Utah laws have previously encouraged water overuse on farms, but changing how water is divided may give farmers, like Newcastle farmer Kimball Holt, a chance to branch out crop-wise while conserving water.
The Holt Dairy Farm is located in Basin 71, and its water rights are managed under the State Engineer’s Beryl Enterprise Groundwater Management Plan, adopted in 2012. The goal is to limit groundwater withdrawals to safe yield and protect water quality.
Safe yield is the amount of water that can be pumped sustainably, which was determined to be about 34,000 acre-feet per year in the Basin 71. When the plan was written, the State Engineer’s office guessed the average water depletion was 65,000 acre-feet per year.
Holt said they needed the ability to be flexible and began working with the state to create a water depletion and diversion analysis.
The Holt Dairy Farm changed its water rights to commercial water, which required them to measure each gallon of water they used. They agreed to reduce their water use from 48 inches per acre to 40 inches in exchange for flexibility.
Holt said the new system is called the Roswell Accounting Method. This system allows farmers flexibility in managing drought and wet years and spreading the water over more land. This increases the yield while maintaining lower water usage.
Triticale and corn are two water-efficient crops Holt harvests, compared to alfalfa, that’s more common. These helped the farm conserve water and continue planting more crops.
The Holt Dairy Farm’s sustainable practices also include building a digester to capture methane from cow waste for electricity and using wood chips as bedding for their cattle.
Author: Maddi Munro
Photo courtesy of Markus Spiske
Editor: Chevy Blackburn
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