Farmers brace for drought, shortened irrigation season

CANYON COUNTY, Idaho (CBS2 News) — All it takes is one look into the high country to know that something is amiss in Idaho's mountains. There's significantly less snow than normal -- which is a troubling sign heading into the summer months, especially considering the state is already in a drought.

Most of the water basins in southwest Idaho are sitting at less than 66 percent of normal -- meaning there's about two-thirds the amount of water in the snow (Snow Water Equivalent) that there should be this time of year.

Barring a very wet spring (which could create additional runoff or water in our reservoirs), water managers are warning there will be significantly less water in the Boise Basin reservoirs this year compared to a normal year. It's shaping up to be a deja vu of last year, creating potentially big problems for people who rely on the water that flows out of those reservoirs and into rivers and canals.

Perhaps no group will feel the impact like southern Idaho's farmers.

Drought and agriculture

Agriculture is one of Idaho's economic backbones. Water is the lifeblood of that industry.

And while there's still a lot that can happen between now and the onset of summer, the warnings are going out: there's not going to be enough water to go around.

Without it, farmers will be forced to make some big adjustments in order to try to make it through the season with enough water for their crops. Already, many say it's a scenario that's looking unlikely.

"If this isn't the worst year in the 40 years I've been farming, it seems to be worse than the other bad year we had," said owner of 'Western Farms Incorporated' Joe Weitz.

Weitz has been growing a variety of crops -- everything from corn to mint -- in Canyon County for decades. He knows too well that his business is at the mercy of Mother Nature. But this year, he's especially concerned about the outlook for the upcoming growing season.

"It's when you have two dry years in a row that things get problematic," he said. "A lot of crops are going to have to just dry up and not get irrigated."

The impending reality

Weitz says farmers have been told to expect to get about one-third of the water they typically do during the irrigation season, which typically runs from April 15 to October 15.

"Normally we get 3.75-acre feet of water," he said. "This year we'll get 1.2-[acre feet]."

Weitz says he and others have also been warned that the irrigation season will be cut short -- potentially very short.

"It won't last all season," he said. "Normally [irrigation season] goes until October 15. This year, they're talking the first of August."

Weitz says he only remembers one other time in his 40 years of farming when the water was shut off in early August. If that cut-off date holds, it means that canals would run dry up to two-and-a-half months early, long before a lot of crops could even be fully grown.

"The longer season crops: sugar beets, potatoes...all these crops that have to be watered through August and September may not make it," Weitz said. "That's a huge problem. This has a huge impact on all the farming in the valley."

Shifting strategies

Right now, the only gift farmers in southern Idaho do have is time -- time to change out the types of crops they grow, in hopes that some can make it through the shortened season.

"People knew they were going to have to make some big adjustments," Weitz said. "They're always very cautious never to over-promise. They want you to know now that there's a problem so you can make your adjustments accordingly. If things improve, they would like to maybe give us more water but that's fairly unlikely."

This year, Weitz says farmers will grow fewer long-season crops like corn, sugar beets, potatoes and mint. Instead, he says you'll see more farmers growing crops like wheat, which can be harvested early in the summer and don't require as much water.

"But the problem this year is that we won't even have enough water to grow a full crop of wheat," Weitz said. That means -- even as more farmers choose to grow wheat, the overall yield from the area will be less than normal.

Because canals supply water to what Weitz says is an estimated 90 percent of farms in this region, other farmers without access to supplemental wells may have to allocate all of their water to their most important -- or lucrative -- crops in order to survive, meaning some sections will go unplanted.

"We'll leave some ground idle," Weitz said. "That's what we have to do."

The impacts of these adjustments will be wide-ranging, some of which will only become evident over time. But Weitz says the changes will impact everything from fertilizer prices to dairy plants that rely on corn from local farms.

The unpredictable path forward

In a business that's rooted in unpredictability, Weitz says the only certainty these days is a need for change -- sooner rather than later.

"After this season we're going to be clear out of water again," he said. "At some point, you have to have a big winter to get caught up. In the past, it always did come along, we'd have that big winter and get caught back up...but, ya know, who knows. There does seem to be a change in the weather pattern, I don't know."

For now -- as spring settles in, and the valley come to life again, farmers will hold onto a faint hope for greener pastures still ahead.

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