Water Preservation

Hallie Gutzwiller Author

02/15/2023 Added

9 Plays

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Hallie Gutzwiller, a senior broadcasting major won first place in the 2023 Hearst Audio Competition with "Wildfires Nebraska" and "Water Preservation."

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[00:00:00.929](water bubbling)
[00:00:03.330]Water, it's a resource farmers pray for,
[00:00:06.780]but oftentimes Mother Nature has a mind of its own.
[00:00:10.140]We couldn't catch anything.
[00:00:11.160]We never had any dew even.
[00:00:12.630]Knowing all too well what this is like
[00:00:14.490]is Dundee County farmer, Braden Banney,
[00:00:17.130]who faced extreme drought this summer.
[00:00:19.170]We definitely started wondering
[00:00:21.810]if we were gonna be able to raise any crop at all.
[00:00:25.110]Banney is not the only Nebraskan in this situation.
[00:00:28.080]As Nebraska's Crop Watch reports that 80%
[00:00:31.170]of our top soil moisture
[00:00:32.760]falls in the short to very short range.
[00:00:36.000]Weighing in on this is UNL Associate State Climatologist
[00:00:39.540]Al Dutcher, who says things started to get ugly in August.
[00:00:43.650]And that was when we started
[00:00:45.150]to see our dewpoint temperatures drop off like a rock.
[00:00:48.180]Dewpoint temperatures can tell farmers how much water
[00:00:51.120]is in their crops and how much will evaporate
[00:00:53.970]through a process known as transpiration.
[00:00:57.174]If this process does not happen.
[00:00:58.802]What it means is your crop
[00:01:00.240]doesn't have the sufficient amount of water
[00:01:01.905]to bring into the atmosphere.
[00:01:04.290]What this ultimately drives is a demand for irrigation.
[00:01:08.130]Extension educator, Chuck Burr, says farmers
[00:01:10.770]who have wells that can't withdraw water as fast
[00:01:13.525]are struggling to keep up.
[00:01:15.690]We've actually seen some wells that have declined
[00:01:18.210]as we've gone through the growing season
[00:01:19.920]because of the increased pumping 'em out.
[00:01:22.140]Trying to keep equipment running
[00:01:23.520]and paying additional costs is a reality
[00:01:26.070]for farmers this season.
[00:01:27.750]We ran the pivots.
[00:01:28.763]We put more hours on this year than we have the last two.
[00:01:32.100]There was definitely expenses added there
[00:01:33.660]with electricity or diesel.
[00:01:35.580]A way to combat the issue
[00:01:36.960]is for farmers to stay up to date
[00:01:39.000]on soil moisture monitoring.
[00:01:41.370]Burr says back in a 2013 census
[00:01:43.634]that less than 25% of farmers used the method.
[00:01:47.700]We have to be doing that.
[00:01:49.110]We have to know when the plant needs water
[00:01:51.690]and when we've got enough.
[00:01:52.800]Maybe we can delay a couple days.
[00:01:54.330]And as for harvest this season?
[00:01:56.370]We're able to keep up the irrigation,
[00:01:58.749]keep up meeting the water needs of the crop.
[00:02:01.590]We could have some pretty good
[00:02:02.580]irrigated corn yield this year.
[00:02:04.320]Good irrigation is just one of the many problems
[00:02:07.320]farmers have to tackle during a drought.
[00:02:09.540]Another is the hope for regaining water
[00:02:12.330]in the soil under the surface.
[00:02:15.060]This is called sub-soil recharge,
[00:02:17.460]and depends highly on how much water we get
[00:02:20.010]in the off season.
[00:02:20.843]If we don't get the sub-soil moisture recharge
[00:02:23.250]and we'd repeat the same thing that we did
[00:02:25.080]with us last year, it's gonna be a whole different ballgame.
[00:02:29.040]Now is the most crucial time
[00:02:29.880]for Nebraska to regain some of the water lost.
[00:02:32.790]I'm Halle Gotsweiler reporting for 90.3 KRNU.

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