Friday, April 9, 2021
CapitalPress.com 7
Environmental Working Group:
Conservation programs need reform
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Courtesy U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
Arrowrock Dam is one of three dams on the Boise River
system.
Boise River irrigation
supply looking good,
watermaster says
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
Boise River Watermaster
Rex Barrie is mostly opti-
mistic about this season’s
irrigation water supply.
“We should have ade-
quate supply for the 2021
irrigation season for the
Treasure Valley,” he said.
“That being said, with the
reservoirs, it’s still too early
to tell if we’re going to com-
pletely fi ll the system or not.
I’m fairly optimistic we’ll
get Lucky Peak fi lled.”
In April’s fi rst half water
managers will raise Boise
River fl ows to supply irriga-
tion and other uses. Lucky
Peak is the farthest down-
stream of the river’s three
reservoirs. The others are
Arrowrock and Anderson
Ranch.
Filling reservoirs benefi ts
current usage while carrying
over water for the follow-
ing year. Barrie said carry-
over was decent following
the 2019-20 winter and 2020
irrigation season.
Arrowrock
Reservoir
fi lled March 28.
Barrie said he is not sure
if or when Anderson Ranch
Reservoir, on the South Fork
Boise, will fi ll.
“It’s the largest reservoir,
in the smallest portion of the
basin,” he said of Anderson
Ranch. “And we were a lit-
tle behind on snowpack in
the South Fork drainage this
past season.”
Snow-water equivalent in
the Boise River Basin stood
at 83% of the 30-year median
as of April 5, the USDA Nat-
ural Resources Conservation
Service reported.
Barrie said the reservoirs’
ultimate levels will depend
in part on weather.
“If we get a rain-on-snow
event, things start happen-
ing quickly,” he said. But
alternating bursts of hot and
cold temperatures can delay
snow’s travel down moun-
tains and direct runoff into
soil before it makes it into
reservoirs.
Ryan Hedrick, water-op-
erations lead with the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation
Middle Snake Field Offi ce
in Boise, said that when
Boise River fl ows reach
full summer levels will
depend on fl ood-risk man-
agement and demand from
irrigators.
Nevada farmers and
conservationists balk
at ‘water banking’
By SAM METZ
The Associated Press
CARSON CITY, Nev.
— Rural water users are
panicking over a proposal
to create a market for the
sale and purchase of water
rights in Nevada, uncon-
vinced by arguments that the
concept would encourage
conservation.
Lawmakers on Monday
weighed whether so-called
“water banking” would
be preferable to prevail-
ing water law doctrines that
govern surface and ground-
water rights disputes in the
driest state in the U.S.
A legislative hearing
about two proposals to allow
water rights holders to sell
their entitlements pitted state
water bureaucrats against a
coalition of farmers, conser-
vationists and rural offi cials.
One proposal would
allow for basins to create
“banks” where surface and
groundwater rights holders
can sell or lease water they
conserve. The other would
create programs to manage
the conserved water, allow-
ing the state to purchase
“conservation credits” or
pay water rights holders to
“retire” their claims.
“What we’ve heard all
the time for years is that
this is incentivizing peo-
ple to use more water that
they need; or they are being
punished for not using their
entire water right; or they’re
forced to sell off what they
don’t use. There’s no really
satisfying response to that
except that it’s how (the law)
was written,” acting Nevada
State Engineer Adam Sulli-
van said.
As the U.S. West con-
tends with a hotter and drier
future, water banking is
becoming an increasingly
prevalent management strat-
egy in states including Col-
orado and Utah. Proponents
argue crediting people for
conservation will help pre-
vent future shortages and
off er water rights holders
an option beyond use, aban-
donment or selling.
A working group in the
Colorado Legislature is
evaluating the concept and
the proposals under consid-
eration in Nevada are based
off policies in place in Utah
and Oregon. The state’s
proposals were among the
most anticipated bills in
the Nevada Legislature this
year. In his presentation to
lawmakers, even Sullivan
said he was skeptical about
creating an account to allow
the state to purchase con-
servation credits and told
lawmakers “it should only
move forward with great
caution.”
“Criticism that we’ve
heard about creating an
account like this are that it
could accelerate the cost of
water rights, creating more
problems than it solves,” he
said.
In rural Nevada, where
limited groundwater has
long sustained industries like
ranching and mining, local
offi cials worry that creat-
ing a market for water rights
will encourage their constit-
uents to lease their water for
use elsewhere. They also
worry water banking facili-
tates speculation from inves-
tors betting that water will
become more valuable as
perennial drought makes it
more scarce.
“I think there needs to be
more work before you open
that Pandora’s box, because
when you open it, you can’t
shut it,” Edwin James, gen-
eral manager of the Car-
son Water Subconservancy
District, said of the idea to
start buying water in order
to conserve it for the future.
“You have to really be care-
ful before you start buy-
ing water rights that are not
being used.”
Throughout the West,
rural water users have been
pursued by New York-based
hedge fund Water Asset
Management, which has
reportedly purchased water
rights from farmers in cen-
tral Nevada’s Humboldt
River basin, in Colorado’s
Grand Valley and in central
Arizona.
A new administration
brings opportunities to align
conservation practices with
the administration’s focus
on climate change, accord-
ing to an environmental
activism group.
“Many of the practices
that help reduce farm pollu-
tion and protect our drinking
water supplies are the same
practices that sequester car-
bon in the soil or reduce
emission of nitrous oxide,”
said Scott Faber, senior vice
president of government
aff airs for the Environmen-
tal Working Group.
“So I think there are big
opportunities as Secretary
(Tom) Vilsack has talked
about for farmers to help
address the
climate cri-
sis,”
he
said during
the
lat-
est “Dairy
Download”
Scott Faber podcast.
B u t
reforms to conservation pro-
grams are needed. Some of
the rewards for good stew-
ardship aren’t being pro-
vided in ways that ulti-
mately get the biggest bang
for the buck, he said.
“Right now, we provide
about $5 billion a year in
payments through the Natu-
ral Resources Conservation
Service and to some extent
through the Farm Service
Agency — and that’s ter-
rifi c,” he said.
The
Environmental
Working Group has fought
through successive farm
bills to increase funding for
conservation programs, but
they need improvements, he
said.
“Too much of those
funds are going to practices
that don’t provide much
benefi t for the environment
or even, in some cases, harm
the environment,” he said.
“We need to do a much
better job of reforming those
conservation programs … to
really focus on the practices
that we know from USDA’s
own research do the most to
reduce the loss of nitrogen
from farms, do the most to
reduce the loss of soil from
farms, help famers reduce
methane emissions, help
farmers sequester carbon in
the soil,” he said.
As for the dairy industry
in particular, there’s a lot of
room for improvement as
to how feed is produced, he
said.
“We lose a lot of nitro-
gen, we use nitrogen really
ineffi ciently. That has real-
world impacts for drink-
ing water pollution. It has
real-world impacts for the
amount of nitrous oxide
that’s going up into the
atmosphere,” he said.
There are lots of things
dairy farmers and dairy pro-
cessors can do to demand
more from their supply
chains, especially how feed
is produced. They can also
invest in technology for feed
additives to reduce meth-
ane emissions, and they can
store more carbon in the
soil, he said.
Experts predict strong 2021 market for meat, poultry
By SIERRA DAWN McCLAIN
Capital Press
Economists and protein experts at the
2021 Annual Meat Conference Monday
predicted mostly positive developments
for the meat industry this year.
Experts predict strong consumer
demand and expanded trade opportuni-
ties, contrasted with shrinking produc-
tion — “a recipe for higher meat prices.”
Retail demand is expected to soften
as restaurants reopen, but economists
say the hot economy for proteins is
likely to remain healthy.
Chicken
Paul Aho, economist and consultant
at Poultry Perspective, said that because
of high grain prices, he predicts more
growth in poultry demand compared to
pork and beef this year.
Aho said 2021 “started off with a
bang” with strong demand for deboned
chicken breasts.
Wing prices are also high, a trend
Aho predicts will continue through
2021.
“Americans love their wings,” he
said.
As demand increases, production
growth is slowing. The U.S. is expected
to produce only 1 billion additional
TownNews.com Content Exchange
pounds of red meat and poultry 2020 to
2022, compared to 3.2 billion additional
pounds 2018 to 2020.
Less meat coupled with strong
demand, Aho said, should mean higher
prices for producers.
On international trade, Aho said
China is purchasing record volumes of
chicken right now in the wake of Afri-
can swine fever. Although Chinese con-
sumers prefer pork, many are turning to
chicken during the protein shortage.
“But this is all dependent on if
the relationship remains cordial with
China,” said Aho.
There’s also growing chicken
demand in the Middle East, Aho said.
Pork
Although pork producers faced a
tough 2020, Steve Meyer, economist at
Partners for Production Agriculture, said
by the end of the year, pork demand was
strong.
Sow prices are near record high this
month, he said, “a sign of great demand
for sausage and processed meats.”
As restaurants reopen, Meyer pre-
dicts shoppers will gradually buy
smaller pork volumes. For example, a
consumer might buy a burger at a restau-
rant with just a few slices of bacon on it
compared to a whole pound of bacon in
a grocery store.
Even so, Myer expects many people
who picked up cooking during COVID-
19 will continue.
On the international market, Meyer
said pork exports are at a record high.
The U.S. exported 15.2% more pork in
2020 than in 2019, and demand contin-
ues to grow.
Beef
Despite restaurant closures, Randy
Blach, CEO of CattleFax, said the beef
industry during 2020 saw its highest
demand in 30 years.
As the world pulls out of the pan-
demic, Blach predicts 2021 will be the
second-highest year on record for beef
demand.
Domestic per capita meat consump-
tion is then expected to decline 4% to 5%
over the next few years, but Blach pre-
dicts exports will pick up signifi cantly.
Apply less, expect more?
It’s time for a crop nutrition plan that gets more return from every drop.
Get custom-calibrated formulas and complete agronomic support for the
nutrients you need and the quality potatoes you want. Every step of the way,
AgroLiquid has precisely what it takes to help you succeed like never before.
Find an AgroLiquid dealer near you.
ApplyLessExpectMore.com
Pro-Germinator®, Sure-K® and Kalibrate® are registered
trademarks and LiberateCa is a trademark of AgroLiquid.
© 2021 AgroLiquid. All Rights Reserved.
S238354-1