The Texas Alliance for Water Conservation is hosting its 11th Annual Water College from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Wednesday (Jan. 22). Connecting today's producers and crop consultants with the latest in irrigation technology and research is the focus of the program at Lubbock Civic Center. The event is cost free, lunch will be provided, and Certified Crop Advisor Continuing Education Units will be offered. No pre-registration is required.
Among the scheduled program highlights are:
- 9:15 a.m. | NRCS Programs to Benefit Producers; Reed Poling, Field Engineer, NRCS
- 9:45 a.m. | Crop Insurance – What Producers Should Know; Kyle Benson, Crop Insurance Agent, Double B Crop Insurance
- 10:30 a.m. | Advancements in Produced Water and Its Future in Agriculture; Jeff Braune, LEEDS Product Manager, Bechtel and Adrianne Lopez, Manager of Research & Development, Texas Pacific
- 11:30 a.m. | Agricultural Water Research – Texas Tech Davis College Leading the Way; Krishna Jagadish, Thornton Distinguished Chair, Department of Plant & Soil Science
- 1:00 p.m. | Water and the Cattle Market; David Anderson, Professor and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Economist, Department of Agricultural Economics, Texas A&M
- 1:30 p.m. | Impacts of Land Use on Water Resources in the High Plains using Satellite and Ground-based Data’; Bridget Scanlon, Research Professor, Bureau of Economic Geology
- 2:00 p.m. | Changing the Family Farm to Sustain the Family Farm; Layton Schur, TAWC Cooperating Producer, Hale County
- 2:30 p.m. | 2025 Weather Outlook; Marissa Pazos, Warning Coordination Meteorologist, NOAA
Based at Texas Tech and funded by a grant from the Texas Water Development Board, TAWC is a partnership of producers, technology firms, universities and government agencies working to extend the life of the largest subterranean aquifer in the United States. Stretching from the Texas panhandle in the south to the northern boundary of Nebraska, the Ogallala Aquifer lies beneath one of the most important agricultural regions in the United States.
The project uses on-farm demonstrations of cropping and livestock systems to compare the production practices, technologies, and systems that can maintain individual farm profitability while improving water use efficiency with a goal of extending the life of the Ogallala Aquifer while maintaining the viability of local farms and communities.
All production-related decisions are made by the more than 20 producers involved in the project. The project field sites involve more than 6,000 acres in Castro, Crosby, Deaf Smith, Floyd, Hale, Lamb, Lubbock, Parmer and Swisher counties. These sites represent the range of agricultural practices including monoculture cropping systems; crop rotations; no-till, limited-till and conventional tillage practices; land application of manure; and fully integrated crop and livestock systems.
Sponsors for the TAWC 'Water College' include the Texas Tech College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources; BASF; Cotton Inc.; DuPont Pioneer; Texas Corn Producers; Diversity D Irrigation Services; and Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education.
CONTACT: Samantha Borgstedt, Director, Texas Alliance for Water Conservation Project, Texas Tech University at (806) 789-4177 or samantha.borgstedt@ttu.edu
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