This article was published on: 09/25/22 10:58 AM
Three years ago when drought dried up her canal and left her fields barren, Courtney Schuur took an unusual step to save her cattle. Instead of bringing water and hay to her cows, she loaded them up on trucks and motored them to greener pastures.
Schuur, a patron of Arnold Irrigation District on Bend’s east side, transported her cattle a few miles up the road to farms in Central Oregon Irrigation District, a district with senior water rights. It’s been an annual practice ever since.
Irrigation district patrons with junior water rights are being forced to come up with unusual tricks and workarounds to help them get through the year after another summer of drought and low reservoirs.
Arnold Irrigation District, which encompasses 4,500 acres of farmland east of Bend, has been hit particularly hard. The district’s 12-mile-long open canal leaks water like a sieve through its porous bottom — a factor in the district’s decision to shut off water supplies to patrons in mid-season for the past three years.
“It’s extremely challenging. We have made significant changes to our operating model in order to stay in business,” said Schuur, who co-owns North 44 Farms with her husband, Ethan O’Brien. “When water becomes limited for someone who has livestock, the first thing you think about is, how am I going to maintain my herd?”
With roughly half of Deschutes County still in extreme drought (the second-highest category of drought), it will take successive winters of strong snowpack to change the water outlook for Arnold patrons. But Schuur and O’Brien — who raise grass-fed lamb and beef for the local market — are not waiting for Mother Nature’s help.
In addition to moving their sheep and cattle, the couple is also growing new types of fodder on their property to make better use of the land during hot and dry spells. Fields that have been damaged due to heat waves have been ripped up and moved to a multi-species cropping model of rye, clover, triticale (a hybrid of wheat and rye), which comes up with early spring precipitation.
“This gives us a headstart in the fields and we were able to hay that plot for winter feed early in the season,” said Schuur. “Once we pulled the hay off, we drilled in a drought tolerant crop that should survive the lack of water and high temps.”
The heat-resistant crops also help to keep roots in the ground so topsoil doesn’t blow away in the wind. Schuur and O’Brien also decided to invest in a pivot-style irrigation system, considered more efficient compared to the wheel lines they had been using.
“Many folks scoff at the idea of investing in water delivery when we haven’t had our full share of water in three years but the water efficiency that a pivot brings allowed us to better manage the limited water we have,” said Schuur.
While far from ideal, the couple will continue to work with their current model — leasing land in more senior water rights areas, trying seed mixes and cover crops that can thrive with little to no irrigation water, rotationally grazing their herds, and working on improving water efficiencies.
“We’re sticking with our plan to do what we need to for our herd and pasture health and know that it’s making us more agile farmers and land stewards for whatever the future holds,” said Schuur.
Understanding options
Recognizing that their patrons are suffering from a historic drought, Arnold Irrigation District has also endeavored to help farmers adapt to a changing climate.
In August, the district invited crop researchers from Oregon State University Extension Center to help farmers better understand their options for planting drought-resistant crops and improving irrigation practices.
The researchers showed off dryland forage production, including the use of triticale, along with efficient irrigation techniques.
“We had the OSU researchers out for a field demonstration and then back in the office with powerpoints and more detail,” said Arnold’s general manager, Steve Johnson. “The field class was attended by 38 patrons. To put that into perspective, we may only have three or four patrons attend a board meeting.”
One of the researchers, Ian McGregor, an associated professor of livestock and irrigation at OSU, advises farmers that have been affected by multiple years of drought to conduct overseeding in the fall with dryland forage crops like triticale.
“Keep doing this until you get lucky one year and you have enough water to establish a perennial forage stand,” McGregor advises patrons facing water shortages.
Rob Rastovich, another Arnold patron and owner of Barley Beef, said switching up his crops to deal with the water shortages is a plan in progress.
In particular, Rastovich has looked at planting crops that can grow quickly in the early part of the growing season to take advantage of short watering periods. He has also researched dryland farming techniques.
“We are looking at what kind of crops we grow. Grass is very water intensive. Obviously, we aren’t going to get any grass, but if know we have water from April 15 to say July 15, then we probably should do some of these intense growing plants,” he said.
Unlike North 44, Rastovich has decided to keep his cattle on his farm during the drought. That involves buying both hay and water. The added costs of doing business forced him to raise the price of his beef by around 25%.
“We’re feeding (the cows) as if we’re already in winter. We started feeding like that on the first of August, and that is a big impact,” he said.
One option that is not on the table is selling the farm, which has been part of the Rastovich family since the early 1920s.
“After 102 years of my family owning this farm, I am not going to be the guy who throws in the towel,” he said. “It will be quite literally over my dead body.”
Silver lining
Back at the North 44 Farm, O’Brien climbed into his tractor and began work on planting heat-resistant seeds, using a no-till drill. The machine shoots the seeds into the ground and covers them up, a relatively simple approach to growing abundant spring fodder for their cattle and sheep.
“The no-till drill has really helped us out. We only plant annuals now, which means they only grow once a year, and then you reseed in the next year, which allows us to grow quite a substantial crop in a small irrigation window,” said O’Brien.
If there is a silver lining in all of this, O’Brien said the adaptation process has allowed the couple to outgrow their own property and increase their business size because they are no longer limited to their own property.
“We are not relying on one farm anymore. We are relying on lots of different lands,” he said. “You get to meet great people and experiment with different crop types.”
The couple will take their out-of-the-box thinking one step further next year when they plan to rent a fodder system, essentially a shipping container with an automated hydroponic grass system inside that can produce 2,000 pounds of feed every day.
“It’s new and it’s a risk but we are in a position where we have to take risks, one way or another. We are not sitting pretty. We have to take risks in order for our business to work this season,” said Schuur.
After planting a row of seeds O’Brien hopped off his red tractor and scanned the horizon. It’s brown as far as the eye can see, even though just a mile up the road there are green pastures on Central Oregon Irrigation District lands.
“If we knew this was going to happen. We may have bought a farm in a different area, but no one knew,” he said. “So we are dealing with it. We purchase equipment, we lease more land, we just adapt. You have to do what you have to do.”
-Michael Kohn