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Draft 2024 Agricultural Irrigation Water Use Estimates

District Action Checklist - All items Requested

Each district should complete both steps below and send your remarks – either revisions or acceptance – to AgWater@twdb.texas.gov by Friday, June 5th.

Step One: Review Your Draft Report

  • Locate your district's draft report in the searchable list below
  • Prepare either revisions or confirmation of acceptance

Step Two: Provide Input on Cover Crop Irrigation

Historically, cover crops have been assumed to be unirrigated. Due to ongoing drought conditions throughout the state, TWDB requires input from all districts to better reflect current practices.

  • Indicate whether cover crops are commonly irrigated in your district
  • If yes, provide the typical irrigation rate, if available

Updates to the Agricultural Irrigation Water Use Estimates Methodology

Our secondary data source, the National Agricultural Statistics Service Crop Data Layer, underwent significant changes from 2023 to 2024. This resulted in reductions in some of the projected crop coverage, particularly among orchard crops which are generally underreported in our primary data source, the Farm Service Agency Crop Acreage Data. Please carefully review our estimated orchard acres if your district contains irrigated orchards.
Small changes were made to crop categorization in the 2024 estimates cycle and are described below.

  • The 2024 estimates included crops not previously grown or accounted for in Texas: sainfoin and camelina. They are categorized as TWDB Crop Code Forage-Hay-Pasture and Other, respectively.
  • Commercial Gardens are now categorized as Other; in previous years they were categorized as Vegetables.

General Trends Identified

In 2023, we saw a drastic increase in the number of acres of wheat grown in the state with a similar reduction in cotton. In 2024, we are seeing some of those wheat acres return to cotton.
There was a historically low number of acres of sugarcane grown in 2024, present only in three counties.

  • 2024 draft reports coming soon!