Alfalfa farming is 0.2% of the Utah economy but uses 68% of available water | Hacker News Reader

Alfalfa farming is 0.2% of the Utah economy but uses 68% of available water

sltrib.com

68 pointsyboris13 comments

I think what's not discussed is that most of this water ends up back into the ground and eventually back into a river. In some ways it even helps regulate river flow. Perhaps one improvement could not not allowing irrigation during from 8am to 4pm or something to reduce the amount of evaporation

> Perhaps one improvement could not not allowing irrigation during from 8am to 4pm or something to reduce the amount of evaporation

That’s genius. Is that implemented anywhere?

In most warm countries all over the world, I would guess. Typical in some places of southern Europe because if you water mid day, most of it is wasted

So it isn’t done in Utah because..? Because it isn’t metered, I guess.

Oh yes. The Sevier River is known to "recycle" water in this way. The water gets used multiple times (not just twice).

I probably have no idea what I am talking about, but I think the time of day plants are irrigated is quite important.

Hypothetically, if you were to water right after the sun goes down, or when the sun is going down, there would be reduced evaporation. But, at the same time, the roots would be sitting in a wet environment overnight, which encourages things like rot and fungal infections, as well as bugs and such.

Again, I'm not a commercial agriculture guy...just a home tomato grower...watering in the morning right before the sun comes up seems to be the consensus, and I have never heard of anyone watering any plant or crop, for that matter, during non peak times.

Define "most".

I would assume evaporation is directly correlated with the surface area the water is spread on. Spreading water on farmland as opposed letting the water flow naturally into the Great Salt Lake is going to increase the effective surface area of the water.

Additionally, plants are pretty effective at pulling water out of the ground and releasing it into the air, so the agriculture aspect increases evaporation as well.

Both go back to the same place though. It doesn't matter if the water evaporates, or trickles down to groundwater, it's the same. If it evaporates it goes to the clouds, and then comes back down as rain, and eventually back into the groundwater.

The real problem is the water that is shipped out in the crops. That's why people say that Isreal is exporting all its water in the form of watermelons.

I wonder who owns the alfalfa farms because doing business in Utah is wild. There is absolutely no separation between business, government, and the church. It's like a single, hyper-efficient, hybrid organization. I spent a week there when one of my old startups was planning a data center in Utah (I'm dating myself). Being in the executive mansion felt like a corporate HQ. Nonstop stream of business people coming in and out of fast meetings with the Governor and his bizdev people. He was a nice guy, Gov Herbert was his name if I remember correctly. I remember at one point we couldn't find a conference room, and he was like, "use my office, end of the hall." I'm trying to imagine what level of capitalist you'd have to be at for Gavin Newsom or Cuomo to be loaning you their office unsupervised.

Thanks for sharing that story, I love hearing about the old guard of Utah’s tech sector (which isn’t to say ‘old’ at all, just the rate that things change.)

I myself did some data center shopping in the beehive state many years ago. One non-descript building after another. One lobby had a “Data Center Quarterly” magazine which I got a kick out of.

Presumably, the alfalfa is used to feed animals, which account for a much bigger part of the economy.

You don't have to presume. It's in the article.

> As far as the nation’s and the state’s need for livestock feed, the 2.2 million tons of alfalfa Utah produced in 2021 amounted to 1.8% of the nation’s total output.

Link: https://downloads.usda.library.cornell.edu/usda-esmis/files/...

The article also states that almost 1/3 of the Utah-sourced crop goes to exports.

> Almost a third of it is exported, mostly to China, taking far too much of our water with it.

So almost 20% of said water usage is for exports. That is lower than the total given.

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