Climate-smart practices help dairies, nourish crops

At DeJager Farms, manure from dairy barns is processed before reaching a holding lagoon. A high-tech system blends in fresh water and calibrates nitrogen levels to meet crop nutrient needs. Photo/Vicky Boyd

Prompted by drought-induced water allocation cutbacks in 2014, the diversified DeJager Farms began looking at buried drip irrigation and manure water from its dairy operations to try to help its farming operations survive.

Since then, the Chowchilla-based producer of milk, beef, row crops and specialty crops has embraced the system. It has installed seven irrigation systems that treat and filter manure water from nearby dairy operations to support crop production. Two more systems are in the works for DeJager Farms, which produces forage feed for dairy cattle and crops such as processing tomatoes, wheat and almonds.

“The benefits we’ve found have just been enormous,” DeJager Farms Chief Financial Officer Richie Mayo said during a recent farm tour.

DeJager Farms was one of three operations in 2014 participating in pilot programs led by Sustainable Conservation, a nonprofit that promotes collaborative stewardship of natural resources, and Netafim USA. The nonprofit wanted to ensure that application of dairy effluent, as the nutrient-rich liquid is often called, saved water, protected groundwater and increased crop yields.

What was learned during the pilot has been applied to newer projects, which currently total 34 in the Central Valley, said John Cardoza, Sustainable Conservation senior project manager.

…the farm has also improved its water- and nutrient-use efficiency and uniformity while reducing overall nitrogen applications. At the same time, yields have improved.

Many state and federal programs are now available to help underwrite the cost of such projects. In 2022, the California Dairy Research Foundation partnered with the California Department of Food and Agriculture and several dairy industry groups to secure an $85 million U.S. Department of Agriculture Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities grant.

Known as the Dairy Plus Program, it is designed to provide additional incentives during the next five years to dairy farmers who adopt advanced climate-smart manure management practices.

Under such efforts, not only has DeJager Farms experienced significant water savings compared to the farm’s former use of flood irrigation, but Mayo said the farm has also improved its water- and nutrient-use efficiency and uniformity while reducing overall nitrogen applications. At the same time, yields have improved.

The buried drip systems allowed the farm to get through the 2021-22 drought without fallowing fields even with 18% lower pump capacity than it had in the 2014 drought. Ten years ago, it had to fallow considerable acreage.

In addition, preliminary University of California research found that applying manure water through subsurface drip irrigation, also known as SDI, significantly reduces […]

Full article: mavensnotebook.com