A few months ago, I received the pleasant surprise of a message from a fellow who had gone to school with my daughter. I had lost track of where Jordan Martin had ended up, and it was wonderful to read a nice note from him.
Jordan, a year younger than my daughter Caroline, had moved to Utah 15 years ago. Jordan and his wife, Kamie, are Farm and Dairy subscribers and enjoy my column.
“It sure is a different world in the land of desert alfalfa and beef cattle compared to Jeromesville, Ohio,” he noted. It was this which prompted my four-part column on water issues in western agriculture.
The couple has a small farm of their own, but also helps his wife’s father on his ranch. “He raises alfalfa and it’s all irrigated due to no rainfall out here. It’s, to me, a lot more stressful, as all the water for the year depends on the amount of snowfall in the mountains in the winter.”
“People in Ohio are always fascinated with water shares, which is your allocation of water. I knew water was important, but it changed my view on it. Coming from a place that we seem to always have it, it makes you think.”
Kamie, who met Jordan through the fuel supplier his oil rig company works with, has long been fascinated with the differences in Ohio and Utah’s agriculture.
She loves the ranch but worries for its future. Living through the warmest winter on record, this is a worrisome year.
All their water comes from winter snowfall in the mountains, melting into reservoirs and then dispersed through canals to farmers and ranchers.
The couple watched the great migration post-COVID explode Utah’s population. “There is a lot of hate for alfalfa farmers right now, inner city people claim agriculture wastes most of the water,” Jordan said.
“The Salt Lake Valley used to be hay fields, pasture and small family dairy farms. Now it’s homes upon homes upon homes. To me and my opinion, it’s a population growth problem.”
There are meters on farmers’ pressurized water lines, replacing canals. “The canals have to soak water into the ground to hold water into them, like how a pond has to saturate the ground to hold water, so canals kind of waste water. Pipeline is a direct amount. Irrigation has changed a lot from flood irrigation to sprinkler lines and pivots, to be more efficient. But ranchers always seem to be under attack.”
Kamie is impressed by the friendliness of people when the couple visits Ohio, where farmers rely on and care about neighbors.
“Farming out here feels like your neighbors keep an eye on you, all in the name of water,” Jordan so aptly explains.
He tells of being confronted by a neighbor about their beautiful flowers hogging water.
“It wasn’t water,” growing big, lush flowers, “it was honey bees we got that Spring.”
Their attacking tone suddenly changed, and these California transplant neighbors backed off and were never heard from again.
“Everyone wants to make sure they get their share,” especially this year, in which farmers pay for one full share but are only given 3/4 of a share.
“The struggle is playing that water out as long as you can in a ‘use it or lose it’ game,” Jordan said.
“It’s going to be a rough year, but better ones with more snow always come,” this Ohio-born rancher says. “Just gotta play the hand you’re dealt.”
