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Table 6 <br />South Platte River Basin - Maior Crops and 2001 Acreage <br />SPDSS Crop <br />Category <br />2001 Acreage Percent of <br />Total <br />Alfalfa 205,050 22% <br />Beans Dry 28,325 3% <br />Corn 385,725 43% <br />Grass Pasture* 120,466 12% <br />Small Grains 29,800 3% <br />Sor hum 3,400 0% <br />Sugar Beets 26,523 3% <br />Sunflowers 47,125 6% <br />Ve etables* 25,888 2% <br />Winter Wheat 50,375 6% <br />Total 922,676 100% <br />*Represents 1997, the most recent year of currently available <br />NASS data <br />Figure 3 graphically shows the crop distributions for 2001 in the South Platte River basin. <br />Figure 4shows atime-series of available crops using Weld County as a typical example. As <br />shown, there are significant data gaps for many crops in Weld County, and in all counties <br />investigated. The crop distribution for Weld County is representative of the basin as a whole. In <br />general, the amount of acreage planted with sugar beets has decreased over time and corn has <br />decreased in recent years. Sunflower acreage has increased since 1990. Other crops vary from <br />year to year throughout the basin, but do not display a significant upward or downward trend. <br />Grass Pasture is the only irrigated crop reported by CASS for 2001 in the North Platte River <br />basin. Other crops were reported in past years, but they account for less than 0.5 percent of <br />irrigated acreage in any given year. Therefore, Grass Pasture is the only recommended crop type <br />to be categorized in the North Platte River basin during the irrigated acreage assessment and <br />subsequent consumptive use modeling. CASS and NASS reported a total of 120,069 acres of <br />irrigated Grass Pasture in the North Platte River basin in 1997, the most recent year of currently <br />available NASS data. <br />Table 7 shows the reported 2001 irrigated acreage, by crop, for the portion of each county within <br />the South Platte River Basin. As noted above, Gilpin, Clear Creek, Denver, Teller, and El Paso <br />counties are not included since either no irrigated acreage was reported for 2001, or the irrigated <br />acres are completely outside the South Platte River basin. <br />Page 10 of 13 <br />