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. Answers to afew questions regarding the ParkerlCSU Rotational Farming Study Neil Hansen CSU Soil Scientist May 21, 2007 1) The research is nothing new; it's all been done before. Indeed there has been an immense amount of research conducted in the area of limited irrigation. Furthermore, there are a tremendous number of innovations that have been made by farmers forced to deal with limited irrigation water supplies. However, this project has several unique attributes in both the agronomic and economic aspects. On the agronomic side, this project seeks to demonstrate known ways of reducing consumptive water use while measuring a detailed water budget in order to document water savings associated with innovative cropping approaches. Weare testing how water saving practices fit within the entire cropping system, including crop rotation, irrigation management, tillage practices, pest management, etc. This is a systems approach study that will show how water savings can be achieved within a cropping system. By documenting consumptive water use, in the end the water savings might be used as a "crop" by the farm that can be leased to others, but if it can be used as a crop will rely importantly on verifying the reduction in consumptive use. . On the economic side, the study extends our understanding profitability of crops in the South Platte River Basin by going beyond simple revenues and costs to examine profits in the context of the whole farm enterprise. As an example, a cropping system may provide significant consumptive use water savings, but may not '"fit" within farms irrigation system or machinery complement. We will create farm level models of the cooperating farms to better understand what limited irrigation practices are the most practical as well as profitable. But even if these practices are practical for our cooperators, they may not be useful for the entire South Platte region. For this reason, we are surveying all irrigated farmers in the South Platte in order to find out how likely they are to adopt limited irrigation practices. We may find that farmers are willing to adopt these practices provided they are suitably compensated. We may also find that limited irrigation practices may reduce cash flow too much to the farming operation, which means that farms cannot meet financial obligations and, therefore, the practice cannot be adopted. Finally, if water is indeed the "new" crop, it will only be produced if lease payments are suitably high, and we want to understand how high lease payments need be. e, Most farmers don't want to restrict the sale of water, but many are worried about what will happen to their communities iflarge scale 'buy and dry' transfers occur. A significant portion of this study is to chronicle the economic activity generated by irrigated agriculture. The survey will help tell the story of how important agriculture is to the local economy. The regional economic impacts of a limited irrigation strategy can then be quantified especially relative to large scale 'buy and dry' activity.