Agriculture, Forestry, and Economic Development- House and Senate

Members if you would please find a state. College meeting of the Senate Agra House Agra force economic development a committee to order. The. Alaska my. Okay representive well if she has anything to say I'm just. Good. Senate bill. I recognize you for motion. Hello now your own there we go okay I move that the Senate house in that committee is grant authority for approval of special expenses to the chairman of the house in a committees. Your second second all in favor say aye. Motion carries thank you very much. We need to approve minutes from our September seventeenth twenty twenty meeting. Any objection no objection your motion motion second interpret all in favor say aye. Motion approved. Okay we are going to have a presentation on the northeast Arkansas rice research and extension center the doctor Timothy Burcham and read all the old please come to the table. When you're situated please if you would turn your microphone introduce yourself for the record and you're recognized. I believe Tim is going to present first but I'm proud to all a rice soybean and wheat farmer from west Poinsett County. Good morning everyone I'm Timothy Burcham the director of the Northeast rash research and extension center located in Harrisburg Arkansas with the University of Arkansas System Division of agriculture. Thank you Mr chairman Preciado that so much of. Mr chairman madam chair thank you so much and committee members thank you so much for the opportunity to share with the group today so wanted to share the exciting things that are going on as we're constructing the first new experiment station for the Division since nineteen sixty one thank probably in the nation today this probably is the only new experiment station going going on are being built in the United States of America right now so we're very excited about the opportunity to share with you today I'll post very of frequently on Twitter and I'd love for you to follow me at at at any A. R. K. rice and I will we keep updates on there with regard to things are going on at the station love for you to follow me on our Twitter feed their. Today I would like to share with you the vision and mission a little bit about the history of the farm and then of course the design concepts that we put together for the for it realizing that vision and mission and then break out a little bit about the the sections of the facility and how it serves our community as well as our research needs and and importantly the the educational component that's being built into this particular of facility so want to share that with you I'll talk about some of the fundraising activities that we've been involved with and then just a little update with regard to activity on the farm itself. The first thing I did when I was a assigned this position with the Division is to meet with our division administration and the Arkansas rice research but more promotion board members and work on a vision and mission statement we also set a set aside of X. guiding principles statement for that in that I will read all of this but I did want to point out a couple things that are important to me I I did mention in my introduction by my field I'm not an agronomist I'm not a rice farmer but I'm an agricultural engineer and so technology is certainly an important part of my life and one of the things that we emphasize when you look at our mission statement the things that we're looking for here is to take those those varieties that we breakdown at the stuck our station and to make maximum use of those were cart of fission city of production methodologies and key things there is innovation and then in that last sentence in the sustainable ecosystem an op talk about that a little bit more detail here from history the university bought this farm in two thousand and seventeen it's a six hundred acre of form that state for those of you who travel in the Harrisburg area it's immediately south of the rustic farm Sydney road is gravel road actually divides our form and the rustic farm there on highway one. The farm features a thirty two acre reservoir for this about ten feet deep so we have a substantial surface water of supply there it's also bordered on the western side by the language river so we have the ability to utilize water from basically run off coming in from Jonesborough net surrounding area there. This just gives you a snapshot of our location the Jonesborough so about fourteen miles south of John. There you can see the farm lay out with the in the Google maps and I down to the bottom you'll see that Greenville brown rice disability it's just south of the farm and that's where my temporary offices are at this time so that's where I'm office and has been very convenient because I'm about two hundred yards south of the border of the farm there so it's worked out really nice and appreciate our folks that have helped us there. Looking at the farm itself in twenty twenty we finished up the land levelling operations and the Division it's at this farm up to really to do large scale production practices and so when you see all these divisions across roads in here that was a large expense from stand up standpoint of the land leveling aspect thirteen miles of roads demand representative vault thirteen miles of road do we maintain on that farm so I just ordered a side window side mounted Bouchard's to try to help us maintain some of that the farm features bills that are one tenth grade zero grade point oh five grade in three great so from the standpoint of slope we have a lot of different choices to look at with regard to the soil type and I brought some here some of the committee members would really like to see what the flowers of Henry still loan looks like and that's ninety four percent of the farm I brought some samples here and they let me through the front gate there representative ought with those samples Preciado that. So there you go there's a cut out of the soil profile there ninety four percent in receipt loan little bit Callaway out on the highway and limitation or clay over on the river And I note here that the souls are very. On the standpoint infiltration they really hold a lot of water and the key thing there is Brad that makes it ideal for rice production. If you don't know rice production Poinsett County still later Ross productions in this prison county in the state and my understanding is the leading rice producing county in the nation at this time and these can result law souls that this farm is owned or key component of that a production system. Another key component in the selection of this particular farm so location is you can say here this is the critical groundwater designations and of course west of Crowley's Ridge there were in that red hot zone that you see there Brad are you still in the hot zone or you just just a little bit I thought so. Brats over a little bit closer to winter on the forty nine signs at highway one side so again ground water it being a key area and and and and a depleting resource here are from doctor Natalie so look at this and I know the members will be able to say this but I just would point out that even in this two thousand and nine study we were only at twelve thirty five percent sustainable of pumping from the alluvial aquifer there so our water conservation and the critical need for research up for production methods that utilize for less water going to be critical for us going forward. With regard to the Arkansas rice research and promotion boards this is the list of items that that they've helped with so far the land purchased a land leveling you're gauging project operational endowment that requires the one to one match the director funding help some with my my salary or working on the shop right now of the funds there for that and then they have to put forward I think a total of ten million dollars now for the building that also be sharing with you and showing you in just a moment here so today there's twenty one point four million dollars that the rice research promotion board has dedicated this project and just as a point of clarification for the members of the committee that that money is coming from the Columbia T. R. Q. which is a tariff rate quota has to do with the trade of rice with Columbia and those coupons are auctioned off and all of the rice producing states receive those funds in those funds were dedicated research still California would be second in line to receive funds but because we produce half of the long grain rice and United States of America. Arkansas has received about half of all those funds coming in from that T. arc you know there are people in a behind me that know much more about this T. R. Q. but I would tell you that was signed in two thousand and twelve if you want to learn more about it you can go to call rice that C. O. L. dash R. I. C. E. dot org and it'll tell you the history of that and the third party that handles the auction of those coupons. Next let's take a look at the facility that we're planning for the site there at to Harrisburg. When we talk to the architectural firm that we that we contracted for this portion the project that we went forward with our vision mission statement so just what I share with you an early part of the presentation as well as the guiding principles we gave that to the architects in the course the key things where where the where the research the outrage or extension activities that we have there and then important to us and I'll share more detail here's the K. through twelve and four H. programs that we're that are going to be built into the footprint or the DNA of this center and that is unique and different from the the other experiment stations that we have throughout the state and then of course a community space that will allow us to host meetings again that the city will hold about two hundred fifty people so this is just a rough sketch of what the architects came back with and as you can say that I they utilized a silo concept and everybody really love this concept so it uses the silo stylings on the front of the public space here now shows more detailed pictures that moment so there's the three D. rendering of that and then next year we have a two minute seventeen second video that if it but everything works well we'll play and you'll hear a little background music for you but this really gives you a great tour it's going to give us a fly around of the facility and then it will take us up to a fly through on the interiors. A tale about a story about the video everyone is work with the architects on that video of the first the first version came back within the parking lot had nothing but a small like Nissan's and you know small cars in there and I said Sir I think that most of the folks that are going to be coming here might be there might be a few pick up trucks that were in there and you notice it was only Dodge trucks of owner only the only of a CG I they had was of where the Dodge ram pick ups me give you just an update on the shop construction right now we have the foundation poured defenses in place the concrete for the foundation is in place and then I'm in the in the in the same situation as many in the building industry right now waiting on steel we are on a four week plus delay with our steel right now and there's just the the three day of the shop so we're probably my Gantt chart on my shop construction is probably looking more like in November we were targeting August and I think probably you're looking like November and December the shop basically has forty five hundred square feet of interior space very simple lay out this got a office break room bathroom in a two room and then a really nice facility at the backside for mixing or chemicals as far as property action chemicals and the automated system to do those batch mixing things and that'll be a great educational tool for our farmers in the region. Let me share with you just a minute about the community aspect of this and that's the public space in this I can say that here's the the visualization of that from the architects and you can say the silo to sign out front and then the lay out of the interior side there with regard to the restroom facilities of storage facilities as well as the kitchen and I'll talk about the kitchen little more detail here well the neat things here is that we designed the parking lot to have a bus access was built in other words we tell them we wanted to make sure that we could get grade school kids coming in buses pull up drop them off here at the rise discovery center and they're able to come around and park the other nice design feature there is the silos from one when you come in the front entrance you say glass there and of course on our fundraising I hope that those silos will have donors there so it could be different companies that represented there but I hope that are rash companies come forward and and help us with funding and have their names displayed in the up in those silos there be a great opportunity for exposure for them and of course the LED lights allows us to whoever's meeting there it's Hartland no words case I H. you can have read it it's a great way we can have a great in yellow really helps that is centered in a file with the with the groups that are meeting their and just a few shots inside there and again you know if price on for example funded one of the side that you say represent Vaught meet me in the rice Linda silo they're at the center so rob lot of good name recognition that potential there are going inside the facility in the back you up that public space one of the key things here wants to be able to to look out from our public space and actually look on to the form and so we're actually designing this so that we could have our rice variety top trials visible from that back windows to be really nice there seems to be. At two hundred fifty of them in the in the round table format for dining probably around a hundred two hundred ten. You say the kitchen at the backside there again I'll talk about that a little more detail in just a moment. Let me talk to a little bit about the education mission of this station one of the key things when I took this position that was made very clear to me by members of the Arkansas rice research promotion board was the education and we're talking about K. through twelve education component the Division of course already has a great four H. program in that has projects on a range of activity but the rice research promotion board really wanted us to have something that would arise specific to make sure that the young people in our region and throughout the Delta understood the importance of rice for our region and that kind of thing and so that's the DNA for this portion of the facility is built in from the start so you say from the schematic here that last silo is it whether you can status as blacks there so we and then the you have the what what I'm calling the dirty classroom in other words kids could have projects in there we could have sole pot pot for their own rights states in those kinds of things and also then the green house that's attached to that and that let's all rise educator person have access to rice it every growth stage to share with them the other aspect of this is and and by the way I I'll entered on show or pitcher just a moment the extension side of the Division has already hired this agriculture natural resources educator position. She starts today so I'm not there to greater today I'm glad to be here with you guys but actual in S. three who is an essay you graduate dinner graduate work at the university of Arkansas an act come join us there you can say one of her stories on the front porch twenty twenty summer edition where she did that rural health care story that was a cover story for a farm bureau magazine just a low shot there of the kitchen area and one of the key things about that flex areas that we're able to utilize that from an educational standpoint to share the different rice cultures from around the world so the young people be able to come in or educator can talk to them about Asian rice south American rice have the different types of rice there cook to Baz Mahdi the jasmine's our own aroma seventeen those kinds of things so that they get a physical experience a and then I I cultural experience and then a sensory experience while we're there for their lessons and and spending time with us there the other aspect of that education program is then we're right beside a bottomland hardwood section there on the front edge of the of highway one of the co buyer form it's you can see it from the road very easily and we plan to have a trail that goes into that bottomland hardwood and again our educator can talk about wetlands natural resources the wildlife aspects of this and as you know rice and ducks are very go together in that great a symbiotic relationship there by the way all the species you see on the screen here I've seen down at the farm right now we've had bald eagles there the raptors had a field day with the ducks on the road for this past a hunting season for those of you are duck hunters were two miles as the crow flies from the famous Claypool rest for very very close by so lot of ducks on the road for unfortunately I know honey rest for. Let me share with you just a little bit about the research aspect that we establish thus far in of this again for owned by science based information for the long term sustainability of rice production Arkansas again fifty percent of about fifty percent of the rights production United States coming from that the Arkansas delta region just introduce you to my team real quick there it's a it's a real short introduction because it's myself. Wright Simpson that you see here on the left Greg had fourteen years with rice tech recently ran the most proper drop I would doctor Henry that many of you might be aware of of irrigation and Chris Henry both of these guys have University of Arkansas to grazing Greg has some graduate work at a issue and then I mentioned to actually this re who starts with us today she did the internships with the farm bureau and and it's just going to be a write up addition to us and shall be house there in the great bill brown rice with the dust and the rifles with the rest of us do we get this facility built but she's excited and we're excited to have a coming on board. Very quickly this year of course we just got the farm into back into production mode and had you visited in February you would look at the pharmacy there's no way but I'm a believer I'm I'm a man of faith and and I kept saying we're just stepped forward you know of one foot at a time one day at a time and I'll tell people is what we operate on J. I. T. you know in the car business is just in time delivery for your parts and things like that will we've operated that year this year on J. I. T. and by that I mean I didn't have a tractor until way into March of didn't have any equipment and then of course the greenway gift came through and shut share with you some things there so Dr Harvey's got a full set of Arkansas rice performance trial plots they're they're looking really good right now you'll see in the flower video I've got for you we got a rash cover crop experiment going on the doctor state green Matt prior and trip Roberts are doing that so joint a issue and you'll based scientist involved here get ready to start watering those beans we just got this spray and so really excited about that all the weed science I doctor but this is looking at the a residual herbicide effect on these new but nearly cut ground I told you we just finished leveling this like past year and so he's looking at our residuals operate in there so you say I shot his up plots there up behind that the trees that you sale as you go along highway one of dedicated fifteen acres to the weight science guys so when we do the flyover video at the end you'll see this big green patch inside it's nothing but weeks of. He wanted thirty acres I gave him fifteen all right also on the backside of the property over that Titian or clay side we have a U. S. T. A. R. S. it's got a study going on there and you say doctor at Arlene Advanta Board bait Machel Rabo and Joseph Massey and of course they're stationed at a issue and that's the Delta water management resource a unit and so they're working on greenhouse gas emissions looking at various watering techniques whether it's alternate wetting and drying rubberized production and that's all of those things are going on at this particular site so I want to show you one of the neat things that we did for their facility we at higher date Jeff Dickens with grantees so and this is. Video planes boards that all bills that makes it very difficult for us to get in there to the land base with land based break women and also the feels too small really have airplane combine so this was a perfect a utilization of the new drone technology that Little John holds about three gallons so he has to fill up multiple times but he sprayed all of that four acres of forest using the drone technology. We share with you just a little bit about the private support that we've enjoyed so far and we continue our development campaign I would tell you that COVID not covered the twenty twenty co that year and course we're still dealing with COVID but the twenty twenty you're really set us back in our development activity but still trying to move forward that just wanted to share with you even in the design of the S. naming opportunities again the lead donor for this name in the health center that still available as well as the different silos. Office space that we've got naming opportunities this is another big one right here that I hope will get a industry that will help us with this rice discovers of this is that you hate K. through twelve education components right opportunity there. As many of you read to the great white came through with a two million dollar gift that two million dollar gift is a million dollars toward the facility itself and a million dollars for a quick minute and it's kind of a declining balance of working on the equipment side of things to date the equipment that I've received a postmark should just in time it's about a hundred seventy one thousand dollars of equipment that I received from them and by the way those are not all John Deere there sourcing a lot of my commitment I have fair oaks Arkansas built commitment fair oaks for my lan playing house for my did your and so forth so we're really stressing of Arkansas made with regard to equip or bein on our tractors were they're letting us do those just on a rental basis and so that's a great advantage for us just a clock hour it is what I pay them from for the use of the tractors and we have an eighty to ninety five which is in two hundred ninety five horsepower tractor and then two sixty one thirty switcher hundred thirty horse utility tractors. Hold the screen now is a list of the donors that helped us thus far and I'm so you know overjoyed with the folks that want to help us from a private standpoint to. You know Mr Mr Bower at made us a brand new AC poly Popper for all of those that do a qualified peer gauge and everybody knows what that is that it's a device lets us but upon path out macron motor Assy metrics both of those companies are coming on board with us to help us with the flow measurement on the farm itself Mr Dillinger donated a trailer for us to use we got a bargain price on the on that chemical mixing system basically twenty five cents on the dollar and in every state we planted on the farm and we planted every acre on the farm this year was donated by these companies that you see here so where progeny horizon Panteras taking cash for about a state so really appreciate that and the support we've got so to date two million seventy nine thousand three hundred dollars and that's and and counting I should say so we want to we're working hard to move further in our development campaign now that we're hopefully putting COVID behind us. Real quickly just want to show you a flurry of activity here and in here I'm pointing out and I when I shared this presentation with senator Wallace and and representative Smith up in Craighead county earlier back in February by the way then I didn't have a tractor I'll remind you guys didn't have a tractor it did to see at the end and to see it today is actually remarkable but I'm putting people's names here because one of the key things I want to leave with the committee today is that farming there's just branches out branches out branches out no one farmers by themselves it takes an army of individuals to keep the farm going and those of you in the act secretary know this so here's Mr CRISIL from downstate guard he rebuilt all of our reading of pops coming to put those back in yes Cabot Mr Jack Bailey over there he's stationed in Memphis with all of their the FDA controllers Mr Jean winters come and help me put this pump station in an all I do is pick the phone up and folks it just amazes me at the talent these individuals that are out there servicing the act sector just amazing the professionalism that they have in the skill set that they have here's Mr door cane needed all of our irrigation projects as the he won the state the bid process and just did great work throughout the former irrigation system just working wonderful there's a finished product project on the relative to the backside of the form energy Arkansas really came through for Scott the power line and just in time just in time got that done right at the first week of April and again we've already got three Vacheron Mr elder Frank elder and play his son came out and helped us with the test for well to look at the situation ground water in there or not I'm thankful that we went ahead and did a test well because you showed us some things with regard to what we've got to do for you know for sustained a groundwater production in that area. Well folks I wanna give you a little flowers over to our of the form and then I'll finish out with just a little of sale of quit if you will on a how I think we should you know what's a great investment opportunity so we're going to start on the southwest side when a place live video we shot this day before yesterday so you're saying the farm as it lies today and we're gonna start on the southwest side and fly over those zero grade fields in the south west corner over the north west corner and then we'll come back down and head back to the southeast corner so let's see if I get this to play for you guys. One minute. Say the rest for to the left. Coming over now forty five acre block of us L. L. sixteen. Price rise in Arkansas university riding. Can you say the whites also referred to. Very evident from there there's the of what bottomland hardwood. There's a doctor but sweet science areas that you see there so that we. Now we come to the building site you can see. Building site location for the. John. This train segment here's our rubberized demonstration. That last part is where we have the all Arkansas rise from performance trials as well as our commercial Rostropovich there inductor but it's got one of his residual herbicide trials and errors will. Last thing I want to share with the group is a competitive advantage and I thank the rice is a key is a key component for us to. Investing in as our Kansans so you know I've already mentioned we produced last year would produce forty nine percent of all the rise in in the nation in twenty twenty. Home to twenty five hundred rice farmers with when I'm sitting right beside me right now ninety six percent of them family owned that thank about the expansion of of what I shared with you of everyone of those have got to have people working on pumps people working Wales people provide fertilize people doing the spraying aerial aircraft drones I mean it just spirals from there into our communities. In Arkansas we typically plant one point two to one point five million acres will be down this year because of weather issues that hindered planting but that's our typical in a course it generates billions into our economy and it's twenty five thousand plus jobs. Just point out to you want to talk about competitive advantage there's just six rice producing states in the nation and there's the there is what we do. Forty nine percent so the next nearest neighbor is California and they're the leading medium grain producer at seventeen percent the folks that drops off precipitously from there. And I mention when I'm sure this before it's great to get you know to attract a car company for example to come to the state. But you know you're going to compete with every state in the nation to get a car company representative Bob that's that's a fact but here we are with the god given resources that we have of the delta. There's nothing else like it I mean you know the course the Delta extends into Missouri Mississippi and Louisiana but reality is in America we have one dealt. In Arkansas controls the majority of that. So good for my competitive advantage it would seem to me that investment in something where we have a strategic advantage is something that we should look at this slide in there so you just to get you a sense and this is the companies in America today that have the highest or in the best. And they're familiar names. And probably everybody in here is push the button for an Amazon package of some kind within the week that's the first one right after that is alphabet which is Google. Then you say votes wagon is you know they're moving very quickly into electrification of the entire automobile line so that's a big thing for their foreign date look at those names apples all the way number eight I might add. And so from research and development standpoint I'm encouraging the Committee and our legislature to support rice. To support the competitive advantage we have and really quite frankly to maintain the competitive advantage we have to produce this nation's rise and exported crossworlds I doctor Nellie did a study and that studies available if you'd like a copy that I'll be happy to get you that. If the chairman I'd be happy to provide you guys with a copy of that report but for every dollar his studies show for every dollar that we get to the division from the last check off fund that stands out to twenty eight dollars and forty nine cents in benefits if you put the environmental and ecosystem benefits in there that number goes to one dollar equals seventy dollars. So it's quite a multiplier that we have there. Mr chairman. I appreciate so much the opportunity to speak to the group today and if there's any questions for me at this time would be glad to take them and I I think Brad's going to share with the committee just moments. You need to questions from. What. To the. Senator Garner Hendren and questions answered Walsh for you start he was a little concerned about one we have the Legislative to conduct their research center. I will go ahead senator Wallace you're recognized. Dr Martin that briefings even better the second time around legislation thank you Sir. Could you is a copy of that power point could you send that Lewis I would like to see that I'll share that with in my district I think it's a great grieving people need to realize what we have here yes and thank you for all that you're doing happy anybody like a copy that it's a big file with all these movies but I'll get with Mister Jones he's very capable if you would give a staff staff could do distribute that force yes Sir yes Sir thank you Sir thank you senator. Any other questions. Millot said this past the session on the rice research pantry obviously we're trying to get that money to move forward to to match right to research and I think those opportunities to the will provide those funds will come up for the Legislative Council in the next few weeks I think Senator Hickey as pro tem was tried put everything off until after the first you live which is today I have no idea what to what the status of that is just to bring folks up today limited to of the universe Arkansas has made a request for six million dollars from the governor and I think the at some point in the near future we'll see that whether we provider not to get the same but but again that that's kind of the the status of four years ago in the one have a question on it will try to answer that also. Okay no question thank you very much appreciate it thank you very informative. The school you have a yes Sir I just wanted to speak to the importance of the of the research at the station there like I said I am a for generation farmer from from the winner area Weiner. Introduce rice growing in nineteen oh six the first county or city was lone oak around nineteen oh two so it's a very important part of our our heritage and our souls are unique that they do have high water holding capacity low internal drainage and as you know I may not know most of the rice is concentrated in northeast Arkansas and the surrounding counties around around Poinsett. But what what and what's most important to Arkansas rice farmers and and farmers in general is profitability on the farm so we have to manage our input costs as they come we have many costs we are not in control of machinery cost inputs fertilizers C. cost fuel rent. But the one thing that we have the most control over hopefully with all of those inputs use is the yield and we need good data we have a usually one time shot at getting crop planted and if the if the weather allows it on research they can they can multiply that time and time again local planning dates multiple seating rates multiple fertilizer studies and all of that together is what we as farmers look at during the winter time and make the decisions that we make it we try to hit those those goals so that the information provided specifically at this Harrisburg station is very valid to my farm which is four point seven five miles away. Sturch guard is is a hundred miles south of me and they do great research is stuck art but what we are north of I. forty in many of the University of Arkansas recommendations to separate the state from I. forty we plantings rice plantings there are geographically we are different soil types we're differently our our water table depth the type of irrigation is different and so on my farm in the mid eighties my father law bill two hundred acre reservoir and that today we're building another forty five acres of or on a form through in our CS program but we also depend heavily on groundwater and we are in a critical groundwater use area I live next about if you we farm next to the cat to the line you river and I live by nearby the cache river so we are believe or not cut off from the Mississippi River Crowley's Ridge it cuts our underground water off so we have we have challenges and and western side of the the ridge that many others on the side don't have but we have more rights over there rice fees the world's nearly four hundred million acres of rice in the world. The great thing about rice and I gross weight means You can not the whole authorizing cook it at home you know it and and is also used as a as food aid we send a lot of rice over overseas in lieu of cash and I think that's a great program. In the nearby maybe there's rice that is milled for cosco for dollar general. For Sam's there's right to go to Taiwan and many other countries job dog food market is is huge too as well in our area so Rice travels all around Arkansas rice believe it or not we're not one of the largest producers but we are one of the largest exporters of rice and we've got great farmers in the state of Arkansas. With the information primarily that the University of Arkansas research has provided so this being in in in in the geographic region weather so much rice is very important back to profitability diseases occur every year we don't we we manage them through fungicide research that the university has has performed also weed control all those weed research studies it looks like a field the weeds but it's there's a lot of great efficacy trials there that tells women what to spray and also I can I can actually instead of picking up the phone I can drive over there bring a we'd say what is this you know is is controllable what is this one of the speckling on these leave so we've got and we'll have hopefully the specialist on that station that will be able to answer the questions such as the cattlemen would with with the disease or a poultry farmer would with with an incident that happened there. I'm also service Poinsett county farm bureau president and we have a a field day for the for the children at the county fair in this would be a great opportunity to have that anytime of the year not not wait for fair time but to bring in the kids educate them a little bit about about rice for sure because as you may or may not know there are tens of thousands of righties of rice in the world and the what is the difference between white rice and brown rice or an aromatic rice there's many many differences and I believe he did Tim didn't really step talk too much about what the test kitchen thanks to be a test kitchen there what we can go in and have cooking demonstrations bringing K. I. T. or KTV and and and show the public what what we're doing here because a lot of it's just don't really really know they say that they see the plane to see the the tractors running up down the field but to be honest a lot and don't know the difference between wheat or rice and there's a huge difference and it's it's it's just prideful for me being in the position that we are to grow a crop that that helps feed the world. Kids today I we also have numerous farmer educational meetings where we talk about all this research and maybe marketing and and even as much as mental health awareness and things like that where we could have those presentations at this communities outlet. We have a lot of foreign buyers that are interested in bringing business to Arkansas and if we have a facility like this we can show them what we have to offer it would mean a tremendous amount for economic development northeast Arkansas as well as the other parts of the state but in a particular being so close to Jonesborough that's a huge draw we have a lot of opportunity there. Also served as vice president of the American solving Association and I travel all over the world for for a. Sustainability message and when we are whether you like it or not climate change or climate legislation is what we're going to deal with pretty soon and so I believe all and rice is is is very unique in that it does live in a flooded environment during the during the summertime and all you have to deal with all that strong winter time so cover crops it's a challenge and so a lot of the research that's being conducted there it will help us make the right decision and all farmers with within the state and projects like that just just mean a lot will help our bottom line and what can I say it so we're in a great great state as you will know great area but I just feel like this will last so much more to our. Our our bottom line on the on the farm so I appreciate your support of the station and thank you for your time today. Members anyone have questions. Increasing none we think both of you very much for coming I'm sure there be some of the questions comments after the meeting to one hang around the and again we'll get was staff so that he can get to okay thank you both for coming. The next we have doctor John Anderson. Bring as little update on the flood damage to agriculture we had recently in Southeast Arkansas. Doctor engine when you're settled in if you would please turn your microphone introduce yourself and you're recognized. Thank you very much for the opportunity to be here Mr chairman madam chair members of the committee I believe I spoke to this group once during COVID but that was by as soon so it's nice to be here in person and the privilege to a. To come spend a few minutes with you and talk about our preliminary efforts to quantify the damages to To agriculture to crop production in Southeast Arkansas from the the rain event of June six through nine and I'll move fairly quickly through this just really want to show you The extent of damage we really had the about four days of heavy precipitation it covered a lot of the state but you can see the the biggest event on the the eighth and ninth I've got the twenty four hour precipitation maps from the National Weather Service for those two days and you can see that the. Southeast Arkansas was really the epicenter of of a lot of rainfall I think our research extension center at roar initiate County got nineteen inches of rain in thirty six hours so that the county as a whole I think had thirteen inches on the the twenty four hours of the of the the night very serious event for a lot of our crops in particular given the time of year we had a quite a bit of wheat that the there was in the process of being harvested more significantly than that I think in terms of acreage at least a lot of soybeans and rice that had been planted and we're in the early stages of growth that ended up under water and and at while they're under water with very high temperatures of the devastating impact on those on those crops. A lot of corn that was be a the blown down or flooded cotton as well so Fairly significant losses in a in a in a relatively concentrated area in the state we've done some work to try to assess you the the extent of the damage in terms of acreage one thing that we're able to do fairly recently have been able to do this I think a couple years ago we uh we've we've developed this capability to use satellite imagery to to to fairly precisely map out the area of damage and we can that can use a a crop over late to get an idea of that because that's affected obviously the the crop overlay is a year old this is twenty twenty crop overlay but over broader elect the issue with normal rotation this this at least gives a pretty good idea of the crop acres that are that that are affected based on what's under water we were only able to get this on the parts of seven counties because the. Where we can get clear satellite imagery and where we could get access to data that those those counties are to comprehensive in terms of the scope of damage but they do give us a good idea of of the percentage of crop in the in the in the broader area that was affected and so you can see. You know on on on this map of a of a roughly these seven counties or parts of seven counties about eight hundred thousand acres almost eight hundred thousand acres total that were affected in some way by flooding we were able to to narrow down the parameters that a little bit more and look at the area that was that was heavily affected now this is the area that would have had the six inches or more of water standing on it for multiple days does a little over five hundred thousand acres The questions that we've gotten is you know what is that the what is that amount to in terms of economic damage and and our purpose with this is to try to measure as much as we can objectively there is there's always a certain amount of subjectivity that comes into the estimate of disaster losses we want to kind of set a benchmark here establish a baseline of of what we can objectively measure in terms of loss and so we focused on twelve counties in Southeast Arkansas that had some damage from flooding and obviously not all counties were were working it to the same extent Shea County was kind of the epicenter and as you move out concentrically from there less impact but all these twelve counties had had some impact and we're basically looking if you think of the of the geography the triangle between a triangle bounded by I. forty on the north highway sixty five on the southwest in the Mississippi River on the southeast and try to assess within that area what the losses were we focused on five major row crops because the timing of the event these were the most heavily affected and the these with of of have occurred the most value in terms of acreage and and market value representative but we recognize that there are some things that we just really couldn't get good data on that were also impacted I'll talk about that in just a second. A quick summary of County assumptions we used to convert these these damage estimates into an economic value on corn we send it across that twelve county area the average production loss would be about fifteen percent on on roughly three hundred sixty thousand acres at a market year average that expected mark year average value five ninety five per bushel on cotton a little bit different because we actually had a fairly extensive survey of lost acres on cotton because the boll weevil eradication district when in fairly quickly and did a a a a relatively comprehensive survey of of farmers in the area and they came up with the a five thousand acres of total loss centered on the CIA Andrew counties and that losses valued a little over seventy seven cents a pound on only at a two forty seven two and forty seven dollars a time on cottonseed for rice so we at we estimated total loss on twenty eight thousand five hundred acres at ten percent you'll loss again across the twelve county area on another hundred fifty thousand acres or so with that loss valued at the five seventy six a bushel on long grain and five ninety four a bushel on medium grain. So it means a little more complicated because where we are in in the year we've estimated twenty five thousand acres of being a total loss that will not be replanted because of timing issues in an inability to get water off of those fields another roughly hundred thousand acres was lost but but but will be more than likely be replanted now that replant as late as we are in the year we can expect those replanted acres to to yield like they would if planning we're done in a timely fashion so we're estimating thirty percent yield penalty on those acres are being re planted and we are adding to the cost of the the the the cost that had already been incurred in the first planning To to that to that loss on the on those replanted acres and that's been valued fourteen but fourteen dollars and nine cents a bushel again expected market year average price. We took a thirty seven thousand six hundred eighty two acres of wheat were basically un harvested at the time of this immense the major effect on the week was on quality and the the some significant dockets fifty cents a bushel docket this is is what we're hearing about on that damaged wheat and so on we were looking at a at a really quality lost most of that will be harvested but quality some quality will be lost also probably some higher harvest expenses because a lot of that we is down that's in it is gonna be difficult to get out we didn't really try to quantify that we'll talk about that in just a second. So if you put all that together the damage estimate comes out to about two hundred six million dollars and you can see the break down there about sixty million on corn six million cotton a little under seventy million on rice and right at seventy million on soybeans roughly another million on wheat so that total is is just under two hundred and six again at the end I think it's best to think of that total is kind of a baseline there are some things that the we're looking at what we can reasonably objectively quantify in terms of lost their other sources of loss that are much harder to get a handle on and that but but those those losses while the assessment is subject of those losses are real to the producer and so I want to give you some some cabbie ought to think about as you as it is the kind of process these damage estimates first of all there is a wide variation in Los experience across these counties that we with that we're looking at obviously you know what I means in the state county being particularly hard hit What we were trying to do here is kind of estimate headline number and from a from a policy maker perspective that tends to be what people are interested in but but recognize that the distribution of those losses is not something that we've tried to deal with the across counties more importantly across individual producers there are individual producers in Southeast Arkansas who who had their entire forms under water so when I talk about a you'll fifteen percent loss or ten percent loss on a particular crop you're recognized that there are forms that a hundred percent loss across there across their form and and and those particular hard hit forms. That may have difficulty re planning because the time it will take to get those forms back in shape so distributional loss is is it is a critical issue but not one that we really have the ability to deal with and making these estimates. Our geographic scope is obviously limited we're looking at twelve counties there's been a lot of weather events around the state throughout the year in the event of June six through nine outside at twelve county area there may well be some effects that we don't capture a lot of people were still trying to hustle to get planning done and the rain even though it might not of been a severe and say aye in Southeast Arkansas may have delayed that planning that can create really ill effects again that's it's a fairly subjective assessment at this point we really don't have data to qualify that but if you hear from people outside Southeast Arkansas who who said will look I I'm going to have an effect because my yields have been impacted by late planning that's the that's a legitimate point but not one that we really have the ability to address our crop scope is limited to the crops that we have really good data for again I think that's appropriate because the the definitely the line sure the value will be in those crops but we didn't have data to assess smaller acres row crops like grain sorghum or specialty crops. Finally there has been we are sure we hear a lot of anecdotal stories about damage to infrastructure and equipment levy's washed out roads on forms washed out drainage ditches clogged with debris pumps that have been flooded and will have to be replaced repaired equipment that was under water those are not things that we have the ability to it to assign a value to but those real losses the hopefully some of those losses will be covered by by forms regular property and casualty insurance but those are certainly real losses there will also be some increase harvest cost because of things like down crops and breeding fields very difficult to assess but but nonetheless real cost so if you consider the limitations in our in our in our in our baseline assessment I think it's reasonable to us to to expect another ten to twenty five percent higher damage from these these other factors that would put our damage estimate in the range of from two and twenty seven million two hundred fifty million turn fifty seven million dollars from the June a flood event. We will continue to revisit this issue up better and better data will become available as the year progresses and as that data becomes available we can that we can refine our estimates of loss the date of that but I'm going to be paying attention to as we as we try to assess this moving for will be the weekly crop progress reports the the monthly crop production reports that that will start coming out with that with some production estimates in in August USTA's risk management agency summary of business which will start includes makers reports in about the middle of July Preliminary crop acres data will be available from USDA farm service agency in in the the end of July or early August and will start to get more objective assessment of prevented planted acres or fail Lakers we should start to give us a clear picture what those losses are so will be some refinements of these estimates over the next couple of months as as this As public data becomes available. quickly acknowledge a lot of people in the U. a division of agriculture have up contributed to this work and continue to work on this list in there I want to particularly point out Scott Stiles who is ninety comments that works out of Jonesborough who has as really did to have that done the heavy lifting on the on put a lot of these estimates together with a lot of input from our production specialist to you can see listed there. With that all I'll stop and be happy to take any questions that any might have. Members. Representive right. just a. Question for you you know the the veins that probably are going to be planted to replace a lot of these damaged acres what is the normal cycle for veins I know if you start that in June instead of save money or something like that what would be the difference between a crop that would come off a little later in maybe a crop that was actually planted during the right time well I think that's a great question and and keep in mind that I was probably negligent in my introduction I'm and I'm I'm the the hand agricultural economics department and so I'm an economist of not an agronomist and that's a better question for agronomists the agronomist can probably give you chapter and verse on this I'll give you the economist version of this There there the lost yield potential we have figured with input from our drawn this is about thirty percent and and that's the that's the key number a lot of details and what goes into that but the key number is these crops are being planted late June early July you're probably look at whatever your whatever you expected your yield potential to be on that field you probably better back off about thirty percent and that's due to a variety of factors now recognize that that's not the. You don't move in a straight line through this through this you'll loss process right so that thirty percent reflects the fact that you gonna probably run into more adverse weather you're gonna have a shorter growing season you might end up with the with an early freeze before you get that crop off because it's come off late maybe maybe even into November so thirty percent a good average for how much you might lose your committee individual field or any any individual circumstance bill but the loss on that late planted crops could be much greater right if if if we get early October freeze the loss could be total actually on some of those so this is Sam Smith of all right how how's this late planted crop going to do. I can shoot you a pretty good average on what that you'll effect is going to be a recognized there can be a lot of very ability around that because the systems are optimized for that that planning date they're optimized for that early planting date and the third presents a good ballpark we might do better than that we might do worse than that before coming up in the headline number that's a pretty good that's a pretty good number to use a lot of it that again more adverse conditions because you're later in the year and then difficulties associated with getting that crown mature and out of the field before you run into bad weather in the fall. When. One twenty two would you might number. Your thank you Mr chairman you know in the times past you would have a crop of wheat and then you would follow behind that with things I'm sure that probably would affect that near as much as what it would if you had just a crop of brains for that year designated for that purpose is that not by right well and and again I I I don't want to speak out of turn because I'm not in a drawing of this but I actually done some work on early planning versus double cropping in the double cropping used to be a really common system not very much anymore I think a lot of it has to do with our our full season varieties are full season systems have gotten so much better than they were back in the days we did double cropping that that system is really become dominant so that double cropping is a lot less prevalent because it's just not as productive and it's much higher risk than the full season systems that we have now that really set up to do a good job would be highly productive with those. Senate bill. This area been declared a federal disaster yes. I don't think so I know it and and again I'm I'm I'm may not be in the best position to answer that the. I know that our congressional delegation is working on that there are other weather problems going on around the country in there they are coordinating with their colleagues in other parts of the country for example out in California where they're dealing with drought the including in some other key rice producing areas so you know I I I suspect that the at some point at the federal level will deal with multiple weather issues at one time but again that's that's not something I'm on the inside of. In do you have any idea what percentage of farmers did not have crop insurance. We've been looking at that really closely and and and that's a. That's the that's not a simple there's not a simple answer that are the simple answer is very few don't have crop insurance at all the real question is what level of coverage do the forms have and in in Arkansas and and honestly particularly in Southeast Arkansas farmers typically carry very low levels of coverage we we don't have good data on that yet for twenty twenty one I mention the RMA summary of business data I won't know acreage on that until at least the middle of July now after that point I will be able to go in and tell you all right in the state county what was a very. Insurance products and covers levels on on on how many acres of each crop but we're we're a month away really from having that data if you look at twenty twenty and I don't think we a whole lot different than twenty twenty insurance participation also roughly two thirds of the acres in the yeah particularly I can I can think off the top of my head to stay in Arkansas counties roughly two thirds of those acres had what we call cap covers catastrophic coverage which is fifty percent you'll coverage and fifty five percent price coverage so those losses have to pretty much be total before you get anything so. Just to summarize real quickly pretty much everybody has insurance most farmers in that part of state had very low level of coverage and so aren't very well protected from the meant like this buy insurance it basically on your fifty percent coverage of half your farm had damage and other have didn't have damage then you really don't have coverage you're right there on the public triggering in that situation correct clarify that for. Correct. senator garner. Thank Mr mat I'm a Mrs in your presentation and. Is there any anticipated amount of revenue the state will lose and in kind of the mechanism for you to grab this and is there going to be. What kind of the thought process the impact of the status for that CyberGhost we will you were having some conversations about that now we haven't done the full impact analysis on this but we will do that we have some capability to do that but it'll take a while to get the data together will will have to rely on the on the IMPLAN program to pull data together so I can't answer that definitively now I would say based on your previous experience with doing this kind of thing you know you're probably going to look at the. basically doubling to get the the would be the total impact but but we will we will be come up with a refined answer only impact shortly your Mr clarified only sound harsh is in I'm not appreciative to the lost these farmers went through I just think of the state and what the impact will be specially for all try to help them out in future capacity how much revenue we have come from that is always important and make sure we make them as whole as possible here to state level thank you Sir. K. L. O.. Talk Minturn looking something up right now. Commuters through their. Jeff what what date is the a farm bureau convention Hot Spring. Nineteen. would you have any additional information about the nineteenth. Yes maybe no. What I have any additional information by the nineteenth up probably not honestly I don't think we'll have any new data by the end but I would certainly be happy to follow in read I've gone follow loan center. Garner is that farm bureau stake mentions that weekend or that we can right where we have an additional meeting we will make every effort to have an update by the and I've been in close contact with counterparts at farm bureau to discuss this in in that that may be some will put on the agenda so if we do have it we will if you don't have it we will okay okay very good okay Center Gilmore. Thank you Mr and I appreciate your remarks in your report your answer one of my questions at center hill asked so moving on you mention to shake County which most to say is in my district so seen this firsthand it's devastating to a lot of folks that being said do you have any any projections or anything having more toward center garner's question of your crops it already been sold or or late by if you will we're the projections on that and then long term what does that look like and then maybe something that you can address perhaps later date that and you know that's a that's a big issue honestly I think that individual farmers and their their the counterparties on those contracts of sorting through that right now you know when a visit to the people about that I really haven't been able to get much clarity on on what's being done I would say one thing one this this gross value of production lost we've estimated really subsumes of the effects of that contracting you know that that's the that's a that's a full accounting of the crop value regardless of how it's booked or when it's books so in terms of the damage estimates how much of it is it has been booked or not book is is is not going to affect that headline number the damage estimate but it can have very significant for the individual farmer former ends up in and what you're talking about just clarifies let's say a form expected of a sixty five bushel soybean yield and they booked eighty percent of that expected yield across their farm already and now they're looking at maybe get a forty percent of the of the crop they're overbooked right they've committed more the elevator then they're going to get and how they work out of that contract with the elevator that's a tough question now that's going to be impacts for years down the road potentially yes now and this is I mean this is something that comes up occasionally not a lot of times what an elevator will do is they'll roll contract to the next year. that always happens with the penalty right maybe there's a two dollar a bushel discount for doing that again that that that headline value number that we've that we've estimate accounts for that but from a cash flow perspective for the unusable individual form that's a real hardship so there a lot of those issues being worked out but how does it work that tends to be highly individualized we are trying to get a handle on on it you know it are there some common themes out there in terms of how elevators are handling this with the farmers I haven't heard yet I suspect we'll start to hear more more about that I think the elevators are are are going to see you know as we come through this how much opportunity is there for salvage crop for example from from late planted beans you know on these fields that were or partially damaged. We'll get clarity over the next month or so about what those actually you'll potential. What that actually you'll potentially is so I don't think we know how big that head is but that's what the forms in the elevators are trying to figure out right now from my perspective it really is as much as in the US it's cash flow issue for those forms if I do end up under booked have I gotta do I have to go out in the market in a higher priced market probably than when I booked that and take it to make up that difference do I roll that that overbooking to the next year and take a penalty there those questions we just can't answer yet but it certainly is a financial challenge reforms that are in that situation yeah these are farmers are already up to their ears and loans as correct as yeah very different thank you. Okay definitely questions. Very informative report we look forward to additional information to the information you'll be back just on thank you for the opportunity and the if there's anything we can do to help we're available anytime okay regedit thank you very much. Okay. A former seat made in the Senate Rutan. Well he's making his way up here jim come on up I wanna take a moment to recognize somebody we were talking a few minutes ago about the first day on the job young lady up in John where we we have someone else in the room today first day on the job duties been working real hard prior to the day but often boots if you would please stand be recognized the Director of Arkansas game fish in that they come under the auspices of are committee so welcome to the. Senate and house that committees the. All right former senator Mr Holland and party go would please Terry Mike's own introduce yourself for the record. Good morning you're recognized chairman Caldwell madam chairman Vaught. I would like to say good morning to the committee and we're going to present our a groundwater report my name is Bruce Holland I'm the executive director of Arkansas natural resources commission which is a division of the department of agriculture and with me is GM knowledge and if you have issues you would turn your microphone please. Thank you the morning jumbotron the ground war secretary supervisor for the natural resources division of the department of agriculture the. You're recognized for your report. Hi good morning What I want to show you is our annual groundwater protection means report of natural resources commission is required to do this by act one fifty four ninety ninety one which is a groundwater protection management. Of ACT we do this of. Every year let's see here. Everything on the show you is online on our record I'm giving you a pretty much an executive summary here what we do you can find that at the departments website under natural resources division and there's a tab there for report so what we're doing here is an RC along with our partners of the USGS and natural resource conservation service go out monitor all the offers of the state every year we concentrate for that aspect of this report on the Mississippi River valley alluvial aquifer in this argument the sand. You can see here the blue whales or the Mississippi River valley alluvial Walker wells we actually monitor in the green ones are the sport amend the saying goes into major offers the state of the Mississippi River valley lieu offers our primary agricultural water you saw. For the purpose of this report we break our areas down into five study areas of south Arkansas study area platoons on the southeast grand prairie study area there and blew the cash study area west of the rich and the St Francis study area east of the Red. You've seen earlier some of these areas or designated as critical groundwater areas in the state of this is a non regulatory program this this program is made for conservation education and for most importantly they get a quick points for the from an RCS programs and the state has a groundwater conservation tax credit program we're the producers can get Credit for tax liability they have may have in state if they do on farm conservation practices such as land leveling reservoirs water meters or conversions from surface water I'm sorry free ground water service what. And I'm sure you're aware act the eight seventy five I believe just sign expands this area for the purposes of these tax credits so not just areas in red that the commission has a designated as critical groundwater areas but for the purpose of tax credits only of the definition of a critical groundwater areas been expanded to almost every a county to the south east in the state. So now maybe a little data on what we do we we do this one year five year ten year period a record so we go out with our partners like I mentioned we measure eight hundred to a thousand wheels a year. But from this part of the in the alluvial mostly in the local eight hundred and the little three hundred or so on the spark and what we see as a general decline in groundwater you. The state we are the second largest groundwater user in the country on California we use about seven billion gallons a day from the Mississippi River valley alluvial offer ninety six to ninety eight percent of that depending on the year is for irrigation ROW props. So just a little snapshot here of the for the one year what we saw on the one year this time I've got a few phone calls or this over the past few weeks we saw an increase of about one point four feet often for wine of R. eight hundred or so wells we measured that way number one we see that it from year to year is because a precipitation you don't have to you're gay they don't as you know but what we what we found here the nineteen to twenty let me explain me back up real quick so the reason this is the twenty twenty report is because we measure spring to spring free irrigation post recharge so we'll go out in March and April of nineteen in March and April twenty swear measure apples apples same wells sametime year before your gates and start so we just wrapped up twenty twenty one so the next report will be twenty twenty to twenty twenty one that's why you kinda looks like where you're behind so. on this over this period of time you remember the flooding we were looking for a reason why we up one point four sometimes we see an increase of point to point three point four most times of the crease of point to point three point four but why is it such a you know overall a large increases your relative to the peer to record it was because of the on planted crops due to the flooding in two thousand nineteen there were over a million acres I believe that we did not go into production therefore did not need irrigation so um that's kinda so we're gonna put in place over the next few years and kind of see. How that looks this this gives you an idea what I'm talking about this goes back all the way in the mid fifties this is a USGS how to graph of one of our wills we collect data on in grand prairie you can see every once in awhile we'll have an increase of voter to due to precipitation or other other factors but the overall trend is declining. Same thing here are among the cast of the area I want to see that you know we see. Everyone swallow bump but the overall trend is the client it in very broad terms what we see in Arkansas is about a three foot drawdown during the during your gaze and sees an awful for wide and about a two foot rebound on average. So this one kind of sums up everything we we looked at here this last year in the loop will offer. What we're looking at the cones of depression in the awful for the shaded to the Reds west of the region the cash to the area and in the Grand Prix also what we've done here is we've taken of the Mississippi review Mississippi embayment regional office study the mere **** model the USGS did which is a very good model that can show us the thickness of the offered throughout the state. So taking that model in the thickness of the awful for my team an election yes can go out measure the depth to water with steel taper electronic device and get a very accurate simple math reading of percentage of saturated thickness that's less we know the opera hundred feet thick. In this in this area we run still take down will fifty feet well fifty percent saturated what you can see here I know it's kind of busy and it may not be too clear from where you're sitting but Some of those areas are ten percent twenty percent saturated in the darker colors of in as you may know what you try to turn a well on and there's only two percent saturated thickness you're not gonna be able to use the alluvial offer in that area. also point out of the area west of the rich is growing to the west and to the south southwest I do I've been doing this twenty one years now when I first started studying this problem there was just a very small cone there the darkest read just southwest of Jonesborough that was just a slightly shaded area where that area it really started to you to to over use groundwater. I say over use I mean we we we use like I said about seven billion gallons a day for your nation and the models of the U. S. U. S. have been working on for years so that this software can produce transmit about three point three seven billion gallons a day so easy math we're we're we're doubling what we should we should pull out as far as if you want to keep the resource same thing with the sport of Memphis offer all up quickly touch on that one dairies in the very south part of state Union County that's an industrial Kona depressions been there for many many years same thing in Jefferson County and south east of there near star city's municipal of the sport of Memphis is a confined aquifer below the alluvial aquifer it's transmits seventy is just a fraction of what the alluvial can produce of you can start to see west of the ridges of the ridges in on the slide but you can see the slight little cones there in the same areas where the alluvial is being over pop the sport is being utilized for your nation purposes same thing in the grand prairie Sturch C. comes oppression there those weren't there fifteen or twenty years ago this is not a good idea because there's a there's a few factors the sport offers deeper thanks a lot more of fuel costs to produce growth of the water from the greater death there's also three hundred public supply wells a lot of people in the State depend on this is a good source of public drinking water and in municipal and industrial use in the south part of state you saw their and others lives. The sport of Memphis Sustainability is about eighty seven million gallons a day and we're pumping statewide about a hundred sixty your take depending on the year so the mass about the same as far as over pumping sustainability from the alluvial in this part of we're using about. Forty nine percent of each offer. You want to mention that the slides and and even in the record if you like to check those out the they go down and soon you consume an individual counties study areas and even individual wells on farm. Real quickly I'll show you in south Arkansas where the sport amid the sand was are still going to pressure down here almost three hundred feet but since they started using the excess surface water from the water to a river on the diversion project. Thirteen fourteen years ago the area shown of a tremendous rebounder soul depression but it shows you that the use of excess surface water is a is a viable alternative to over pumping in office for this this entire areas come up of almost sixteen feet over the last ten years Union County over twenty feet alone. And I put in the hard graft here you can see when they start of the project this is right in the middle Union County when they started using the diverging from the Washita you can instantly see of an increase I was there's a well it's not this Hendren graph I was at the USGS office when they were working with one other hydrologist and some of the companies that had used the diversion down there had to get off of it for one day to do some work and you can actually see on how to dress the doctor take a plumbing. So I just put that there to show you that The excess surface water that we have run across the state is is really the answer to to solve the problem of the of the deficit of what we're over pumping and both offers. I'll be happy to answer any questions. Members your bill. You alluded to the. Excess rain that we had some cross not getting plan last year has called the offered to increase one point four feet what about our reserve orders tell what recovery is not thank with all of that we have out there now had a big part in that that's that's really good question we're we're actually looking into that were teamed up with the in our CS and their groundwater initiative and we're trying to actually quantify. where the projects that we were doing that all the reservoirs tell recovery center where where they've been done can we look and see if there's actually of a response in that general area to to groundwater levels the the overall pictures yet okay it is yes Is got a healthy can't hurt but that big of a job I think is really do a lot of a lot of factors as far as the planted acres this time around. The the there's certainly meant municipalities that I know of that have Surface water reservoirs as well as pull out of the uncle for one locally and in my area they actually pull from the the article for and in lieu of filling of the reservoir is there any plans to look at that and have them change course we're pulling out of the reservoir verses. Continually pumping out of Oxford. What we do we don't have any regular regulatory authority to do that but it's an economic question you know they're going to the producers always going to look and see which is which is better economically for them so the answer for that is going to be to to make sure that we get them the the the surface water versus the ground war that is more economically feasible for them to use that's whether you're gazing projects that are that that need to be funded eventually you're going to be a major project I make a major contributor to The offer we hope just like in south Arkansas slideshow to go south Arkansas slides if you get off of the get off the ground wanna go the surface water there is a there is a result that we see and we we hope to see that in the future eventually with the Grand Prix you're creation project about me to irrigation project the the point of the tax credit program is to try to. Conserve that were preserve the groundwater any time we can convert from groundwater to surface water something. Hello Mister. As these service water reservoirs are being built. With these tax credits. And the people that are building on the farmers municipalities this is what happened in my district it's actually in the depression using Columbia County that's my district when they may decide to go back and start pumping out the supporters of our law covers how do you how do you manage that. You give the tax credit. To build something and they don't use it for the intended purposes of turns a catfish. Or whatever whatever how do you manage that and what type rules you putting in place before we give these tax credits up to make sure we're not investing money for recreational lake or pond on someone's farm versus actual intent of it which is to say the aquifer's. Well I'm I'm it's an economic question I mean that that there's nothing in the the law the actors is written it says that once you do this and we give you this credit. That you must you must maintain the project for up to ten years but there's nothing that says you can alternate between ground water service water going to use whichever one is best for them economically us and. You would expect if someone took the effort to build that reserve for they would utilize that road work is much more efficient to pump that water out of that rose more than it would be up from the. Through June but. Okay sure you. One no mention this is that you did I will go ahead with that Wister later about appearance. Well since you mentioned about me to project the water to know where that we've been looking at over the last thirty years that we have this the plan set up and everything hold on a patiently do this not put our farmers at a bit of no we're looking at forty three dollar per acre tax last year. I'll try to address that I'll as secretary ward if he'd like to speak to this we're not here to speak about those projects today but that is the solution for long term to get the farmers in those areas something's going to happen in the next thirty years where they're not gonna be able to form as they are today and so that's why with this this report is understanding what's going on in these offers the better we understand that the better we understand what we need to do for the long term sustainability of rice production in particular in Arkansas because we you such a tremendous amount of water going forward if we don't do these projects we're gonna have to do something. Or else these farmers are not going to be able to form the way they do today I know there was a lot of arguments when those farmers over there were voting on whether they wanted to assess themselves a tax like you spoke of earlier and the arguments were made well if this is dry land and I'm not your gate and it's not worse it's worth a hundred dollars an acre last to me so if I have to. Do this program to get this. To save away on farming for the next generations then that's what we're going to do so that's what. Somebody besides me he's going to have to decide those farmers in that area ultimately are going to have to make the decision of what they've got to do to solve their problem. Thank you. go ahead. The officer to. Thank you thank you for that but Bruce on that but on the stepfather but we're we're also doing this tailwater recovery within the reservoirs. They're already spending that money to do that why don't wanna tax me again for doing that. In there taking advantage of the the tax credit program and and since before you gas expanded that into the other counties there only utilize about ten percent of that program so we're trying to get as many people doing as much as we can in those areas the more that they do have obviously that's going to benefit those farmers tremendously but we don't wanna we don't regulate groundwater use we don't want to. We want there to be a solution long term and the more that we can get that's great but those farmers know that those tail water recovery systems there although there a piece of the puzzle they're not going to fix the problem. I have a question if Thomas fiction problem it if if we don't do anything if these projects were in here how long would the officers last and we've we've got all kinds of industries and municipalities out there and and just plain common folks that have to have drinking water. At what point would would day run out we'll what we're seeing in some of those areas that I showed you there with the deep disclosed oppression the Lugoff for their their apps so to speak they can't turn on the pumps there are wells that are the effectively drive because the there's such a a small saturated thickness in their there are some really good USGS model predictions that look out into the future and they've been doing this for fifteen years and they optimize and they look back at the model as they go along to see Hey it was as this model been right and so far over the past fifteen or twenty years the model has been right on so projecting that into the future there's a few of you can look on online at the it'll be under the US yes Arkansas water resource center here in Little Rock they've got some publications that show you different scenarios into the future into twenty twenty thirty forty and fifty and the at the current rate of of what we're doing as far sustainable yield and over pumping that the scenarios are pretty there there there's a lot of areas especially in those red and yellow areas that if you want to keep an offered fifty percent or more century thickness and sustainable that some of the scenarios show you have to turn off eighty percent of the of the irrigation wells inside those areas and so it's it's an interesting reports of their they give you different looks at it differently you want to keep the pumping the same as ninety seven as and two thousand twenty or do you want a project up to twenty fifty an increase of pumping and so those I would I would refer you to those are some very very good reports and very interesting different scenarios to look at you kind of plug and decide what you would twenty one look at but there's anyone back to the previous question on the buy me a grand prairie irrigation district with those were in somewhat full force and we're being used you know what to read. Adduction and pumping of Office for we would have today. I don't know if we know that for sure but it would make that water we're what we hope with the the goal is there is to make that water that they're getting from the Miami to project cheaper than what it would cost a farmer to pump that water up out of the aquifer. So and I understand the economics of it I'm not trying to hammer on on former making more money making less but it all we all make more money really issue of when you're looking on the horizon is whether or not a stock or do we have when Brinkley or will have water source to be honest with you I mean or were we will have a officer to to point from and and any other questions or the irrigation district where we re routing the surface waters you know that calm enough to your Gates crops as it will be enough to save the aquifer we believe that it will be the best example we have is Union County and that Walker they were using down there primarily for the cable companies refineries that type of thing they were starting to significantly damage that aquifer and so twenty years ago when they converted those. Big industries over to the surface water coming out washed all river they sing that offer come back substantially so we know where to work we know that that it will protect these offers and what you do in one part of it's going to support the other parts that you know. Right. Thank you thank you Mr chairman of spoke with Senator David Wallace but this and you know if you really look at this and you look at Crowley's Ridge. That's a big impact there from that point. To the east you're talking about an area that's totally different than area to the west and Tommy wimpy I know you guys know him from over Harrisburg you know he's brought this up to me before about a water conservation now you know when you get west of the ridge you know he is we have become fortyfive or but you know each of the rage you don't hear quite as much about that and and you know Poinsett county is a big rush producer you know and and uses a tremendous amount of water juices Mississippi County does too but at the same time Mississippi County actually doesn't have a ridge but now if you take centre Caldwell down in Cross County he's basically got a county that is divided by Crowley's Ridge also so you know it's something that we probably need to really really concentrate on because at the county center AT stuff that the range of you know they they probably are not as much in need for the help for that type of situation is the ones that are way past of the rich because you know you have even the dark is a is is different you know just like what we saw earlier in the program today you're seeing a lot of what well that are wider is actually west of the ridge now when you get over on the side of the ridge that that that but camp becomes a darker color and it it it absorbs water bearer and then when you get over toward Clark tree and over toward the Pantone that ground is is is a what we call gumball and it holds water meter so you know as time goes on even though you know we know we do need to really look at this and and you know what I important what you guys are saying is true. Of the the area they contain certain kind of soul and his father away from the Mississippi River is something that we probably need to really look at real hard don't do not you guys thanks on. Absolutely you know in it we we sit here talk about the different ways we can conserve we surcharge in presentations earlier where they're looking sole health and look at everything the chemicals of seeds everything we're using to produce crops that were working taking advantage of reason was a gem four billion gallons a day seven seven billion gallons a day in Arkansas that's a lot to come service we can serve of. The tenth of that that's a that's a lot of road for a long. Everything has to work together. Sure just fall of placer. Gas let me ask you this have you noticed in your research that the area that is west of the ridge actually demands a little bit more water than the than the needs that each of the range. We have necessarily seen demand of difference but as you stated it that is a geologic barrier is that the rich is definitely so the eastern counties get a little recharge from the Mississippi in the the barrier is the religion in west of of so the counties you mentioned crossing Frances Poinsett Craighead all with Chloe they are divided in half geologically the demand for water acreage of rice and may be equal on both sides but the availability on the west side is just completely different than availability on the side so therefore that's what creates those large cones oppression. Thank you are we have one last the question representative Hillman. Thank you Mr chairman. If I'm last time will be quick you said the. Earlier in a presentation GM that there was uh we have to reduce our Lou veal pumping so many million gallons a day in order to get to a steady state. how much were these two year engagement projects when they're fully implemented have a bill of million gallons a day are they capable of replacing from that groundwater. I have of the of the deficit third the deficit under presented this I'm I'm not sure I don't know the specifics of what the actual pumping stations are capable of but it's Bruce mention the any a levy ation of the pumping in the area will show as we seen sellers all because of a positive affect but as far as the numbers go I don't know I don't know what their what their capacities are what their capabilities are what their plans are as far as what the pumping stations are going up or going to put through the canals I think that would be an interesting statistic to find that out because of. That that would be a. Of an easier way for folks in East Arkansas to understand the the solution to the problem rather than just ignored it let it go away that these come to depression get deeper and deeper thank you. Okay so over questions Preciado very informative I would suggest Joe stay on top of this I would guess that we would have your back it's a meeting in the future again of committee members we will have an aircraft a meeting at a farm bureau convention of hot springs again in September I think September the eight of farm bureau is hosting a connective itty conference in hot springs of the act committees will be hoping that I think along with the city county local so would put it on the calendar the connectivity summit will the see related to broadband and cellphone issues related to the new American rescue plan act funds of the very informative so if you can please put that on your calendar we are adjourned. One thing. Yeah.