Brandon Fawaz Siskiyou County hay farmer
We are navigating our first irrigation season with state water board regulation of groundwater, which is new and unchartered territory for the state and the farmer. Over 50% of the acres in Scott Valley have submitted a plan to the water board for a local cooperative solution. Those affected are going to use 30% less water this year than they did one of the last two years. You can use 2020 or 2021 as a baseline year. The premise is a lot of voluntary water reductions were made last year due to drought, and you didn’t want to take somebody’s (water) that voluntarily reduced. While we haven’t had a lot of rain, we’ve had a showery and cooler weather pat- tern, so two weeks ago, most irrigation systems were turned off. Last week, most everyone got up and running. Where there’s irrigation, things looks good. I suspect later on there will be more water struggles. Water uncertainty and rising input costs led many people to make decisions lat- er. We feel like we’re behind in a lot of work. Fertilizers have been put on later and spraying decisions have been made later. It feels like we’re definitely moving along kind of fast, so there’s a lot of catch-up. We’re just starting our alfalfa weevil season, so we started treating for those. Our days are pretty much dominated by insect management and water management, and we’re probably about 30 days from cutting our first crop of hay. Everything seems high in price, the input side and our crop price. We’re just hope- ful that if prices are going to be high, then inputs and sales are high, and if inputs are going to be low, then sales will be low. We don’t want to have one extreme to an- other, because you start having to pick winners and losers, and that doesn’t work for the long-term, sustainable picture.
Photo/Courtesy of Brandon Fawaz
May 4, 2022 Ag Alert 5
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