Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
January 22, 2009
Top Item –
Economic climate not grape growers' top fear
Santa Rosa
Drought threat worries ag interests (5:02 p.m.)
Stockton
Westside growers on their heels
Lack of water leads to changes in planting strategies
Hanford
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Economic climate not grape growers' top fear
Santa Rosa
By Kevin McCallum
More than 400 vineyard owners and managers from around Sonoma County gathered for the annual Dollars & Sense conference in Santa Rosa on Tuesday, an event that highlighted how the recession is affecting the wine and grape industry.
But the record warmth and worsening drought have farmers more worried about whether it will rain in the next few weeks than whether wineries will want to buy their grapes in the fall.
"We really need rain now," said Ryan Decker, a viticulturalist for Rodney Strong Vineyards in
The lack of rain and temperatures in the 70s and even 80s could trigger the vines to awaken early, leaving them vulnerable to frost damage, Decker said.
Vineyard managers normally fight frosts by spraying water on the vines, but this year most vineyards' reservoirs are tapped out, leaving then nearly defenseless.
"It's potentially pretty horrific," said Peter Haywood, who farms about 90 acres of grapes, mostly zinfandel, in the
Most of his vineyards are on fast-draining hillsides, so he's completely dependent on his reservoirs for both frost protection and irrigation during the year. But this year Haywood's ponds are nearly dry, after receiving only about 6 inches of rain this winter.
"In my 33 years of farming our vineyards, there has never been a Jan. 20 where our reservoirs have not been full and overflowing," Haywood said.
If he doesn't get some serious rain soon -- several inches worth, at a minimum -- he'll have to start drawing water from wells on his property, an expensive and risky proposition. With so little rainfall, Haywood said he has little faith that the aquifer has been replenished enough to keep his wells from running dry.
"How long will they last? Who knows?" Haywood said.
Up the road in Kenwood, the largest holding pond at Kunde Vineyards is at a fraction of its capacity, perhaps 20 acre-feet in a reservoir that typically holds 165 acre-feet this time of year, said vineyard manager Steve Thomas.
If push comes to shove, the winery can tap its well, but it doesn't like the idea of using an already scarce resource that way.
"We hate to rely on the wells," Thomas said.
Luckily for Kunde, it has more than 100 acres of dry-farmed vines, some over 100 years old. These vines have deeper roots than most, and are more drought-tolerant than younger ones that are dependent on irrigation, Thomas said.
To tip the scales further in the vines' favor, Kunde will probably plow under the cover crops in some vineyards to keep them from competing with the vines for what limited water is in the soil, Thomas said.
One business the drought is directly hurting is nurseries. Many growers are worried about having enough water to irrigate new vineyards or replace old or damaged vines, said Eckhard Kaesekamp, owner of Lake County Grapevine.
His business is down about 20 percent, partially from drought concerns, but also because growers can't get financing in the tight lending environment, Kaesekamp said.
Chris Bowen, vineyard manager of Robert Hunter Winery in the
"I'm seriously considering not ordering anything because I'm just not sure that we're going to have the water to be able to keep those vines alive, let alone thrive," Bowen said.
Climate researcher Greg Jones of Southern Oregon University told growers he didn't see much hope for them on the horizon. The Pacific Ocean is in a La Niña trend that creates cooler ocean surface temperatures along the West Coast, resulting in unusually dry weather in
"He certainly wasn't offering much hope for this year in the short term," Bowen said.
As if that weren't enough bad news, grape broker Glen Proctor outlined several troubling economic trends. Consumers are buying less expensive wine and eating out less, while wineries are hesitant to sign many new long-term grape contracts, said Proctor, a partner in grape broker Ciatti Co.
But he also offered reasons for optimism. He noted that prices paid for
"The good news is wine consumption is still growing," he said.#
Drought threat worries ag interests (5:02 p.m.)
By Reed Fujii
SACRAMENTO -- California seems poised to slide into a third year of drought -- despite Wednesday's rain -- threatening economic disaster for agriculture and farm communities south of the San Joaquin Delta, state agricultural officials warned.
Potential water deliveries of just 15 percent of full allocation could cause the loss of 40,000 jobs and $1.15 billion in farm and related income, said Richard Howitt, chairman of Agricultural & Resource Economics at
"I'm sorry to be bearing such bad news," he told the California Board of Food and Agriculture, which was taking testimony about the drought's impact.
Stephen Patricia of Westside Produce, a cantaloupe harvesting, processing and marketing operation handling melons grown by 30 small family farms, said the past two years of drought have already cost his company nearly $1 million in sales in 2008, about 20 percent down from the year before, and eliminated 180 seasonal jobs.
And in emotional testimony he described how one of his suppliers, a third-generation farming family, was forced to lay off all of its 20 full-time and 200 seasonal workers.
"Shame on all of us Californians," he said, for not taking steps to ensure an adequate water supply.#
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090121/A_NEWS/90121020/-1/rss01
Westside growers on their heels
Lack of water leads to changes in planting strategies
Growers weren't surprised at Monday's announcement from Westlands Water District that they likely won't be receiving surface water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Over the last three years, ongoing drought and environmental battles over endangered species in the Delta have reduced surface water deliveries to the vanishing point.
However, Monday's zero-allocation warning has served to accelerate changes in planting strategies that growers were already putting into action.
Those changes include letting fields go fallow, cutting down on some crops, and in a few cases, just trying to keep permanent crops alive on limited supplies of well water.
Some 30,000 acres in
A variety of crops, from pistachios to tomatoes, are grown on district soil.
Dan Errotabere farms 3,600 acres of Westlands ground in the Riverdale area, and is also a member of the district's board of directors.
He's planning to let 1,500 of those acres lie fallow this year because of a lack of water.
When farmers fallow, they leave the ground unplanted but continue eradicating weeds.
Normally, in response to a dry year, Errotabere would simply decide not to plant water-sucking cotton.
This year, he's doing more than put the kibosh on the white fluffy stuff. He's trimming back his acreage of melons, tomatoes and other crops as well.
Errotabere expects to cut his summer workforce in half this year, scaling down from 30 workers to 15 workers.
The number of workers would be greater, except Errotabere doesn't use hand labor for harvesting.
A miracle dumping of snow in the Sierra in the next couple of months would change the picture and give Westlands farmers a certain percentage of the full allocation they are promised in wet years.
But none of them are banking on that happening.
Errotabere has contingency plans to sacrifice his tomato and melon crops in order to shift water to his valuable almonds and pistachios -- permanent tree crops that must have a certain amount of irrigation year-round.
Errotabere, who has been farming Westlands ground since the early 1980s, said he's never seen the water situation this bad.
If Westlands growers get no surface water this year, they'll be relying on salty well water, which isn't good for almond trees and can damage some crops such as lettuce, according to Errotabere
For Tim Larson of J. G. Avila Farms in the Five Points area of Fresno County, Monday's announcement means he'll likely let some of his alfalfa fields die and shift water to drip system he's installing for his tomato crop.
J. G. Avila also farms acreage in
Drip systems are becoming increasingly common because they require much less water than flood and row irrigation.
But even that might not be enough to save thirsty Westlands growers.
Larson, too, can't recall the water situation ever reaching a zero allocation.
Short of a miracle, last-minute snowfall, Larson can't see any relief coming.
He noted the impact no water would have on
"I think it's huge," Larson said.#
http://www.hanfordsentinel.com/articles/2009/01/21/news/doc49777980881a5082967706.txt
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