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<br /> <br />SUBSTANTIATING MATERIALS <br /> <br />actuaJ.. records of .ie.l'1IIing operations in the project area and in the irri- <br />gated area adjacent to and comparable with the project. <br /> <br />Without-Project Development <br /> <br />Some of the lands in the extension area are dry farmed. At present <br />crops are largely linli ted to snW.J. grains with the land remeining idJ.e <br />as summer fallow about every second or third year. In recent years since <br />wheat allotments and acreage controls have been in effect, some beans <br />have been grown as a substitute for wheat or summer fallow. Beans are <br />not ideally adapted to the area and generally yield only about enough <br />to return the cost of production. <br /> <br />There are no full-time dry-farm operators in the extension area. <br />Farmers who live in the area have other farm land in the adjacent irri- <br />gated e.rea or work part-time e.t other occupations. <br /> <br />Some of the land that was once farmed has been abandoned and has <br />partly reverted to its native condition. Because the rainfall is suf- <br />ficient for dry farming on class ~ or better land, all such lands were <br />assumed to be dry farmed in appraising the without-project conditions. <br /> <br />A dry-farm unit containing 640 acres of cultivated land was used <br />in setting up a farm budget representative of without-project conditions. <br />This is larger than the average dry-farm unit in the area at present <br />because. as before stated. present dry farms are not relied upon for <br />complete farm family support. <br /> <br />With-Pro~ect Development <br /> <br />If the Pine River project extension were developed. the farm econ- <br />omy of the extension are would probably be about the same as that which <br />now pertains to adjacent fully ir;rigated lands. Most of the land is <br />expected to produce alfalfa. pasture. or small grain which would be <br />used for feed on the farm or sold locally. Livestock meintained on the <br />farms would be cattle (either beef or dairy) or sheep. A sheep-crop <br />farm was selected for budgetary analysis as representative of with- <br />project conditions. The budget was prepared for a farm unit of 220 <br />acres of class 3 land since 88 percent of the 3.100 acres of potential <br />project land is class :3 and the relllain1ng 12 percent is class 2. Some <br />of the factors bearing on the size of farm selected and anticipated <br />operating costs and yields are mentioned in the following paragraph. <br /> <br />Fall plowing is necessary in the preparation of a seed bed because <br />large clods can only be pulverized satiSfactorily by frost action through <br />the winter. When dry the land has a tendency to form wide. deep cracks <br />which sometimes cause severe soil erosion under irrigation. The class <br />2 and 3 lands lie in smell scattered patches which would increase travel <br /> <br />15 <br />