Arizona Farmer Welcomes Rain, but Still Worries About Water Shortages

Casey & Andrea Dugan own and operate Desperado Dairy, milking 2,000 cows and farm 200 acres in Casa Grande, Az.
Casey & Andrea Dugan own and operate Desperado Dairy, milking 2,000 cows and farm 200 acres in Casa Grande, Az.
(United Dairymen of Arizona)

Over the weekend, monsoon storms came through the Grand Canyon state, causing massive flooding. A huge concern facing farmers in the western part of the U.S. is water scarcity, so it’s easy to understand why Arizona dairy farmer Casey Dugan welcomed the rain.

“August is always a hot and humid month here in Arizona,” Dugan says. “But we are almost through it.”

Dugan shares that from all the rain, the desert is now green, but the Casa Grande dairy farmer says farmers still need the snowpack in Colorado to fill the reservoirs.

“It’s been raining on and off for the past month,” Dugan shares. “Which is good, and the crops are doing well just as long as farmers have water for them. The rain fall isn’t enough to support the crops.”

Dugan says short-term they are making things work, but long-term, he is still unsure, not knowing what next year will bring.

“Arizona farmers are going to have to cut another 20% of the water next year,” Dugan says. “I hope we can get the feed.”

Inflation Reduction Act 

For the second year in a row, water cuts are coming to Arizona as water levels along the Colorado River continue to drop. The state is set to lose 592,000 acre-feet of water in 2023, which is 21% of Arizona’s water annual allotment from the Colorado River.

Timely, the Inflation Reduction Act that passed Congress earlier this month includes $4 billion to address the historic drought throughout the west. It was a key issue for Senator Krysten Sinema (D-AZ) to secure her vote and passage out of the Senate.

Dugan, alongside his wife, Andrea owns and operates Desperado Dairy, milking 2,000 cows and farms 200 acres in Pinal County. The duo recently gave Sinema a tour and hosted a roundtable at their Casa Grande farm. Dugan says that he hopes the bill will provide more stability for the industry as costs continue to rise and water gets scarcer.

“It’s scary because you don’t know if you’re going to be in business, year by year, if you’re going to be able to have enough feed for your cows,” Duggan says.

His father, Pat, also owns and operates a 2,000-cow dairy, Du Brook Dairy, in Pinal County. Both the father and son also have an additional 1,500 head of youngstock to feed.

According to Dugan, this area of Pinal County has been sustained by a mix of rains, aquifers and canals drawing on the Colorado River. However, Pinal County is the very same county that will face the brunt of water reductions. Farmers, like Dugan, are unsure where they will get feed with the reduction of water from the Colorado River. 

“We don’t farm very many acres, so we depend on other Pinal County farmers for our feed,” Dugan says. “Between my father and I, we need about 4,000 acres of feed to supply the dairies.”

Part of the $4 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act is to be issued to farmers who will be cut off from the Colorado River over the next couple of years and will need to leave their land fallow. Sinema knows this is a short-term fix to a long-term problem.

“We must be more proactive in addressing this issue because other parts of the country will soon be experiencing what we here in Arizona are living with every single day,” Sinema stated.

 

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