Texas has been commercially involved since 1984 with drip irrigated cotton. Approximately 229 acres have been installed to date. The average out-of-pocket expense has been $441 per acre. Annualizing the costs at a 5-year life for the tape and a 10-year life for other materials results in a $87.69 per acre charge. The lowest cost systems have gone in for $350 to $375 per acre, while the most expensive system was $1222 per acre. Lower costs systems have produced as good as, or better, yields than the costlier systems.

The tape or tubing represents the largest portion of the cost of the system. Most (77%) of the acreage has gone in on an every-other-row configuration, which has greatly reduced the state's average on installation cost.

The average yield has been 868 lbs of lint per acre. Where checks were monitored, average yields were 685 lbs of lint. The average yield of the drip system was about 370 lbs more than corresponding county averages for irrigated cotton for all the years involved.

Irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE) has been 72.0 The of lint per inch of water versus 48.8 lbs per inch on the monitored checks. Most of the applied water (which has averaged only 12.4 inches) was applied as post-plant irrigation, indicating that average daily applied amounts were generally much lower than expected daily use rates of .25 - .30 inches.