Farming with drought
After the 2021 drought and all but one Southern Oregon irrigation district shutting off water to all their agriculture customers, and many other surface water rights being insufficient, everyone has been hoping for a good wet winter with a good snow pac.
Unfortunately, we just had the driest February in history! It was the least amount of recorded moisture since have been keeping track.
This is not looking good for Southern Oregon.
For example, Talent Irrigation District [TID] reservoirs are showing they are 7% of capacity. If we do not get serious water in our mountains in the coming months, the fear is TID will not turn on this year and the irrigation season for the rest of the valley will be short lived as well. There are some things that can be done but only ideally works for smaller agricultural farmers.
First, the state has to declare a state of emergency for drought, then you can submit paperwork to the state to use your exempt well for irrigation (exempt from a water certificate, or better known as a residential use). Again, this will not help much if you are growing acres & acres, but if you are a Tier-2 cannabis farm, it might just be enough depending on the water production of your exempt well. Another option is to start collecting rain water off your impervious structors on your property and store that water; saving you thousands of dollars each year. Sadly for larger agriculture, this is not a viable option to supply sufficient water. With all this brewing and you are in the market to purchase a farm, it’s very important to make sure you know where your water source stands in drought years.
If you have any question please don’t hesitate to reach out to us and we will help provide information and resources where we can!