This week’s DataPoint is brought to you by the 2025 Ag Equipment Intelligence Executive Briefing.

The latest USDA Census of Agriculture data show that just under 55 million acres of cropland in the contiguous United States were irrigated in 2022. This was the lowest level since 1992 and a decrease of roughly 3 million acres from the last census in 2017, when irrigated cropland reached a record high 58 million acres.

The decline was driven largely by decreases of 1.8 million acres in the Mountain region, 900,000 acres in the Northern Plains, and 700,000 acres in the Southern Plains. During 2022, these regions experienced severe, widespread drought conditions and other factors, such as restricted water supplies throughout the western United States, which broadly affected irrigated acreage.

Watch the full version of this episode of On The Record