Is California falling into a 2018 drought?
And what does no significant rain over the winter, thus far, mean for farming?
Will there be water to farm and is it time to be concerned?
Weather and water continue to be a hot, divisive topic and these are a lot of questions
we're all asking.
Just last week YouTube user William M asks, "Hey Matt!
What's the drought situation there?
I heard it's making a come back?
So, right now I'm going to answer that and a lot of questions about water that relate
to our rice farming practices here in northern California.
Last week on both the Rice Farming TV YouTube Channel and Facebook Page I wanted to know
what general questions you all had about rice farming.
I received a lot of great questions and was really surprised to see that a majority of
them were very much water related.
So in this episode I'm going to predominantly focus on water.
I'll address your more general questions of 'how rice is grown in California' in
a near future episode.
So back to William M's question remember: "Hey Matt!
What's the drought situation there?
I heard it's making a come back."
Well William, it's not looking good man.
The rice fields we farm are in Butte County and the reservoir from which we receive our
irrigation water comes from the Lake Oroville Dam.
At a glance: the lake is super low, due to 2 factors: (1) the release of substantial
amounts of water throughout the year last year during repairs on the damaged spillway.
And (2) next to no rain.
Making matters worse: the snow pack up above the dam is at around 14% of average as of
February 1st, 2018.
This is important because this would-be snow, melts and supplements the lake oroville dam
throughout the hot summer.
It's too early to call it a drought but it's getting tight as 2.5 out of 3 of California's
wettest months have had little rainfall.
In the past we have been saved by March rains and even just last year it rained into April.
So with weather patterns shifting we still may be okay.
But if our county was stuck with the water we have now, we'd be in trouble.
It's important to note that, I believe, several other north state counties, farms
and cities are okay because their respective reservoirs are full.
So Great lead off question William. Thank you!
Juan Browne aka Blancolirio wrote on Facebook, "I'm interested in the water story...what
you do in dry years?"
Oh Juan, that's a bit complicated for a quick answer but it basically depends on the
county and the water rights that are attached to the land of which the rice farmer farms.
It's important to note, I'm only speaking about Butte County, where our rice fields
are located.
So, with primary water rights the farmer is guaranteed, contracted water from the state.
On a normal year the farmer just pays the irrigation district's water managers and
ditch tenders to supply their farm's allocated water throughout the growing season.
In a dry year the irrigation district may facilitate a water sale and transfer.
Basically the farmer would elect to sell a portion of their allocated water to cities
or environmental organizations to help with non-rice-related needs and in effect not plant
that portion of their fields.
In Butte County our rice fields are in a water rich area of the state and that means not all farmers
nor all water districts in other countries have this opportunity to sell water.
Now, in extreme drought cases the state can break contract and cut the farmer back like
50% of their water allocation.
This simply means the farmers would only have enough water to farm 50% of their ground and
if they wanted to plant more they would need to supplement that delivered surface water
with underground water.
This means deep well pumps would need to run throughout the spring and summer--adding a
lot of extra expenses, work and stress to the farmer.
There are also secondary water right holders within the county and they would be cut back
100%--not offered surface water at all and need to solely rely on deepwells.
A very large percentage of our farming acreage is ground with secondary water rights and
our operation is dramatically affected during drought years.
And luckily we do have deep wells.
Some farmers do not.
Thanks Juan.
Great question!
Looking forward to collab with you in the near future!
By the way guys if you don't know Blancolirio is the quintessential YouTube channel
for Oroville Dam news and other cool travel videos.
Now "h baker" from YouTube has a great two part question which I feel is extremely
important to address.
The question was prompted by last week's episode of Rice Farming TV as we are draining
the winter water that decomposed last year's remaining rice straw.
He asks, "Matt, where do you rice farmers drain the standing water to?
Irrigation canals, river discharge?"
Each rice farm has its own irrigation infrastructure so water could flow between one field into
the next, within that individual rice farm.
But when we drain our rice fields and the water leaves the farm the water moves into the county's
irrigation system.
So if it's during the growing season the water can flow from one rice farmer's farm
into another rice farmer's farm.
Now as it flows south, the water will eventually move down into the Sacramento River and potentially
be utilized by other farmers and not just rice farmers but those growing row crops or
tending to orchards.
So it's cool to think that the water can be used to recharge natural waterways and
also be utilized by other farmers.
Further down south the water could also be diverted at the Sacramento–San Joaquin River
Delta, or California Delta and potentially pumped down to southern California.
Otherwise the water would flow out into the Pacific Ocean, through the San Francisco Bay
right under the Golden Gate Bridge.
But the flow of surface water is not the only way water leaves our rice fields.
There's evaporation up into the atmosphere and subbing down into the soil.
The latter of which recharges the water table.
Another cool aspect of rice water living on.
Now, H baker continues his question with this statement: I would think fertilizer and agrochemical
runoff would eliminate the possibility of drainage to natural waterways.
Very good point of discussion.
Now with every pest management application comes a set of guidelines of which the manufacturers,
federal and state Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as Department of Pest
Control Regulation have set in place.
These guidelines involve use rates, droplet size, handling precautions, wind restrictions,
and much much more.
Now In regards to drainage into natural waterways, water-holds are prescribed under these guidelines.
Water-holds mean that we can't have any water leaving the field after a set amount of days.
We must put in the work to board up (or dam up) any drain-risers (or exit points) in the
field and shovel mud in front of those boards in order to seal them off.
The water-hold is set in place until the pest management application has dissipated.
You see these chemical compounds break down in the environment through interaction with
soil, water and air as well as degradation from sunlight.
The water-hold is to insure that this happens on the farm.
This is enforced by DPR and the County Department of Agriculture.
The state also has monitoring stations at various points along waterways and rivers,
helping them ensure that the water is clean.
The manufacturer wants their product to work and inorder for it to work the product needs
to stay in the field--so they support the water-hold.
The farmer also wants the product to work so we'll follow the guidelines.
The government agencies and we all-- want to protect the environment for healthy life,
which are why so many guidelines like the water-holds are set into place.
Everyone is on the same team.
Also, any abuse awards a heavy and substantial fine!
But that's just pest management applications.
Check out Episode 38 "Herbicide Weed Control and the Truth" for more on all that.
You also mentioned fertilizer and I'll address that but I first want to introduce a related
fertilizer question that came on Facebook from Zach Johnson aka MN Millennial Farmer (check him
out on YouTube)!
Zach asks, "What is your fertilizer program like and how do you keep nitrogen in the soil
when your fields are so saturated?"
Well Zach after our fields have dried out from the winter water draining that we're
doing now we're going to work up the ground with pull chisels and discs, we'll smooth
out the nice, dry fluffy dirt with a land-plane and then we'll add our fertilizer which we'll
inject aqua ammonia (nitrogen) 3 inches deep into the soil.
Because the ground is totally dry the fertilizer bonds to the soil.
We also roll onto the field's surface a fertilizer blend made up of nitrogen, potassium
and phosphorus.
Also when the field is dry.
In a rush we flood the field and apply the seed.
The idea is the seed will get a boost when it hits the soil from that fertilizer blend.
Then a week or two later and the root of the rice seed will grow and get a further boost
from that nitrogen that was injected 3" deep into the soil.
About 90% of the fertilizer that we apply during the growing season is applied at this
time, preplant on dry soil.
We don't find that the fertilizer moves out of the field with the water simply because
not much water, very, very little in fact is actually leaving the field.
Remember we are abiding by water holds for our pest management applications--some of
which are applied on the day of seeding.
It's important to note that whether it's fertilizer or pest management applications
we are pinpointing the use rate.
We only want to apply what the plant needs to survive and thrive.
So for example, we're not over fertilizing because we don't want to make the plant
sick or overgrown.
Also fertilizer costs money.
So Zach and H baker I hope that answers your guys's questions.
We're going to get this 2018 rice planting season started soon.
I'll make sure to show you guys what I've been talking about in future episodes.
Also soon, we will have a better understanding if California is in fact in a 2018 drought.
Let's see what type of rainfall and snow we receive at the last part of February
and throughout March.
I'll certainly keep you updated with that.
Wow, I only answered about 5 of your questions but when it comes to water there's no simple
answer.
Nor does water deserve a simple answer because it's so important to everybody and everything.
Now about this crop year I'll say this, like many farmers say:
It's going to be interesting.
Thanks for watching guys. Give me a thumbs up if you enjoyed this video. Subscribe if you haven't done so.
Any questions comment down below and I'm going to try to get to them like I usually do.
Take care.
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