National Sorghum Producers × Carbon A List

Texas & Kansas High Plains · Extension Cost-Return Budgets

When Does It Make Sense to Grow Sorghum on the High Plains?

A Partial Budget Analysis

Choose a state, region, crop, irrigation regime, and year for each side. Figures come from Texas A&M AgriLife (Panhandle District 1, South Plains District 2) and Kansas State University AgManager.info per-acre cost-and-return budgets, 2022–2026.

Created by Michael Rinaldi · Senior Advisor | Risk, Capital, and Incentives · mrinaldi@carbonalist.com

Budget A —
Budget B —

Per-acre figures for each budget's selected year only — not an average. See Key Findings below for the 5-year average and yearly trend.

Budget A Budget B
Where these budgets come from
—
—

Texas regions mapped to Panhandle Extension District 1 (Amarillo) and South Plains Extension District 2 (Lubbock), by county. Kansas regions follow the Kansas Farm Management Association's six associations (K-State AgManager.info). Scoped regions overlap the Ogallala Aquifer — the water-stressed ground at the center of this project, displayed in light blue shading, from USGS Data Series 543 (the official aquifer-boundary dataset), simplified for display.

Key findings — year over year Return Above Variable Costs, water applied, irrigation cost, and return per acre-inch, by year
Budget A
Year Return Above
Var. Costs		 Acre-In.
Applied		 Irrigation
Cost		 Return per
Acre-In.
Budget B
Year Return Above
Var. Costs		 Acre-In.
Applied		 Irrigation
Cost		 Return per
Acre-In.
Full line-item comparison
Line item Budget A Budget B Δ (B−A)

Sources: Texas A&M AgriLife Extension district cost-and-return budgets (Panhandle District 1, South Plains District 2) and Kansas State University Dept. of Agricultural Economics / AgManager.info regional cost-and-return budgets (Northwest, Southwest, Northeast, South Central, and Western Kansas), 2022–2026 estimates. Ogallala Aquifer extent: USGS Data Series 543, digital aquifer-boundary map for the High Plains Aquifer (simplified for display; small interior gaps under 20 km² omitted). Not every crop is budgeted for irrigated and dryland systems, or in every region — the dropdowns above only offer combinations that exist in the source data. “Return per Acre-Inch” throughout this dashboard is computed as Returns Above Variable Costs ÷ acre-inches applied, for both states, so the two are comparable; Kansas's own source budgets separately publish a return-per-acre-inch figure computed above total (specified) costs instead, which will not match the figure shown here.