How many gallons is an acre-foot of water?

325,851 gallons
One acre-foot of water equals 325,851 gallons.

What is 1 acre-foot of water?

about 326,000 gallons
An acre foot of water equals about 326,000 gallons, or enough water to cover an acre of land 1-foot deep. To put it another way, an acre foot of water is enough to flood a football field 1-foot deep (a football field is roughly an acre in size). An acre foot of water is a common way to measure water volume and use.

How much is an acre-foot of water worth?

California farmers pay an average of $70 per acre-foot for water to irrigate crops. Buy a $700 reverse osmosis water purification system; run 326,000 gallons of water (one acre foot) through it; bottle it, and the value of that acre-foot is $2.4 million.

How many gallons per minute are in a acre-foot?

The gallons US per minute unit number 226.29 gal/min converts to 1 ac-ft/d, one acre foot per day. It is the EQUAL flow rate value of 1 acre foot per day but in the gallons US per minute flow rate unit alternative.

How many acres is 200 feet 200 feet?

We know 43,560 square feet to 1 acre. 200 feet multiplying by 200 feet equal to 40,000 sq ft. Therefore, 40,000 sq ft divide by 43,560 sq ft equal to 0.92 acres approximately.

How many acre-feet of water are in alfalfa?

Alfalfa grown for forage in the arid Northwest normally requires from 1.8-acre feet (for 180-day growing season) to 3.2-acre feet (for 200-day growing season) of water. When irrigation sup- plies are limited, growers may want to alter their normal irrigation management.

How many acre-feet of water does a household use?

An average California household uses between one-half and one acre-foot of water per year for indoor and outdoor use. California receives about 193 million acre-feet of water each year as precipitation (rain and snow), but there is great variability between regions.

How do you convert CFS to acre-feet?

Cubic feet per second (cfs):

* 1 cfs = 1.983 acre-feet per day = 646,320 gallons = 2447 cubic meters of water. * 1 cfs is equivalent to 448.8 gallons of water flowing per minute. * 1 cfs will produce 724 acre-feet of water per year.

Is alfalfa a thirsty crop?

Almonds and alfalfa are both thirsty crops. “One acre of mature trees requires roughly 1.3 million gallons of water a year.

Does hay need a lot of water?

A ton of hay requires 4 to 5 inches of water pumped through the plant. Typically, in a three cut management system, 35-45% of the yield is produced during the first growth cycle, before July 1. … In total, you should have applied 24 inches (two acre feet) of water.

How many gallons of water does alfalfa need per acre?

Alfalfa’s total water demand peaks in July at an average daily demand of about three-tenths of an inch per day. For an irrigation system that operates 18 hours a day with a 75 percent application efficiency, a water supply of nearly 10 gallons per minute must be available for every acre to be irrigated.

Why does California grow so much alfalfa?

Since the 1920s, the alfalfa hay acreage in California has fluctuated between 0.7 and 1.2 million acres (Figure 1) [7]. The acreage is influenced by profitability of alternative crops, the demand for alfalfa hay by the state’s dairy herd, which consumes about 70 percent of the supply, and by water constrains [1, 2, 4].

What is the most water-intensive crop?

Water Productivity

Take rice. It’s the most water-intensive crop and the fourth-biggest user of water. Yet rice generates only $374 per acre-foot of water.

Which crop needs most water?

Water-Intensive Crops
  • Rice.
  • Soybeans.
  • Wheat.
  • Sugarcane.
  • Cotton.
  • Alfalfa.
  • Pasture.

What state grows the best alfalfa?

Alfalfa is California’s highest acreage crop, and California is currently the leading producer of alfalfa hay in the United States (Fig. 1.9).

Does alfalfa reseed itself?

Alfalfa is a crop that naturally tends to lessen its density over time because alfalfa doesn’t reseed itself. Planting more alfalfa into current alfalfa fields is not recommended since alfalfa has autotoxicity characteristics. A good population/density is about 35 well-growing stems per square foot.

How many years will alfalfa grow?

Perenniality—The fact that the crop grows for 4-8 years, grows quickly with warm conditions in the spring is a major advantage of alfalfa—it can utilize residual winter rainfall before irrigation is necessary.

What is the biggest use of alfalfa in the US?

Alfalfa is a highly nutritious, perennial legume that contains high concentrations of vitamins B, C, D, and E. Most of the alfalfa grown in the United States is used as feed, particularly for dairy cattle.

How much hay is produced per acre?

The average U.S. dry hay yield (all types) dropped from 2.52 tons per acre in 2016 to 2.44 tons per acre in 2017. For alfalfa and alfalfa-grass mixtures, the average yield declined from 3.45 tons per acre in 2016 to 3.32 tons per acre in 2017.

What temperature does alfalfa go dormant?

When dormant, alfalfa crowns can tolerate soil temperatures of 5 to 10 degrees F, below this tissue damage could begin to occur. After breaking dormancy, tissue damage could theoretically start to occur at less than 28 degrees F, but more would not occur until soil temperatures reach the mid-20’s degree F.

What do farmers do with alfalfa?

Because alfalfa can be used as feed in various fresh, dried, and preserved forms, it can be used both as a pasture or hay crop by dairy farmers and other livestock producers, and as a cash crop by farmers who do not raise livestock themselves.