A plan to save the dried up Colorado River by cutting off Water The initiative to plant alfalfa fields in California’s productive Imperial Valley is supported by the farmers who grow the crop.
The Imperial Irrigation District – the largest water user of the 1,450-mile-long river – has offered farmers money to turn off irrigation on forage crops, including alfalfa, for up to 60 days during peak season. scorching hot summerAlthough farmers often balk at the idea of leaving their fields fallow, at least 80 percent of the properties eligible for the new program have already signed up to participate, says Tina Shields, director of the county’s water resources department.
“We don’t like to leave things idle down here,” Shields said. “They make business decisions.”
The move comes as farmers who grow alfalfa and other crops for livestock feed have seen hay prices drop sharply amid rising supplies. For many, that means a summer alfalfa crop could bring in less revenue than the $300 per acre-foot of water in federal subsidies the water district is willing to shell out by simply stopping irrigation, experts say.
From California to Arkansas, farmers are reporting an excellent hay year, and many are currently desperately looking for buyers or considering whether it’s worth paying for storage, says Sue Arnold, executive director of the Ohio-based National Hay Association.
“They have a lot more hay than they normally have this time of year, so their barns are full,” she said of the organization’s members. “They’re afraid: ‘I’m going to have all this stock.'”
Hay exporters are struggling with the strong U.S. dollar and some foreign markets are willing to accept a lower quality product than the premium hay grown in the U.S., particularly in the Imperial Valley, Arnold said.
The idea of paying farmers to stop irrigation was born last year as part of a agreement between Arizona, Nevada and California to support the shrinking Colorado River, The water utility supplies water to 40 million people in seven U.S. states, parts of Mexico, and more than two dozen Native American tribes. During a severe drought, water levels dropped.
As part of the plan, the federal government agreed to spend $1.2 billion to allow users to temporarily reduce their water use. The goal was to save an additional 3 million acre-feet of water by 2026 – with more than half of those savings coming from California – when current river-sharing policies expire.
The Imperial Irrigation District, California’s largest user of Colorado River water, has developed a voluntary program that requires farmers to temporarily stop irrigating alfalfa, Bermuda grass or small grasses — crops that can tolerate short-term drying — during the summer. The idea is to do this when summer yields are already low, more water is needed, and dairies tend to keep their livestock numbers low.
The district had proposed introducing the program in the spring, but faced delays due to environmental concerns, including the fate of the tiny, endangered Desert killifishthat relies on irrigation runoff. Environmental permits are still pending, but the district decided to recruit participants for the program now to save time, Shields said.
So far, the program has received applications from about 170 different companies covering a total of nearly 64,750 acres of fields, which could save about 215,000 acre-feet of water, she said.
Trevor Tagg, a hay farmer in the Imperial Valley, is one of many opting into the program. He said alfalfa prices have dropped sharply over the past two years as supply has increased, leaving farmers with little choice but to keep growing in their fields and hope prices increase in the future. He said he and many others have sat down and done the math — what the water district is offering is a better opportunity than what he can get by harvesting now.
He said that a few years ago a ton of hay cost $400, but today it might only cost $100.
“The pendulum is swinging really hard,” he said. “Times have been really tough. You see a lot of farms on the brink of bankruptcy – many, many of them.”
Hard times are forcing farmers to make difficult decisions. Turning off the water for a month or two is seen as a better solution than leaving fields fallow longer and damaging the local economy, which also depends on agriculture for its livelihood. About a quarter of Imperial County’s agricultural output comes from crops, according to a county agriculture report.
“It allows us to farm one more day,” Tagg said. “It feeds the river, it feeds Lake Mead. It feeds everything we’re trying to do.”
“It’s not perfect for anyone,” he said.