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<br />. <br /> <br />2) There are no additional water savings to be hadfrom agriculture, it's already <br />efficient as it can ever get. <br /> <br />It's true that producers are very efficient - and it's not the irrigation efficiency that <br />we are targeting in this study. Rather we seek ways to manage consumptive use in <br />crops so that consumptive use savings can be used as another crop. We think that <br />producers have the very best ideas for reducing crop consumptive use, which is why <br />we are surveying, interviewing and planning crop demonstrations. <br /> <br />3) Reduced irrigation may work on alfalfa (based on Neil's slides), but won't <br />work on another crop. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />As far as water savings goes, alfalfa has a high potential because it 1) uses large <br />quantities of water, 2) can tolerate drought conditions, and 3) can resume growth after <br />drought when water is available. Other perennial forage crops, including grass <br />forages, have similar qualities. Smaller, but still meaningful, amounts of <br />consumptive water use savings can be obtained from limited irrigation of grain crops. <br />Our study will emphasis limited irrigation com grain. We will also document <br />consumptive water use patterns of rotation crop management with fallow and crop <br />'rotations with alternative crops such as sunflower, soybean, canol a, winter wheat, and <br />summer annual forages. <br /> <br />4) The entire farm community is against this project. <br /> <br />It is true that some farmers view this project as a threat - that it may accelerate the <br />transfer of water from agricultural to urban use. However, in a number of venues, this <br />research has been viewed as an opportunity for farmers and may be a means to keep <br />their communities viable. Farmers and communities leaders have responded <br />positively the project at the South Platte Forum, the Lower South Platte Forum, the <br />Larimer County Agricultural Advisory Committee Meeting, the Four States Irrigation <br />Council Meeting, the Water Congress, the Colorado Council for Cooperatives Annual <br />Issues Conference, the Western Rural Conservation Districts Annual Meeting, the <br />Arkansas River Valley Roundtable Meeting and the Colorado River Valley <br />Roundtable Meeting. <br /> <br />The demonstration and research effort is not unique to the Iliff farms either. <br />Companion projects are underway with funding from CSU's Agricultural Experiment <br />Station, the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service, as well as USDA <br />National Research Initiatives funding. Demonstrations of similar research, albeit on a <br />much smaller scale, can be found with cooperators in Berthoud, LaSalle, Akron, andsBurlington. <br /> <br />.: <br />