We all know it has been dry since New Year’s Day.
So it wasn’t surprising to hear that 1 ½ weeks ago the federal
Bureau of Reclamation cut the H2o allocation for agricultural water suppliers
in our region to 20 percent, down from 25 percent projected in February.
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| State Water surveyors found a melting Sierra snowpack. - Department of Water Resources photo |
Both cite the skimpy
rainfall this year and winter pumping restrictions to protect the Delta smelt
and salmon for the decreased water allocation estimates.
As baseball legend Yogi
Berra says, “It’s déjà vu all over again.” Yes, farmers have been here before.
You don’t need to be a meteorologist and snow surveyor with
fancy degrees to figure it out. It was just spring-like this winter. In fact, the
Valley recorded only about 2 inches of rain for all of January, February and
March, according the National Weather Service. That’s a third of normal.
Federal water folks say March was “tracking to be the driest
on record.”
So what does this mean?
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| A dry March had some Central Valley growers turning on the irrigation sprinklers in their almond orchards. |
The Westlands Water
District, which serves a lot of farms in our area, says the low allocation could
prove economically devastating to local communities and cost them more than $1
billion in economic activity.
“The water supply
reductions facing farmers will devastate the local communities,” says Thomas
Birmingham, Westlands general manager.
For now, no one is ready
to mention the dreaded “D” word, as in drought.
Westlands and other
water districts have about 400,000 acre feet of water stored in San Luis
Reservoir, which holds water for south-of-the-delta water projects. “Reservoir
storage will meet much of the state’s water demand this year,” government water
officials say. But they warn that “successively dry years would create drought
conditions in some areas.”
Farmers could see this coming
and planned accordingly for this year’s growing season. In cotton, for example,
some growers are opting to plant other crops or cut back on their plantings. We
wouldn’t be surprised to see a drop in cotton acreage this season, which would
reverse three years of increased plantings since end of the prolonged
California drought in 2009.
Of course, the water
outlook could change if we get plenty of April showers. We certainly could use
more rain like Sunday, when we closed out March with nearly a third of inch of
rain and almost doubled the total recorded the previous 30 days. Weather
watchers are predicting another storm Thursday, but clear skies the rest of the
week. We’ll see how everything plays out for almond and alfalfa crops as well
as the cotton plantings.
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| Another storm may arrive later this week. |
Because of the recent
rain, alfalfa growers could hold off on their first cutting of the season. Meanwhile,
on the pest front, our sweep nets are snagging aphids in some alfalfa fields
but not enough to worry about at the moment. Growers, though, should continue
to keep an eye out for them. Alfalfa weevils are under control right now.
Cotton growers are still
tracking the degree days to determine the best time to plant. But growers tell
us they’re in no rush. They don’t want to plant too early and risk late spring
rains and damage to the seedlings. It’s no time to get over eager.
In the almond orchards,
we’re still seeing some white bloom, but petal fall is definitely taking place.
Westside orchards are seeing lots of green leaves. That’s not surprising. We
usually see these orchards develop faster than other areas in the San Joaquin
Valley. Bees are definitely active everywhere. One grower had the sprinklers
going in his orchard thanks to the dry weather.
Well, it’s only April 1.
There is still of time to do a little rain dance and get the clouds to shower
us with more rainfall.
اسعار نقل عفش بخميس مشيط
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شركة نقل عفش بالطائف
شركة نقل عفش بالرياض
شركة نقل عفش بجدة