How We Grow

2020 Nov/Dec How We Grow

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A L M O N D O R C H A R D 2 0 2 5 G O A L S WATER USE 9 1 University of California, 2010. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2012. Almond Board of California, 1990-94, 2000-14. 2 One of four Almond Orchard 2025 Goals adopted by the Almond Board of California Board of Directors in 2018. Learn about the 2025 Goals at https://bit.ly/3djGxG1 3 Check out a summary of UC research on irrigation management for almond trees under drought conditions: https://bit.ly/36DLN5T Limited Water Forces Tough Decisions, Drives Shrewd Practices When faced with the harsh reality that he and his family farming partners didn't have enough water to irrigate all their farmland, Shafter-based grower Fred Starrh made the difficult decision to fallow 1,000 acres of fertile soil in 2013. Most of the ground remains fallow to this day, but prior to 2013 it was home to a productive almond orchard. "Those trees were about 18 years old, so they could have had roughly another 10 years of life left in them," said Jay Kroeker, Fred Starrh's son-in-law, who today farms approximately 3,800 acres of almonds with Starrh Family Farms. "But we couldn't afford to buy any more expensive water to maintain that acreage beyond our entitlement from the State Water Project." While Kroeker acknowledges that a combination of unique circumstances led to the idling of the family's farmland, the situation provides a glimpse into future challenges growers and other California farmers may face due to the likelihood of reduced irrigation surface water or groundwater supplies. It also highlights the importance for growers to continue their personal journeys toward improved water use efficiency – doing more with less to achieve "more crop per drop" – as they have successfully accomplished over the decades. Already almond growers have made great strides, using 33% less water to grow a pound of almonds today compared to 20 years ago, 1 with the almond community today committed to achieve an additional 20% reduction in the amount of water it takes to grow that same pound by the year 2025. 2 Employing deficit irrigation Starrh Family Farms operates its main west ranch north of Buttonwillow in Kern County, just off the Interstate 5 corridor. The ranch's only source of irrigation water comes from the State Water Project, the intricate water storage and delivery system spanning more than 700 miles across California that is designed to deliver nearly 4.2 million acre-feet of water annually to water supply contractors. "The allocation from the state is erratic from one year to the next," Kroeker said. "We have wet years where we end up with a good amount of water for what we have planted, but then of course there are the dry years. I would never say we have enough to plant our total acreage because the entitlement we have is about two-acre feet and almonds can take up to four-acre feet to grow." For the Starrh family, the common practice of pumping groundwater to make up the difference between surface water supply and crop evapotranspiration demand is not an option on this ranch, as the local groundwater is not suitable for growing crops. With an available water supply and crop's water demand in a state of perpetual imbalance, the Starrh family took a strategic approach of practicing deficit irrigation across the ranch for the entire growing season over the period of six years. "That decision-making process was agonizing because we had to spread out more and more of our water allocation over the acres that had trees," Kroeker said. "Deficit irrigation was the only way to keep alive what we were trying to farm with the water we had available." The Starrh family relied on science – backed by years of ABC-funded research – published by the University of California 3 (UC) to guide their decision making process and implementation of deficit irrigation across all their acres. "The UC has for many years understood plant physiology and determined the optimal amount of water to grow an almond tree for it to produce to its optimal potential," Kroeker said. "According to their research, about four acre-feet of water is the guide. There might be soils and climatic conditions where less water might still produce an optimal yield, but what we learned here is that cutting back on water reduced our yields about 1,000 pounds per acre." After a couple years of practicing deficit irrigation during California's historic drought, and with limited prospects for ABC provides free in-orchard irrigation evaluations to growers seeking site-specific recommendations.

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