Dryland Vs. Irrigation Farming

Marketplace:

Eve Troeh: There are two types of farmers in the Midwest. The first, called dry land farmers, are actually in the wetter places. They rely on rich soil, and rainfall. When the ground's dry, and it doesn't rain, what's their backup?

Darin Newsom: Well, there really isn't one.

Darin Newsom is an agriculture analyst with DNT in Iowa. He says for those farmers:

Newsom: It's over. There's just no chance that the crop's going to be salvageable.

Watering from above won't cut it. And there's no underground irrigation in place. Now, other farmers in drier parts of the corn belt have had elaborate irrigation and pumping systems for decades.

Newsom: Where you actually have to pull the water out of some source.

Like a creek, or aquifer. Those water supplies are managed by state or local government. Farmers hooked up to irrigation can get more water, technically.

George Rafetlis: But the amount that is allowed to the agricultural section might be limited.

Most everything east of the 98th meridian is dry land agriculture, with the exception of  the high dollar truck crops and fruit farms over very productive aquifers.  It's just a crap shoot whether you get the rain or not.  But overall, the odds are in our favor.  Or at least they have been before global warming.  We may find out differently in the future.