"New research found that the crop used to feed dairy and beef cows uses the vast majority of agricultural water that would otherwise replenish the largest saline lake in the nation."
"The Great Salt Lake is shrinking, and new research published Tuesday reports that saving it requires reducing the amount of farmland that is irrigated in the region.
In recent decades, climate change and the overconsumption of water from the rivers that feed into the Great Salt Lake have left the largest saline lake in the U.S. with 70 percent less water. The lake now covers just half the expanse it once did. By far the biggest human-caused driver of the lake’s depletion is agriculture, with 71 percent of the water that once replenished it going to farms. Of that, 80 percent goes to alfalfa and hay that primarily feed cattle.
“When you look at the specifics of agriculture, there’s just one major, big source [irrigated livestock feed crops] for the withdrawals,” said Oregon State University ecologist and distinguished professor William Ripple, a coauthor of the study.
It’s a similar story across the Western half of the U.S., with the production of alfalfa and hay to feed the nation’s hunger for dairy and beef products driving the decline of rivers, lakes and aquifers from the Colorado River to basins across Arizona."
Wyatt Myskow reports for Inside Climate News January 7, 2025.
Advertisement 
