solutions

Adapting Farming and Ranching to Hotter, Drier Conditions

Why Adapting Farming and Ranching Matters

The Colorado River and its tributaries irrigate more than five million acres of farmland, delivering food and fiber nationwide and anchoring the economies of many rural communities. But lower water availability, erratic weather patterns, and higher temperatures combined with inefficient, aging irrigation infrastructure are reducing yields, stymying agricultural profits, and over-stressing rivers and the life that depends on them.

As the largest water user in the Colorado River Basin, irrigated agriculture has a lot to gain from targeted investments in resilience strategies. By investing in these or similar opportunities now, agricultural producers and communities will be better able to adapt to increasingly hot and dry conditions and less reliable water supplies while sustaining the socioeconomic and environmental benefits of working farms and ranches.

How To Adapt Farming and Ranching to Hotter, Drier Conditions

Regenerative agriculture: Regenerative agriculture involves farming and grazing practices such as no-till agriculture, diverse crop rotations, and intensive grazing rotations that protect soil health and ultimately increase soil moisture, water retention, and carbon sequestration. These types of practices can minimize the amount of water application that is necessary to sustain productive crops.
Upgrading agricultural infrastructure & operations: Investing in more up-to-date irrigation infrastructure can range from installing check structures in canals to replacing seasonal instream push-up dams with modern ones that allow fish passage and more precise water management. Operational improvements may include using techniques to monitor soil health and enable more precise schedules for water deliveries and diversions.
Crop switching: Shifting to less water intensive crops or more drought resilient crops can reduce pressure on streams and aquifers and enhance producers’ ability to thrive in dry conditions.
Voluntary & temporary fallowing: Fallowing, or the practice of not growing crops on a portion of land for one or more growing seasons, can help alleviate water supply challenges and keep water in rivers and streams. Voluntary, temporary, and compensated fallowing programs can support producers and agricultural communities facing reduced water deliveries.

What Does It Look Like on the Ground?

Growing Guayule Instead of Alfalfa

A partnership between Arizona farmer Will Thelander, Environmental Defense Fund, Bridgestone Americas, and the University of Arizona is testing crop switching on Thelander’s Pinal County farm from water-intensive alfalfa to guayule, which can be used to make natural rubber products like gloves and medical devices. Now that Pinal County agricultural producers have lost their access to Colorado River water, the six-year pilot project is testing a promising option for growers to adapt to reduced water deliveries while finding new market opportunities.

Testing Alternatives to Thirsty Grasses and Alfalfa

Farmers and ranchers in Colorado are participating in field trials of new forage crops that could be less thirsty, more drought-tolerant alternatives to the grass and alfalfa hay that accounts for the majority of water use in the region. One of the forages being tested, the Kernza® variety of intermediate wheatgrass, also produces grain, which can be used in beer brewing. The field trials are part of a collaborative project with Colorado State University, The Land Institute, The Nature Conservancy, Trout Unlimited, and American Rivers.

Reducing Irrigation Water Use in Yuma County

In Yuma County, Arizona significant infrastructure and efficiency investments have reduced water use, such as lining the majority of canals and farm ditches within the Yuma irrigation districts, improved scheduling and delivery practices, installing high flow turnouts, and precision field leveling using lasers. Combined with a shift from perennial and summer-centric crops to winter vegetable production, these improvements have decreased irrigation water diverted to farms by 15% since 1990 (as of 2015).

Improving Soil Health Throughout Colorado

The Colorado Department of Agriculture’s Saving Tomorrow’s Agricultural Resources (STAR) and Star Plus programs promote soil health practices across the state using federal, state, and private grant funding. Farmers and ranchers utilize a framework to evaluate their current growing and grazing systems and identify areas to improve soil health. STAR Plus provides financial and technical assistance that ultimately helps producers try new practices, receive training, and access grant funds to purchase equipment.

Exploring the Impacts of Temporary Fallowing

Colorado rancher Paul Bruchez is working with fellow ranchers, Colorado State University researchers, and others to study the long-term impacts of taking a break from irrigating some of their fields during the 2020 irrigation season. The project stems from an emerging conservation solution that pays agricultural producers to voluntarily pause irrigating on a temporary basis in order to help address water supply problems in the Colorado River’s Upper Basin and diversify income for project participants. The project, which is still underway, is yielding important observations and has led to a new research project that is testing whether different forage species may be able to better tolerate dry conditions.

The Tomichi Water Conservation Program

As part of the Tomichi Water Conservation Program, Trout Unlimited compensated six irrigators to cease diversions in 2018, which was one of the driest years on record for Tomichi Creek, located near Gunnison, Colorado. The project monitored stream flows and conserved water and found stream-flow improvements were effective in reducing fish mortality throughout the Tomichi State Wildlife Area when compared with similarly dry years. The project also yielded helpful findings around the impacts of timing on partial season curtailment of irrigation for haying and discrepancies between tools used for measuring water savings.

Promote coordinated funding opportunities, such as grants, loans, and incentives that can support both proven solutions and more experimental pilot projects and reduce barriers, costs, and risks for agricultural producers. For example, funding should be available for activities such as subsidizing the risk of trying new crops that may or may not succeed and making upgrades to farm infrastructure and equipment that enable regenerative and conservation practices.
Facilitate strategic conservation efforts among multiple water users on the same tributary to maximize benefits to irrigators and positive impacts on river flows and fisheries. The greater the benefits to irrigators, the more likely they will be to participate in programs that reduce water use with programs like the Regional Conservation Partnership Program and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s Cooperative Watershed Management Program.
Enable crop switching by providing support to identify and develop markets and market pathways to make less thirsty crops economically feasible options for producers. Viable market pathways, research, and technical assistance are all vital to support success with new crops.