ROOTED IN RESEARCH
TURFGRASS AS AN IRRIGATED CROP IN THE U.S.—LET’S SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT
By Mike Fidanza, PhD
In 2005, a journal article was published (Milesi et al., 2005) that unfortunately is often used to unfairly criticize the turfgrass industry. Te article had good intentions by examining turfgrass ecosystems as a potential carbon sink that could contribute to mitigating climate change. Te authors used complicated statistical and geo-analysis methods and models to estimate the total land area of turfgrass in the USA, which they ultimately determined as 40 million acres (16.2 million ha).
Tose with an adverse or not-so-friendly attitude toward turfgrass, lawns, golf courses, or sod farms often cite the Milesi article for this one statement: “Te analysis indicates that turf grasses, occupying 1.9 percent of the surface of the continental United States, would be the single largest irrigated crop in the country.” Look very closely at the statement, and two words “would be” assumes that if every square foot (or meter) of turfgrass in the USA was irrigated, then turfgrass would be the largest irrigated crop in the USA.
Tink about that for a moment … is every-square foot (or square meter) of turfgrass as lawns, parks, athletic fields, golf courses, sod farms, roadsides, cemeteries, airports, commercial spaces, and public spaces, and other various patches of turfgrass … actually irrigated? Of course, every square foot (or square meter) of turfgrass in the USA is not irrigated. Terefore, the truth is—turfgrass IS NOT the single largest irrigated crop in the USA.
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Te U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Economic Research Service (ERS) reported 91.7 million acres (37.1 million ha) were planted to corn (maize) in 2019 (https://
www.usda.gov/media/blog/2019/07/29/corn-americas- largest-crop-2019). So, if all that corn were irrigated, wouldn’t that be the single most irrigated crop in the USA?
A 2017 survey (
https://www.turfgrasssod.org/2017-usda- ag-census-for-sod-production/) estimates total land area for sod farms in the USA at 339,451 acres (137,371 ha). How about golf courses? In the USA, golf courses occupy about 2.2 million acres (908,000 ha) of land (https://www.gcsaa. org/docs/default-source/Environment/phase-2-land-use-survey- full-report.pdf?). About one-third of the total land at a golf course is not managed turf (i.e., lakes, forests, parking lots, buildings, etc.) and about 24 percent of the managed turf is not irrigated (
https://www.gcsaa.org/docs/default-source/ Environment/phase-2-water-use-survey-full-report.pdf?).
Figure 1. Distribution of the fractional turfgrass area (percentage) in the continental USA as calculated from Milesi et al. (2005).
TPI Turf News July/August 2022
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