2007-08 Deliverables
Task 4 Extension
Principal Investigator(s): Ron Lacewell, Ed Rister, Allen Sturdivant, Luis Ribera, Callie Rogers, Emily Seawright, Chris Boyer, Andrew Leidner
Task 4: On-Farm Irrigation System Management
- Update District 12 crop production budgets. Crop production budgets provide the most basic economic information for agricultural producers and other interested stakeholders in agricultural-crop production. The dynamic nature of production techniques, markets, federal farm programs, revenues, variable input levels and costs, etc. necessarily require annual updating if such information is to prove useful. There are many crops grown in District 12, under both conventional- and reduced-tillage regimes and with different water-application techniques (e.g., dryland, furrow irrigation, micro-jet, drip). This deliverable is a continuation of the prior year's MOA, and, due to its nature, will require annual updating. The strategy is to annually update key input costs (e.g., fertilizer, pesticides, seed, etc.) for all budgets and then to make a complete, thorough review of all budget items for only a portion of the budgets. That is, field crops (i.e., cotton, corn, sorghum, sugarcane and soybeans) were thoroughly reviewed/updated with last year's MOA, while citrus and vegetables will be thoroughly reviewed/updated with this MOA. This insures key input costs for each budget are updated each year, while a thorough review of each budget and each item is performed every other year. The newest budgets provide relevant and current information and are available at http://agecoext.tamu.edu/budgets/district/12/2007/index.php
- Perform an economic analysis comparing different agricultural irrigation systems used in the LRGV. Competing demands for water and needs for on-farm efficiency improvements provide fundamental reasons for increased research and investigations into alternative water-delivery systems. This study will compare the water efficiency and associated profitability of the different irrigation systems (e.g., furrow, drip, central pivot, etc.) available to LRGV agricultural producers. This research will calculate the cost of production for different crops using the alternative irrigation systems and compare their profitability. Publication on this study is anticipated to be completed in the Summer 2007. This deliverable is a continuation of the prior year's completed MOA, and, with the data-collection efforts completed to date, is approximately 10% to 15% complete.