LUBBOCK — Cheyenne Buerger can look outside the window of his Stamford home and see a cherished commodity in Texas: thousands of acres of farmland.
His family farmed the land for more than a century, and Buerger is the fourth generation to watch over the 6,000 acres of cotton, wheat and milo. Combined with a few hundred acres of rented land near Haskell, Buerger had a good-sized farm.
Then his landlord sold 600 acres to a third-party buyer for a Google data center. Buerger was told to get off the land immediately.
“When I explained I had a crop on it, they said ‘You can finish it, but that’s it,’” Buerger said. “‘You’ve got to be done in 60 days, and you’re out.”
As data centers continue to encroach on open land in rural areas, the agricultural community fears it will struggle to survive as it competes with data centers for the same resources — land, water and electricity.
At least 248 data centers are planned in the state, and the easiest place for them is rural Texas, where the land is vast, cheap and flat. According to the Pew Research Center, 67% of data centers nationwide are in rural areas.
Texas agriculture has been an illustrious behemoth for decades, generating more than $963 billion in total economic output and driving nearly $15 billion in exports annually. Texas also has more farmland than any other state — 126 million acres as of 2021.
However, the cost of growing crops rises every year, and what was once fertile land now faces prolonged droughts. Farmers also have to contend with repairing expensive equipment, with parts that keep rising in cost due to tariffs. One report estimates the cost to repair farm equipment has nearly doubled over the past 20 years for soybeans and corn growers. The cost of land varies depending on the region, though some areas, such as Far West Texas, have seen a nearly 16% increase.
The state is losing farmland at a steady clip. According to Texas Land Trends, a service by A&M Natural Resources Institute, Texas lost nearly 3.7 million acres of land in the last 25 years. More than 1.8 million acres were converted for non-agricultural use from 2017 to 2022. The report does not define what non-agricultural use is or what the land was converted to.
Data center development is adding more pressure to the agriculture industry. And three major projects, Project Matador in the Panhandle, Project Pacifico in Pecos County and Project Meta in El Paso, are expected to use at least 16,000 acres altogether — which is roughly the size of 12,000 football fields.
“They’re building them on our most valuable, most fertile farmland,” said Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller. “Once our farmland is gone and paved over, we’ll never farm it again.”
Data centers brought waves of public backlash on the eve of an election season, which has caught the attention of both elected officials and candidates running for office since rural Texas historically votes for Republicans. Gov. Greg Abbott has faced scrutiny for not calling a special session for lawmakers to address data center concerns.
Clayton Tucker, a Democrat running for Texas Agriculture Commissioner, has traveled all over the state to attend community meetings on data centers.
“This isn’t about being anti-AI or anti-economic development,” Tucker said. “This is a major threat to Texas the way they’re currently being done. And right now, the only correct answer is a complete pause. Let’s be smart about this.”
Nate Sheets, Tucker’s Republican opponent who beat Miller in the March Republican primary, said he isn’t anti-data centers, but there has to be a monetary impact to data center companies to incentivize them to do things the “right way.” They don’t really provide jobs, Sheets said, but they can put their money into funds, such as water and land funds, that help Texans.
“The best thing we can do for a partnership between agriculture and data centers is use the financial resources of data centers to go fix the problems we have today in Texas,” Sheets said. “We need to make sure they’re investing into the future of Texas, not just being takers.”
Losing the land
Buerger’s farm sits about four miles from where the data center is being built in Haskell, a small town about 60 miles north of Abilene. The roads Buerger uses to move farm equipment have become congested and damaged by heavy traffic from construction trucks and semis hauling materials to the data center development. Construction lights shine bright through his window 24 hours a day, Buerger said.
It’s been like this for two years now. As he talks, Buerger sees cranes putting the data center together.
“It makes me feel a little threatened just from losing land to data centers,” Buerger said. “We can’t compete with that.”
The push into rural areas in favor of industrial development has been a growing problem. Before data centers, farmers and ranchers were worried about large solar farms moving into their lands. As of 2024, more than 1.5 million acres of farmland were estimated to be converted into solar farms.
According to Cleanview, a company that tracks power infrastructure and data center development, 240 utility-scale solar farms take up rural lands. By comparison, a Tribune analysis found 335 data centers operate in Texas, with more planned.
With both industries buying up farmland, Buerger says he could lose more of his land in the future.
“They’re going to expand,” Buerger said. “And, depending on how many they decide to put in our area, myself and many other farmers are going to find they’re going to lose a lot of land to data centers and all the accompanying services that have to go with it.”
Almost 230 miles northwest of Buerger, rancher Chris Grotegut knows his land in Hereford will be a target in the future.
One 765-kv transmission line is being built in the area, and he believes it will eventually cross his land.
Still, he’s not worried about data centers.
Grotegut attended a Google community meeting in Hereford, nearly 50 miles southwest of Amarillo, where representatives described its four-phase data center project, Project Roman. The first phase will span 3,700 acres for the center, and additional land for a solar and wind farm to power the data center. Grotegut thinks it will be more than 180,000 acres when it’s up and running.
He was surprised to learn that Google’s AI development in Hereford planned to convert land into large swaths of grasslands to balance out water usage with water supply.
In order for their investment to make sense, Grotegut says they have to care about the resources.
“They have to make sure what they’re doing is correct because they’re depending on it too,” Grotegut said. “Just like the towns and the farms have been depending on it.”
‘Another straw in the aquifer’
August for Eric Simpson means helping prepare the At’l Do Farms iconic corn maze in Shallowater, about 12 miles northwest of Lubbock. The family farm grows seasonal crops, including pumpkins, to fill the corn maze and other attractions during the fall.
This year, however, water is on Simpson’s mind. Just 20 miles away, a data center is being built in Abernathy. He already uses as little water as possible — there’s not much to use in the first place.
“To look on my farm right now and see green plants is a farce, in a way,” Simpson said. “We’re only able to do that because I can still pump water. Now I sit here and think, ‘How do I start adjusting now to a future where I cannot pump water to grow pumpkins or even the maize anymore?’”
The High Plains generates more than $5 billion annually in agriculture revenue, largely thanks to the Ogallala Aquifer. The trove of groundwater flowing underground has propped agriculture up since it was discovered in the region, which spans 41 counties from the top of the Texas Panhandle down past Lubbock in the South Plains. The overwhelming majority of water use from the Ogallala in Texas is used by farmers.
However, the tap is running dry, and has been for a long time. The aquifer is partially in a very dry area of Texas, so it does not refill as quickly as it’s being drained. And it’s not the only one. According to data from the Texas Water Development Board, groundwater availability is expected to face a 25% decline by 2070 — mostly due to reduced supply in the Ogallala and Edwards-Trinity aquifer in West Texas.
The possibility of data centers plugging into the fragile aquifer is what makes residents in the area nervous. Robert Mace, executive director at the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment, said how much water a data center uses depends on its cooling method and how much power it uses.
Mace said most of the plans he’s seen show data centers plan to use closed-loop systems, which reuse water. It’s ironic the centers are coming to West Texas, he said, because even though it’s drier, the water is easier to get. That is thanks to the rule of capture — the law that gives landowners the right to pump a certain amount of water from underneath their land.
Through this route, companies have to get approval from the local groundwater district to drill a well. The groundwater districts must permit wells, and legally can’t tell landowners to stop pumping their water. Still, Mace said, the impact on the Ogallala won’t be immediately felt.
“It’s unlikely that a data center flips on a well and you’re going to see yours run dry,” Mace said. “But now, instead of the aquifer lasting, let’s say 30 years before you can no longer irrigate, maybe it only lasts 25. It’s another straw in the aquifer pulling water out.”
Simpson, the farmer in Shallowater, said when it comes to the aquifer, farming has a time limit. He changed the operation a few years ago toward a regenerative agriculture approach to conserve water. This includes growing cover crops in the winter and growing different species of crops.
He’s already thinking of solutions for when the water is out.
“With another big water user in the Llano Estacado region, and throughout the United States, agriculture is going to take a hit,” Simpson said. “Especially in the dry climates.”
Grotegut, the rancher in Hereford, said he thinks the region will still have water. However, it will be different.
“It will just be tighter and more expensive,” Grotegut said. “And that’s not just a Panhandle problem. That’s a Texas problem.”
This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.
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