Evapotranspiration and soil moisture-fertilizer interrelations with irrigated grain sorghum in the southern High Plains /

Abstract

In 1956 and 1957 grain sorghum represented 37 percent of the harvested crop acreage in Texas. The largest concentrated area of sorghum is in the High Plains where the proportion of sorghum irrigated increased greatly during the drought years of the 1950's. In 1959 the monetary value of irrigated grain sorghum was estimated to be about $100 million. As reported by the U.S. Census of Agriculture the acreages of irrigated grain sorghum harvested in the 42-county High Plains area in 1950, 1954, and 1959 were 387,000, 1 1 006,000, and 1,224,000 acres, respectively. The irrigated grain sorghum acreage in the eight counties—Castro, Deaf Smith, Floyd, Hale, Lamb, Lubbock, Farmer, and Swisher—represented over 80 percent of the total in the High Plains in 1954 and 1959.