The Economic Opportunity to Irrigate Corn and Soybeans on Midwestern Claypan Soils

摘要

The objectives of the research were to examine the profitability of dryland vs. irrigated corn and soybean production on claypan soils. This comparison was made for several different farm sizes and for grain farms as well as livestock and crop mixed farming situations. The results of this analysis show irrigation on claypan soils to result in higher net values of the annual discounted cash flows for farms of different sizes. In cases where 80 acre, 160 acre, and 640 acre farms were evaluated, the irrigated systems produced higher net returns to labor and management than did the dryland operations.