During the Drought of 2012.
The impacts were so great that leading experts from nine states wrote about its effect on their state in the report.
For example, the fruit growers in the western part of the state had good crops, but rangeland and “extensive irrigated pasturelands” were hit hard.
By August 2012, 81 percent were rated poor or very poor.
Hay prices also rose, as production fell to 10 to 50 percent of average and buyers had to go as far as northern Montana, Idaho, and the Carolinas, according to Wendy Ryan and Nolan Doesken of the Colorado Climate Center.
“The combination of the drought and high commodity prices triggered a significant expansion of irrigation across Illinois that continued in 2013.
There were several complaints of irrigation operations pumping hard enough to drop neighboring farms’ well levels.” Kentucky Irrigation proved its worth in Kentucky, where yield was as high as 225 bushels per acre in areas where typical yield are near 150 bushels per acre and in 2012, yields were as low as 50 to 70 bushels.
Irrigated areas saw yields ranging from 125 to 175 bushels per acre, though farmers reported yields of “0 to 10 bushel-per-acre yields in the corners of fields that were outside of center-pivot irrigation systems.” “With the increase in corn prices coupled with the drought of 2012, interest in irrigation reached an all-time high in South Dakota, and the subsequent requests for well permits created a several-month backlog and a large increase in the number of permits issued,” wrote Laura M. Edwards and Dennis Todey from South Dakota State University.
Wyoming Irrigation fluctuated a great deal based on the geography of the state, according to Tony Bergantino of the Wyoming State Climate Office.
In central west Wyoming, dry conditions allowed for irrigation all summer long, and crops came in earlier than ever before.