Storms Continued from Page 13
Macon said the events revealed how it is critical in floods and other events for ranch- ers to connect with incident commanders and work with emergency responders to ensure safe access for caring for animals. At Van Vleck Ranch in Sacramento County, ranch manager Jerry Spencer said he was relieved that 2,000 head of Angus cattle, including 250 fall calves, all survived the surge of storms. Spencer said other ranchers weren’t as lucky. He said some were not able to reach parts of their herds for days. The Van Vleck Ranch suffered relatively modest damage, including washed-out roads and knocked-out creek banks, along with downed fencing and trees. In early February, crews were still doing cleanup on the 11,000 acres under management by the ranch. The power was off for three days, Spencer said. While the rain was welcome, he said, it would have been nice if had been spread out rather than all coming at once. Whether the ranch suffered any seed grass damage is yet to be determined. The 60 acres of forage grass and 150 acres of pasture hay should be all right, Spencer said. But its 30 acres of alfalfa were underwater for some time, and the crop’s condition remained unknown. On the bright side, the ranch’s reservoir
Cattle gather on a ridge at Van Vleck Ranch. Some 250 cows and their calves were at this location during a surge of storms last month, but the animals emerged safe and sound. A month later, ranch crews were still doing cleanup.
was full for the first time in five years. While there are no concerns of running out of water for this year, the ranch will still be conserving, Spencer said, “because you never know.” In the southern Central Valley, Tyler Ribeiro of Rib Arrow Dairy in Tulare said, “It’s been a beautiful mess.” “We need it. We need all of the rain we can get,” he said. Although the storm af- termath created considerable work, “for the most part, we’ve been doing very well.” Ribeiro said he hopes the rain from the storms will extend to an improved water
year—and perhaps lead to some price re- lief for dairy farmers and ranchers facing rising feed costs, which ballooned amid supply-chain challenges as pasturelands also diminished due to drought. Macon said, “Feed-wise, the rain is a real blessing.” He added, “Not only do we have soil moisture to grow grass as the days grow longer and warmer, we have refilled stock ponds, which will allow ranchers to access feed they couldn’t use through the dry years for lack of stock water.” Van Exel suggested recent weather
events underscored the need for improved state and local water infrastructure for cap- turing water during major storms and max- imizing water storage. He said he watched in frustration in his local water district as massive amounts of stormwater flowed away, uncaptured. “We experienced a normal yearly rainfall in those two weeks,” he said. “We could have easily taken care of two years’ water needs.” (Nancy Vigran is a reporter based in Placer County. She may be contacted via news@cfbf.com.)
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14 Ag Alert February 22, 2023
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