From the Fields - Jim Morris

By Jim Morris, Siskiyou County rancher and farmer

We have a cow-calf operation and a sheep operation producing lambs for sale. We’re weaning calves and hoping to sell in the next week or two. The market looks strong for cattle, so we feel good about that.

We also produce alfalfa hay and orchard grass hay (in) small bales, a lot of it for retail, but we’re starting to big bale more of it over time. The market is soft right now, pretty poor for some of the grass hay. We’re pretty sure it’s below the cost of production, and we’re hoping to see that turn around. Not sure it’s going to happen for a little while. The alfalfa hay market is also very soft for almost any kind of alfalfa hay that you have.

We produced 40 acres of carrots for seed this year. Our yield was good but not exceptional. We sent it to be cleaned, and we won’t know how successful the crop is until they do germination tests on it. We have more seed in for next year. It looks like a crop that might fit our area, particularly when we think about water conservation measures that the water board would like.

In the Scott and Shasta valleys on the Klamath River system, the governor has issued another emergency declaration for water in our area. I’m not exactly sure if he’s calling a drought yet, but it’s an emergency declaration giving the water board authority to have jurisdiction over curtailment in our watersheds. The state is deciding how much groundwater we are allowed to take out. They’re threatening the curtailments of the use of wells. Siskiyou County Farm Bureau is working with the California Farm Bureau on what that means and ways to keep agriculture viable in these valleys. We think eventually we will come up with a plan that will work, but for right now, it’s difficult for folks, as we’re being asked to cut down on water consumption.