I’m ready to walk the talk

My apologies in advance for talking about my own small farm operation again, but I had a recent conversation with my local Natural Resources Conservation Service that might be worth discussion — after which I thought, “Man, they just handed me my next column.”

As a bit of background, with the help of NRCS’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program, I converted a productive parcel to a rotational pasture grazing system last year. I think the EQIP program is wonderful and have developed a good relationship with the county NRCS staff. Now, hold that thought.

We had our local drought of record last year. My newly planted pasture initially did well, but as the precipitation and soil moisture played out, it struggled. The dramatic exception was the portion my neighbor’s traveling big gun generously hit from the adjacent field. I ended up replanting a portion of the pasture this spring and put things in motion to install an irrigation system. Water is available and it looks like a pod type of system may work as something well-adapted to rotational grazing. Hopefully it will be in place by early summer.

I ended up replanting a portion of the pasture this spring and put things in motion to install an irrigation system.

The decision to irrigate is mostly economic but also personal interest. Folks in my area don’t discuss climate change out loud but all seem to agree that recent weather extremes aren’t going away, so irrigation is seen as a hedge against future droughts. Last year’s drought cost us a lot in having to buy hay and cull some animals that otherwise would have been kept. Plus, don’t underestimate the level of stress a severe drought causes. Also, personally, it’s hard not to notice that I don’t irrigate my own operation yet write a column about irrigation economics. Credibility could be improved if I “walk the talk.”

Back to the NRCS. During an annual EQIP-related visit from the NRCS, I shared my intention to irrigate the pasture, emphasizing that it’s a self-financed project and not asking for assistance. About three weeks went by, and I got a call from the NRCS asking whether they could come over for a meeting. Apparently, word got back to their office of my intention to irrigate and their collective wisdom was wholly unsupportive. Citing a variety of reasons, including questioning the water supply, a high groundwater table and mostly the underlying economics, they sent the new college graduate out to talk me out of it. We had a nice conversation, but irrigation is still moving forward.

I’m still a bit miffed why the NRCS objected, other than they probably don’t think I know what I’m doing, which is frequently the case. But they don’t seem to object to irrigation on nearby parcels irrigating corn rather than rotational pasture. I’m not getting 200+ bushels per acre at $6.50 per bushel, the current price, but I’m betting I can instead extend my grazing season and additional cow-calf units in a sustainable manner … and sleep a lot better next winter.

George Oamek, PhD, is an economist with Headwaters Corp. and is also on the staff of the Platte River Recovery Implementation Program’s executive director’s office.