National Ag News
Wisconsin ag leader calls for balanced water use, defends irrigation
A Wisconsin agriculture leader is defending the use of irrigation for crops. Environmental groups have blamed the large number of farm wells for lowering lake and stream levels, especially during drought years in Wisconsin’s central sands region.
Tamas Houlihan, President of the Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers Association, tells Brownfield they’ve assembled a high capacity well fact book because opponents of irrigation are not looking at all of the science. “The entire fact book kind of got thrown under the bus by some folks who have always targeted high capacity wells as the problem in lowering lake levels and river flow, and again, we are not saying high-cap wells don’t have an impact, they do, but we feel like that impact is temporary.”
University of Wisconsin Researchers at Stevens Point told a Milwaukee newspaper irrigation lowers lakes, streams, and aquifers.
