Monday, June 7, 2021

Western Drought Forces Farmers to Make Tough Decisions

As water sources dry up, farmers are culling herds, stripping trees of fruit and forgoing planting crops this year.

By Shelby Vittek, Modern Farmer

Due to the worsening drought sweeping across the West, Sonoma County farmers David and Kayta Plescia were forced to cancel their vegetable CSA program. The couple, who run Green Valley Community Farm in Sebastopol, says they simply didn’t have enough water to plant the necessary vegetables this year.

“We got a third of the usual rainfall [during the rainy season] and that was after last year, which was also very low,” says David. “The two combined did a number on people’s water sources.”

The farm’s catchment pond, their irrigation source, didn’t fill with water this year. “That’s the first time it’s ever happened,” he says. “We have one-twentieth of the water we usually have.”

Farmers of all kinds are being forced to make similarly tough decisions as water supplies dwindle. Ranchers are trying to stay ahead of the curve by culling their herds. Apple growers are dropping fruit on young trees in an attempt to keep them alive. Almond and peach growers are doing the same.

According to the most recent US Drought Monitor report, 96 percent of the West is suffering from at least some level of drought. California and Nevada are now 100 percent in drought after two years of exceptionally dry conditions. Reservoir levels in both states are dismally low, intensifying the concern for wildfire season, which runs between May and October. Already, there have been more fires and acres burned in California than this time last year.

Farmers in other states are affected too. In January, New Mexico officials warned farmers and ranchers who rely on water from the Rio Grande and other rivers to prepare to go without it this year, recommending “that farmers along the Rio Chama and in the Middle Valley that don’t absolutely need to farm this year, do not farm.” Utah irrigation water providers are implementing increased fines for overuse. And in Idaho, which isn’t faring as badly as other states, farmers in central and southern counties are preparing for crop disaster losses.

Conditions are especially dire in California, where 41 of 58 counties are under a drought state of emergency. This year’s drought is similar to years past, with one caveat, says Dan Sumner, UC Davis professor of agricultural and resource economics and director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center. “Sonoma County has been hit more this time,” he says, “and that is less common.”

It’s also affecting the farm counties of the Central Valley, home to some of California’s richest agricultural land, where farmers have long relied on water from the US Bureau of Reclamation’s Central Valley Project (CVP) for irrigation. Last week, the bureau cut allocations for some farmers to zero.

“Water is very hard to come by,” says Vincent Ricchiuti, chief operations officer for P-R Farms and Enzo Olive Oil in Fresno, California. “This year is drastically worse [than last year].”

The persistent droughts led Ricchiuti to install a new system called AgMonitor in 2015. The technology takes into account the weather, age of tree and type of soil, and uses additional data from probes that measure soil moisture to determine how much water to distribute. “The goal is not to overwater or underwater,” he says. “It’s to really zero in on irrigation.” That helps a limited water supply last longer.

Ricchiuti says the droughts mean farmers have to be more conscious about what they’re planting and where they’re planting it. At Green Valley Community Farm, the Plescias have applied for a cannabis permit, which would allow them to grow a crop that requires much less water. They’re also considering moving their vegetable farm.

“The site that we’re on is untenable for a vegetable farm business, we’ve realized,” says David, who says he’s eyeing another location that has a more reliable water supply. As renters, the Plescias have more flexibility than landowners, some of whom operate on family farms that have run on the same land for several generations.

California’s recurring drought and wildfire conditions led fiber artist and farmer Leslie Adkins to relocate her Heartfelt Fiber Farm. Last year, as the wildfires ravaged Sonoma and Napa counties, she made the difficult decision to move her small flock of sheep, goats and alpaca from California to Illinois. 

“We were originally thinking of Oregon or Washington, but the writing on the wall in the West, with the megadrought, has been there for a while,” says Adkins, who has a graduate degree in environmental studies. “My family decided we needed to go somewhere, somewhere where we could start over, maybe on a smaller scale, that would be less affected farming-wise by this climate change that’s everywhere.”

Adkins believes we’ll continue to see more farmers become climate refugees as droughts and rising temperatures persist. “I just reached my own personal conclusion, and I’m an optimist by nature, but I have concluded that there’s not a future for farming in California,” she says.

UC Davis’ Sumner says it’s not time to worry just yet. “It could become more severe, but that is a few years away,” he says. “Droughts in California have been part of agriculture for a very long time…California is a wonderful place for many crops and that has not changed at all.”


Thursday, June 3, 2021

10 Tips for Resource Stewardship Planning on Your Farm





By Nate Birt

Vice President

Trust In Food, a Farm Journal initiative

 

Jun 03, 2021


American farmers are conservationists at heart, but it can be a challenge to know where to start when it comes to conservation planning. Finding the right technical assistance and determining whether a conservation practice actually works for your land isn’t always easy.


The new Resource Stewardship Planning Guide, backed by NRCS science and developed by the editors at Farm Journal, is now available to help. This free workbook is the first in a three-part series published as part of America’s Conservation Ag Movement, a public-private partnership that helps producers use profitable and conservation-minded practices. The Soil Health Guide is currently available, and a Water Quality Guide will be available soon.

Here are 10 tips from this new interactive workbook—available in digital format to download for free.


Tip 1: See what other farmers are doing

Learning from other producers’ conservation experiences is a great way to evaluate what might work in for you. In this workbook, you’ll find plenty of stories from farmers across the U.S., including row crop producers from the Midwest, cattle ranchers from the Plains, and more.


Tip 2: Make a plan and write it down

Check out pages 4-7 for a primer on the process of conservation planning. Then fill out workbook pages 8-10 to see where your own farm stands and to identify some practical next steps you might take. There’s a cheat sheet on page 11 with some examples to get those gears turning!


Tip 3: Same farm, different land types

A farm is rarely composed of a single giant parcel. Instead, it often spans soil types, terrains, and counties. That’s why it’s important to know where you are and what type of land within a field you’re dealing with. Page 12 breaks down four common categories: cropland; associated agricultural lands; grazing, pastureland, and rangeland; and animal feeding operations.


Tip 4: Scout for conservation opportunities with cropland

If you raise crops such as corn or soybeans, pages 13-16 are for you. Starting with a soil loss assessment, you can begin to identify where conservation in your fields can deliver the strongest ROI. This section will also help you take stock of unique attributes of individual fields, such as proximity to adjacent bodies of water. The flow chart on page 15 can help you determine what you need and who can help.


Tip 5: Reduce costs through associated ag lands

Some spots in fields have notorious problems like ponding, erosion, or poor productivity. In these places, it might make sense to consider how you might save a precious resource—capital. Pages 17-21 provide insights on associated ag lands and illustrate how farmers are reimaging them for better lands and a better bottom line.


Tip 6: Grazing opportunities

Fencing is an infrastructure investment that NRCS programs can use to help livestock producers. From pages 23-27, you’ll discover that conservation planning isn’t just for  row crop—it applies to every farm or ranch, albeit with its own specific toolbox of best management practices.


Tip 7: Stewardship spans feed, manure, and more

If you raise livestock, then feed handling, waste management, and other activities have a central role in conservation planning. Learn how to integrate stewardship into these staples of farm life from pages 28-36. Then meet hog producers from South Dakota who are putting these principles to work.


Tip 8: Rent land? Engage the owner

Conservation might seem like a big investment of time and money, but in many cases, stewardship begins with an evaluation of what you—and your landlord—care most about when it comes to the farm. Pages 37-40 illustrate practical ways to start a conservation about rented land to ensure both parties benefit.


Tip 9: Pencil it out

If you’re skeptical about whether conservation can have positive financial benefits, check out page 41. There is a step-by-step example of how stewardship can be a win-win for your business and the natural resources you manage.


Tip 10: Find a trusted adviser

Now that you’ve explored the many ways in which conservation planning can make a difference for farms like yours, it’s time to ask: Who can help me do that? From pages 43-46, you’ll find practical tips for locating the right kind of technical service provider in your local area. There are plenty of links so that you can do your own research online.


Interested in learning more about how conservation can help your farm? Click here to get your free guide to explore what the next step of your own conservation journey might be.


More Information

America’s Conservation Ag Movement is organized by Trust In Food, a Farm Journalinitiative, in partnership with the Farm Journal Foundation. Financial and technical support is provided by USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and leading agribusinesses, food companies and nonprofit organizations.

Natural Resources Conservation Service