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<br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I I <br />I <br />I <br /> <br />Oil22H <br /> <br />groundwater from thousands of flood or central-pivot sprinkler <br />systems. This mix of crops mirrors the mix of feed grains needed <br />by the region's principal agri-business -- 81 cattle feedlots <br />with a I ,700,000-head annual feeding capacity. The crop production <br />of grains and roughage to sustain this enormous fed-cattle indus- <br />try's operations totals 5,400,000,000 pounds. Gross withdrawals from <br />the Ogallala aquifer storage to produce the crops to sustain this <br />business were about 3,139,400 acre feet in 1980. <br />Fortunately for the cattle feeder and meat processors who have <br />located here on a very large scale, the water in underground stor- <br />age remains abundant. Estimates in 1956 by the Kansas Water Re- <br />sources Board were a total storage of water under the 14 counties <br />of 236,700,000 acre feet. At pumping rates measured since then, <br />the 1980 storage has been estimated recently at about 215,000,000 <br />acre feet. At current rates of withdrawal, net of recharge, the <br />present level of irrigation could be sustained for another 90 years, <br />if the price and supply of energy and other influencing factors <br />also remained unchanged. So, too, could the high levels of cattle <br />feeding and processing. <br />In fact, however, the price of pumping energy is acting as a <br />strong deterrent here too, as in Texas, to increasing farm crop <br />production. Field corn for grain is a particularly heavy water- <br />consumption crop, needing 24 inches a year or some two to three <br />times that for other crops in order to keep its sha110w roots wet <br />and its large foliage structure moist. Farmers say they cannot <br /> <br />II-9 <br /> <br />Arthur D little. lnc <br />