Summer Irrigation

Hello Hello Hello Everyone!

Yesterday was for doing, all day just the three of us, releasing water on our pastures for the very first time. No one there to say whether we are doing it right or not, just using our noggins and our muscles as best we’re able. Watching, taking measurements and saying to each other “yeah, I think that looks good” or “oops, I think that was too much”. All materials either found on the ranch, donated by our awesome neighbors, or purchased used. ⁣
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We will only be irrigating for 3 weeks total this year, that is not common. We were blessed with a wet spring and early summer and we leased our late season water to the Lostine River for summer/fall salmon habitat. Despite the brevity of our season and not knowing exactly how a dry late summer will affect our overall production, it feels dang good to be making improvements for part of our growing season while simultaneously pushing our plants to grow deeper roots as we take leaps towards a more natural consumption of seasonal water.⁣
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Flood irrigation solely for forage production isn’t our ultimate goal, but it will morph into our plans for reshaping the contemporary use of irrigation water into the base for an abundant and multidimensional farm ecosystem. Think wetland reestablishment, flyway and pollinator habitat, constellations of ponds, shrubs, and trees weaving together a fabric of place, function, and interdependence. It will take decades and the realities of short term business demands will make it hard, but I am proud of us for the dreaming and the doing.