Irrigation alternatives

While Mother Nature provided area fields with some natural irrigation Monday evening, irrigation and soil conservation were some of the topics discussed at a tour of area fields.

The tour was conducted by Paul Hay, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Cooperative Extension educator, and Dave Clabaugh, manager of the Lower Big Blue Natural Resources District, as a way to honor how agriculture has affected Beatrice in the past 150 years.

“We're trying to give people a lookout of what's happening to agriculture in the area,” Hay said. “These tours are something the Beatrice Area Chamber of Commerce has talked about for some time, but I just never got it done until now.”

Hay said one of the unique features of Gage County is that only 22 percent of crops in the county are irrigated, compared to an average of 70 percent throughout the state.