Robert Pore's Ag Blog

Drought caused irrigators to rain on the ground hot and heavy this summer during growing season.

And the ongoing drought and consequentially heavy irrigation have caused some of the steepest declines in groundwater levels in years, according to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Results from an annual groundwater monitoring program conducted by UNL show that parts of Nebraska are experiencing groundwater declines of more than 30 feet.

“We certainly aren’t coming to the bottom of the well, so to speak, but the level of groundwater declines in many parts of Nebraska are indisputable and could even be viewed as alarming,” said Mark Burbach, assistant geoscientist in UNL’s School of Natural Resources.

Burbach said Hamilton, York, Polk and Butler counties show some of the largest declines.

“These persistent and growing declines in the aquifer over much of Nebraska are mainly due to the current drought and resulting increases in groundwater pumping for irrigation,” he said.

Burbach said that the largest groundwater level declines since the drought began are in portions of Clay, York, Butler and Dundy counties, where, in some cases, the declines have exceeded 30 feet over the past six years.

Counties experiencing declines of more than 15 feet include Box Butte in the Panhandle; Chase, Lincoln and Perkins in the southwest; Buffalo, Dawson, Hall, Hamilton, Merrick, Polk, Seward and York in the south central; and Platte and Colfax in the east.

Burbach said many of the counties showing the heaviest declines are among the most irrigated counties in Nebraska. In counties such as Hall, Hamiltion and Merrick, as much as 90 percent of the cropland is irrigated.

The report said large areas of southwest Nebraska and Box Butte County have experienced groundwater declines of greater than 50 feet since large-scale groundwater development began on a large scale since the early 1950s.

Burbach said that over the past year, large parts of southern and eastern Nebraska have experienced aquifer declines of from 1 to 5 feet, though a 1- to 2-foot rise in groundwater levels was observed in parts of Hall and Merrick counties.

“Both of these areas experienced above-normal precipitation in March, shortly before monitoring well measurements were taken, so that may be something of an anomaly since, due to sandy soil and shallow water tables, these areas tend to respond quickly to rain or other aquifer recharge events,” he said.

Hall County received 3.26 inches of rain in March.

Also, both Hall and Merrick counties received above-normal precipitation during August and September. In Hall County, more than 8 inches, or nearly one-third of the area’s annual precipitation, occured during that two-month period.

The groundwater level monitoring program collects aquifer water level data from more than 5,600 wells.

Readings from the wells are taken between March 1 and May 1, after aquifers have had time to recover from the previous year’s irrigation season and before that year’s upcoming irrigation season.

“Taken on the whole, the only areas of the state where groundwater levels have risen since development of groundwater irrigation are near man-made canals, reservoirs and other water impoundment projects,” Burbach said.

Copies of the groundwater level change maps, including historical copies dating to 1954, can be accessed at http://csd.unl.edu/surveyareas/gwmaparchives.asp. UNL’s groundwater level monitoring program dates to 1930.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 29, 2006 - Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns today announced that enrollment for the 2007 Direct and Counter-cyclical Payment Program (DCP) begins Oct. 1, 2006, and continues until June 1, 2007. Johanns encouraged farmers to sign up for the program through the online DCP sign-up service.

"Producers will find the Internet-based DCP sign-up service convenient and very user friendly," said Johanns. "The service is an example of the strides USDA is taking to make its programs more accessible, and I encourage producers with Internet access to use the system."

Following the June 1, 2007, deadline, USDA will accept late applications through Sept. 30, 2007, with a $100 late fee. While DCP participants must sign DCP contracts annually, producers can choose not to participate in the program in any given year.

Producers can visit any USDA Service Center or their administratively assigned center, to complete their 2007 DCP contract. Additionally, sign-up can be done online, allowing producers to choose payment options, assign crop shares and sign and submit their contracts from any computer with Internet access. DCP participants can view and print out submitted contract options at any time.

The electronic DCP (or eDCP) service saves producers time, reduces paperwork and speeds up contract processing at USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices. It is available to all producers who are eligible to participate in DCP and who obtain eAuthentication accounts. The service has strict security measures to protect participants' private information. Only authorized federal employees have access to information producers submit electronically.

The electronic service is available by going to http://www.fsa.usda.gov/ and clicking on "Access eDCP Service." To access the service, producers must have an active USDA eAuthentication Level 2 account, which requires filling out an online registration form at http://www.eauth.egov.usda.gov followed by a visit to the local USDA Service Center for identity verification.

USDA computes DCP payments using base acres and payment yields established for each farm. Producers receive direct payments at rates established by statute regardless of market prices. For 2007, eligible producers may request to receive direct advance payments based on 22 percent of the direct payment rate for each commodity associated with the farm. USDA will issue DCP direct advance payments beginning Dec. 1, 2006. Counter-cyclical payment rates vary depending on market prices. Counter-cyclical payments are issued only when the effective price (which takes into account the direct payment rate, market price and loan rate) for a commodity is below its target price. In more than four years since the 2002 Farm Bill authorized DCP, USDA has issued approximately $30 billion in DCP payments to America's agricultural producers.

A fact sheet, posted online http://www.fsa.usda.gov/, provides more information about DCP.