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<br />M:: ':'7 <br /> <br />of the Great Plains region, leaving the Ogallala as the principal geologic <br />unit associated with the High Plains today. <br /> <br />The area encompa ssed by thi s Study i ncl udes 180 count i es in the Regi on <br />underlain in whole or in part by the Ogallala Formation or Aquifer, an area <br />of about 220 thousand square miles. <br /> <br />STATEMENT OF PROBLEM <br /> <br />The High Plains Study Region offered large quantities of good quality <br />water, abundant low cost energy, deep soils, level terrain, and a climate <br />favorable to agricultural enterprises. Development of irrigated agriculture, <br />largely supplied by water from the Ogallala Aquifer, expanded rapidly <br />following World War II. Total irrigated acreage in the Study area expanded <br />from about 3.5 million acres, mostly in Texas and Nebraska in 1950, to more <br />than 15 million acres in 1980. <br /> <br />As i rri gated acreage expanded, water requi rements grew. Less than <br />7 million acre-feet of water were withdrawn from the Ogallala in 1950. By <br />1980, more then 21 million acre-feet were pumped annually even though over <br />the same period improved irrigation efficiencies had reduced per acre appli- <br />cation of water by about 30 percent from 2 acre-feet per acre to about 1.4 <br />acre-feet per acre. <br /> <br />Feed grain crop production grew from 150 million bushels in 1950 to 1.25 <br />billion bushels in 1980. The Region marketed more than 50 percent of the fed <br />beef cattle production in the Nation by 1980 according to USDA's ESS. <br /> <br />A complex infrastructure of agricultural business supply developed-- <br />fertilizers, farm equipment, and capital investments. <br /> <br />Energy production from the oil and gas reserves became an important sec- <br />tor in the regional and subregional economies. Over the long-term, these <br />reserves will be seriously depleted. <br /> <br />3 <br />