You want to know what the worst thing the Cattle Industry faces along with every other industry. Something that is a bigger threat that the Border or opening it. Worse than the possibility of screw worms. Google and read about the stage the whole world has entered into that’s called “ Global Water Bankruptcy “ it’s not a threat. It’s happening now and there is no fixing it. Cattle Prices, Feed Lot Closures, Over Population etc…,, all of those things are small problems compared to what’s happening with Global water bankruptcy and there is no amount of money or man made solutions that will fix it. If you’re interested in it. Google it and read about it. It affects everything, everywhere on earth.
Global Water Bankruptcy
- Thread starter 504RP
- Start date
You are exactly right 504RP.
Travlr
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- NW Arkansas, W South Dakota, retired in Utah
This is why Warren Buffet has been investing in water.
It is going down here in South Texas over this issue. Google Corpus Christi water crisis.
We have had discussions about low input vs high input operations. At some point we may need may need to have the discussion about priorities. We can point fingers all over the place but Ag is still the biggest user of water. A lot of the Ag management, or mismanagement, is not conducive to recharging these water zones and aquifers and things.
A lot of South Texas was grassland prairies. Its now grown up in brush for deer or abused by equipment in the name of production gains.
We have a host of ugly things rearing their heads right now starting with water all the way down to turkey disappearing. We are starting to see the ramifications of short term gains from things like herb and improved monocultures.
As I sit in all these meetings most people just want more short solutions rather than acknowledging these missteps and changing paths towards long term solutions.
We have had discussions about low input vs high input operations. At some point we may need may need to have the discussion about priorities. We can point fingers all over the place but Ag is still the biggest user of water. A lot of the Ag management, or mismanagement, is not conducive to recharging these water zones and aquifers and things.
A lot of South Texas was grassland prairies. Its now grown up in brush for deer or abused by equipment in the name of production gains.
We have a host of ugly things rearing their heads right now starting with water all the way down to turkey disappearing. We are starting to see the ramifications of short term gains from things like herb and improved monocultures.
As I sit in all these meetings most people just want more short solutions rather than acknowledging these missteps and changing paths towards long term solutions.
Little Joe
Well-known member
All of the AI data centers are not going to help the water situation either. I’ve heard for years that eventually water would become a big g concern for everyone. Most people wouldn’t believe the amount of water it takes to keep grass looking good on golf courses, ballfields and lawns. We can easily use 250,000 gallons of water in a month if we have to run our sprinklers on our baseball and softball fields where I work. Just think of all the fields and golf courses doing that and how much water is wasted. I’ve also seen row crop farmers not fix levies when the break or block up the end of their middle and just let the irrigation water run off in the ditches.
kenny thomas
Well-known member
A 2 hole, thats high class.
What’s the corn cob in there for
I thought the government could make it rain or not rain at any given time? I think passing a few laws would fix the bulk of our water issues.
Any idea the amount of water that evaporates off a lake everyday or the amount of water a combined cycle power plant uses everyday? How about a car wash or golf course. I'm not saying this is an easy one to fix but this is something that can be reversed easily.
It's funny how the Ag sector always gets fingers pointed at it first. I thought we were losing 100 family farms a day to urban swell, data centers, and solar fields? The farmers aren't the problem. We need water to grow food. Could they improve water usage, yes but there are plenty other cuts first.
Any idea the amount of water that evaporates off a lake everyday or the amount of water a combined cycle power plant uses everyday? How about a car wash or golf course. I'm not saying this is an easy one to fix but this is something that can be reversed easily.
It's funny how the Ag sector always gets fingers pointed at it first. I thought we were losing 100 family farms a day to urban swell, data centers, and solar fields? The farmers aren't the problem. We need water to grow food. Could they improve water usage, yes but there are plenty other cuts first.
The problem is its not all for growing food, and definitely not for growing domestic food. Irrigating turf grasses, horse hay, silage, etc are not a good return on the ground water. Fert, herb, etc are all water hogs and in many cases are not absolutely necessary.
Most all other industries have ways to recycle their water at least once. If we use it to power a power plant, which is usually captured water like in a lake, not ground water, that water benefits that direct area the water came from.
I do agree conservation needs to play a major role across the board on every thing from lawns to irrigation. Again, they are taking steps like using grey water for golf courses and things. At one of the meetings they were talking about a plant, maybe ExxonMobil, was buying one of the towns exhaust water or grey water, forgot exact name, to use in their plant. So they were recycling water and creating revenue for town. Its a win-win.
Fracking and all that also recycles their water or produced water as much as possible.
I belive that is how all these other industries and things always come in less than Ag. In Ag, when we irrigate straight from the ground, fert, herb, etc, its gone for ever.
greybeard
Well-known member
I didn't spend 15 minutes in one when it was hotel either. The smell, the sound of maggots working down below, spiders and yellow jackets and it always seemed 20 degrees above outside air temp...
mwj
Well-known member
How does irrigation water become ''gone forever'' when used? That seems to be a radical claim.
RDFF
Well-known member
Water is never "gone forever"... as @mwj stated. It's all a part of the "water cycle". When it is "expelled" from beneath the ground into the atmosphere, it's not "lost", but it "cycles" through, eventually, but doesn't necessarily return to the place where it had been withdrawn from. Evaporation, transpiration... they all place the water into the atmosphere.
Irrigation draws water from the below ground aquifer, and puts alot of it into the atmosphere through both. When we draw from the aquifer, use it for industrial purposes, and then send it into surface waters, alot of it gets evaporated, and the remaining liquid form typically is lost to the rivers and streams and then to the ocean eventually. It is NOT deposited back onto the area where it was drawn from, unless and until it evaporates out of those water bodies, back into the atmosphere, and is dropped in the form of rain back onto those areas that recharge the aquifer.
Now consider what happens to that water that falls as rain, if the soil is not able to absorb it. If it runs off into a creek, then a river, and then the ocean, how much of that water then was able to return to the aquifer that we drew it out of. Now add in field tile on millions and millions of acres... and how that at least partially curtails the recharging of aquifers. And what about filling and draining of wetlands?
All of these practices contribute to the limiting of access to potable water. All of these are human impacts that WE have and continue to create. Most of the time, we are not taking the COST of these impacts into account when we implement them. Absolutely, the demand for water by data centers is a big deal... the demand placed on our water resources are a big deal, all the way around.
We're all in this together. NONE of us are exempt from the responsibility to use our water resources wisely, and to do what we can, on our little piece of heaven, to help ensure that we're not negatively impacting the water cycle more than necessary. Sometimes that takes a real hard objective look at ourselves. Many, if not most of us, are often unwilling to do that.
Obviously, REUSING grey water so that it gets used more than one time, before discharging it, is a very good way to help minimize our water demand.
Mark Reynolds
Well-known member
I wouldn't spend 15 minutes in one when it's hot either! Not without a clothes-pin anyway.
How long does it take to complete the water cycle vs what is being taken out?
I know yall dont like my wording but that is an extremely inefficient way to recycle water. Its not some thing I want to tout as a solution or to defend the over use of irrigation water for non-esential items.
By that logic, every one watering their yards and neighborhoods and golf courses are all recharging the water also.
The fact is we have things that are major water users. Yes, we all need to be aware and do what we can, but to really move the needle, we need real movement from those large users.
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mwj
Well-known member
Check the night time respiration rate for a growing corn crop. It puts a lot of water back into the atmosphere. The world is a system that has many moving parts. If water only moves in one direction it would all be in the oceans. The atmosphere holds huge amounts of water that is fairly mobile at any one time.
Like I said, go read about what's going down with Corpus Christi water system. They just leased water rights up the way right in the middle of a major ag area in the aquifer they use for irrigation. There are towns losing their water source and having to drill emergency wells. There are wells losing water quality because it is drawing in brackish water.
San Antonio and the I35 corridor were in the same boat not long ago and probably will be again. The leased water rights in another county and piped it in.
Its a real thing and may effect you if the near future if its not already.
Industry and ag are about to go head to head and the common person with a little well for their house is about to lose.
San Antonio and the I35 corridor were in the same boat not long ago and probably will be again. The leased water rights in another county and piped it in.
Its a real thing and may effect you if the near future if its not already.
Industry and ag are about to go head to head and the common person with a little well for their house is about to lose.
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Lots of good points. I don't see how irrigation differs much from rainfall. Maybe it does. I do know the rain i see falling on asphalt and concrete, runs down the gutters and ditches ,into the creeks and rivers and is flat gone in hours. Im gonna blame that instead of the grass and the brush.
