MACON —
Farmers don’t just pray for rain anymore.
A rapidly increasing number are turning to irrigation to cope with consistently dry growing seasons.
When Chuck Ellis became the extension agent in Dooly County 31 years ago, he estimated less than 5 percent of row crops were irrigated. Today he puts that number at over 60 percent.
“The increase in irrigation has been dramatic in the past few years,” he said.
Dooly County is the largest row crop producing county in the state, with about $100 million in agriculture production in 2010 and $140 million in 2011. The growth in irrigation, Ellis said, has helped ensure more consistent production.
Twiggs County extension agent Roosevelt McWilliams gave similar growth estimates for irrigation in that county, with close to half of farmland irrigated now compared to just a small percentage years ago.
“With irrigation, at least you will break even,” McWilliams said.
David Floyd farms 4,000 acres in Twiggs and Bleckley counties with his father and brother, and they have invested heavily in irrigation. They try to add at least one new system a year and this year added two. He said about 30 percent of their land is irrigated, but much of it is leased, and they irrigate none of that because it would mean digging a well on someone else’s land.
Of the 2,300 acres they own, 1,400 are irrigated. That’s 61 percent, compared to less than 10 percent in the late ’90s. If it weren’t for irrigation, Floyd said, they would be out of business.
His father, Sam, has been farming all of his life and didn’t install his first irrigator until about 20 years ago. Now, Sam said, it’s essential.
“It looks like it’s going to be the only way,” he said. “We haven’t made hardly anything on dry land in five years.”
He said he is strongly considering dropping dry land farming completely and only planting the irrigated land in the future.
Irrigation isn’t cheap
If anyone wonders why all farmers aren’t irrigating, the reason is that it’s really expensive. David Floyd said just a standard-size system, with one well and an irrigator, can cost more than $150,000, then there is significant cost just in operating it. A typical irrigator, which works on a pivot, would make a circle that covers 160 acres, but that’s only if it can make it all the way around. In many cases, due to the topography or power lines running across the field, the irrigator can’t make a full circle.
In those cases the irrigator may only make it half way, then it would move back and fourth in what farmers call a “windshield wiper” effect. So for the same investment it would take to irrigate 160 acres, they may only be able to irrigate half that. The benefit is that the same amount of water can be put out in half the time.
It used to be that most farmers used diesel engines to power irrigators, but now many are turning to electricity because of the fuel and maintenance cost of diesel. As of this year, the Floyds have converted all of their irrigators to electricity, which David Floyd estimated costs about 30 percent less to operate than diesel.
Ellis said the power company in Dooly County hooked up 40 irrigator systems this year, with some of those conversions from diesel and others new systems.
Impact on groundwater
Every irrigation well, as well as surface water withdrawals for irrigation, requires a permit from the Georgia Environmental Protection Division. Whether farmers are approved for a permit, said state geologist Jim Kennedy, depends largely on the specific location. He said agricultural irrigation can have an impact on surface streams in certain locations, and it may depend on the aquifer the water would come from. Farmers may be required to drill a deeper well to reduce any impact. A permit may also be denied if there are multiple agricultural wells within the immediate area.
In some cases, if there is concern about a permit request, a computer model is done to determine the impact it would have, Kennedy said.
According to figures provided by the EPD, in 2008 the state issued 245 permits for agricultural water withdrawal, including surface water permits. In 2011 it issued 379.
Sam Floyd said he knows one farmer who had a permit denied this year, and he said the permits seem to be getting harder to come by. But Kennedy said it really depends on the location.
Floyd said even he wonders how so much water could be pumped from the ground without having an impact.
“We must be sitting on top of an ocean,” he said.
Local News
Related Photos
-
In this June 28, 2012, photo, a pivot irrigator puts water down on a field of peanuts belonging to the Floyd family in Danville, Ga. As drought conditions continue in middle Georgia, farmers are increasingly relying on irrigation to make a profit. The Associated Press
Discussion
Many Georgia farmers turn to irrigation
- Local News
-
-
Search for survivors continues
Helmeted rescue workers raced Tuesday to complete the search for survivors and the dead in the Oklahoma City suburb where a mammoth tornado destroyed countless homes, cleared lots down to bare red earth and claimed 24 lives, including those of nine children.
-
Curator offers arts a helping hand
If you’ve been to the Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts in the past four years, you have seen the quiet art of Bill Shenton.
-
Albino gators visit Wild Adventures
Two rare albino American alligators have joined the other gators at Wild Adventures for the summer.
-
Officers wound man in shootout
A Lanier County man was wounded Saturday during an exchange of gunfire with lawmen, according to a Lanier County Sheriff’s Office press release.
-
Woman fights to live after cancer
To be whole again, the desire that sometimes overwhelms chair-bound Mandy Painter, fuels the Realtor each day through walking lessons during physical therapy and it's also what could see her through a cutting-edge program in Boston, where world-class neurologists can reawaken her cerebellum and see the mother of three to her feet again.
-
North Ashley Street closed following accident
A Sport Utility Vehicle traveling north on North Ashley Street drove into a telephone pole Monday morning, resulting in the closure of the road.
-
Gornto extension half complete
The Gornto Road extension project is more than half-way complete, and could be finished ahead of the one-year deadline contractors were given when the project was approved Oct. 11 by the Valdosta City Council.
-
Nashville honors history, musical tradition
There were more than a few Nashville residents and guests from out of town fiddlin’ around Saturday to celebrate the grand opening of the Georgia Humanities Council and Smithsonian New Harmonies exhibit, celebrating roots music from the state and across the Deep South.
-
Locals, out-of-towners come out for food, fun at Peach Festival
The Morven Peach Festival drew a smaller crowd than usual in its 26th year, but planners weren't complaining.
-
Coliform found in drinking water
The cause of a water quality issue is still under investigation by the City of Valdosta Utilities Department after a water sample taken from a line in the area near the intersection of St. Augustine Road and West Hill Avenue tested positive for coliform bacteria.
- More Local News Headlines
-
