E.G. Weiss & Associates
Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win. -SunTzu
MARKETING, OVERVIEW AND FUTURE EFFORTS FOR DALYA TEXAS
Water availability, climate, and growing-season weather conditions largely determine where cropland is irrigated. Irrigation is most common in the arid Western United States, where major water infrastructure projects store and transport the region’s surface water resources.
Publicly financed reclamation investments in reservoirs and canal networks allow high-value agricultural production in regions such as the Central Valley of California, south-central Washington, and the Snake River Valley of Idaho.
In the Ogallala Aquifer region of the Northern and Southern Plains, primarily Nebraska, concentrations of irrigated acreage reflect the availability of groundwater resources which is our primary target market for agriculture.
Irrigation also occurs in the more humid Eastern United States, with the largest irrigated acreage concentrations in the Mississippi Delta, southern Georgia, and central Florida, however, in these regions, irrigation is primarily used to supplement rainfall to minimize production risks associated with variable weather conditions and is not as continual as we find in the Nebraska area.
Irrigated acreage in the United States has grown from fewer than 3 million acres in 1890 to more than 58 million acres in 2017, accounting for approximately 15 percent of the 396 million acres of total U.S. cropland. This expansion has contributed significantly to cropland productivity.
While the total irrigated land area steadily increased, the average amount of water applied per irrigated acre fell from more than 2 acre-feet per acre irrigated in 1969 to less than 1.5 acre feet per acre irrigated in 2018. The diminishing intensity of water use per acre reflects changes in on-farm irrigation conveyance and application technologies, as well as shifts in regional irrigated area and evolving crop patterns. This is a huge selling point when it comes to the Dalya products as the nozzles themselves offer an efficiency many ranches and farms are still not utilizing.
There is one trend that the market is just now paying attention to and that is that after the mid-20th century, irrigation gradually shifted eastward, as the amount of irrigated land decreased across the West and expanded in the East. Between 1949 and 2017, the share of total U.S. irrigated cropland in the Mountain and Pacific regions decreased from 77 percent to 44 percent, while the share of irrigated cropland in the Mississippi Delta and Northern Plains regions increased from 8 percent to 34 percent. This could explain why we are seeing more agricultural irrigation companies rising up in North Central Texas, Oklahoma and even Missouri.
Irrigation has continued to expand in the Eastern United States, reflecting access to relatively shallow groundwater aquifers and incentives to minimize soil-moisture deficits during critical crop growth stages, particularly during periods of drought.
On this subject, one can see by the graphics below that our target market is relatively obvious as these graphics show the last several years of severe drought in the United States, a climate trend not expected to change.
In regards to the use of Dalya’s products to reach these specific areas, there are government programs that assist in the purchase of the products and there may be financial incentives for Dalya itself due to the drought conditions and recent grant and economic development programs.
The use of pressurized irrigation application systems, which are generally more water-use efficient than gravity-flow systems in most field settings, has increased significantly. This shift was especially pronounced in the Western United States, where the share of irrigated acres using pressurized systems rose from 37 percent (15 million acres) in 1984 to 72 percent (29 million acres) in 2018. Federal programs such as the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), administered by USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), have supported irrigation efforts during this transition. EQIP provides financial and technical assistance to encourage the adoption of more efficient irrigation technologies and water management practices (such as soil-moisture monitoring) that enhance the agricultural sector’s resilience to drought and long-term water scarcity.
One way to launch the new company in the Texas location is to promote the use of the FSA Livestock Forage Disaster Program. This program allows financial incentives for ranchers and farmers that grow forage for livestock in areas that are being effected by drought. A potential client may access the FSA website and utilize their online eligibility tool to see if their county or area is listed for this assistance. The area, as you can see by the graphic at the top of this page, is quite extensive.
The Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP), which is administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides payments to eligible livestock owners and contract growers who have covered livestock and who are also producers of grazed forage crop acreage (native and improved pastureland with permanent vegetative cover, including rangeland managed by a federal agency, or certain crops planted specifically for grazing) that have suffered a loss of grazed forage due to a qualifying drought during the normal grazing period for the county. LFP also provides payments to eligible livestock owners or contract growers that have covered livestock and who are also producers of grazed forage crop acreage on rangeland managed by a federal agency if the eligible livestock producer is prohibited by the federal agency from grazing the normal permitted livestock on the managed rangeland due to a qualifying fire.
Other means of marketing may include education for clients on programs provided by agencies such as the Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS) which offers technical and financial assistance through conservation practices, activities and enhancements to help producers make and maintain improvements on their land.
Smaller farms can be easily marketed to if we offer a small amount of direction regarding the NRCS programs that assist small farms financially with issues such as planting cover crops, to complex structural practices, such as animal waste management systems or innovative irrigation devices like the Dalya products, especially the mobile units which are a perfect fit for these smaller ranches and farms.
Lastly, The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) began to offer investment capital in the form of grants to help support the adoption of innovative conservation approaches on Texas agricultural land. These Texas Conservation Innovation grants provide a competitive program that supports the development of new tools, approaches, practices, and technologies to further natural resource conservation on private lands. Once established here in Texas, I believe Dalya could make a run for these grants and have a good chance of winning at least one.
The timing of this project:
A majority of ranchers and farmers will start to plan irrigation purchase one year before the system is needed or desired. Typically the prices on irrigation systems are the highest in June and July which increases our profit margins tremendously. Through fall, buyers will expect September rebates and incentives to help reduce costs. Installation of new systems primarily is done throughout the winter season for obvious reasons.