• By Drew Gholson and Dan Roach • Alternate wetting and drying is a water-saving technology that farmers can use to reduce the amount of irrigation water used in rice fields without any yield penalty. In AWD, farmers allow the flood water to recede to a “muddy” state before re-flooding the field. The number of days of non-flooded soil between ... Read More »
• By Tommy Butts • Spray water quality, specifically pH and hardness, can impact the efficacy of numerous pesticides. It has been shown that as water pH increases into more alkaline or basic conditions (pH greater than 7), pesticide active ingredients become less stable and therefore, less effective. Most fungicides are better suited to be applied in spray water that ... Read More »
The Bureau of Reclamation recently announced the initial 2020 water supply allocation for Central Valley Project contractors within California. Allocation amounts are based on an estimate of water available for delivery to CVP water users and reflects current reservoir storages, precipitation and snowpack in the Central Valley and Sierra Nevada. “Today’s allocation comes on the heels of an operations plan ... Read More »
The California Department of Water Resources announced an initial State Water Project allocation of 10% for the 2020 calendar year. The initial allocation is based on several factors, such as conservative dry hydrology, reservoir storage, and releases necessary to meet water supply and environmental demands, according to a news release. State allocations are based on conservative assumptions and may change ... Read More »
The Bureau of Reclamation announced initial water allocations for Central Valley Project water contractors. As the season progresses, the bureau may change the amount of water delivered. The initial allocation as based on conservative estimates of the amount of water in Sierra Nevada snowpack, current Central Valley reservoir storage and anticipated precipitation, according to a bureau news release. As of ... Read More »
• By Vicky Boyd, Editor • More than 1,500 farmers, community leaders and urbanites attending an Aug. 20 rally sent a passionate message to the California State Water Board about their disgust with its proposed unimpaired San Joaquin River flows. The event — organized by Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced, and held on the steps of the state Capitol in Sacramento ... Read More »
Here we go again. The California State Water Resources Control Board has come out with an updated proposal for unimpaired flows on the San Joaquin River and its tributaries. Upon first glance, the most-recent rendition isn’t much changed since the board originally floated the proposal in November 2016. At the heart is leaving an average of 40 percent of water ... Read More »
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which operates California’s Central Valley Project, updated water allocations originally made Feb. 20. Read More »
Jennifer James, a rice farmer from Newport, Arkansas, was recently named the 2017 Farmer of the Year by the Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture. Read More »
Simple, farmer-built gauge helps augment water management. Read More »
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