Fallon Area Ranchers Receive Lowest Water Allocation on Record!

The Truckee Carson Irrigation District has announced this year's water allocation for the Fallon area and it's the lowest water allocation on record! "It's only 20%," said TCID Manager Rusty Jardine. "In a good year they get as many as say 12 waterings. In a normal year it's at least 6 or 7. This means they'll get 1 maybe one-and-a-half waterings. That's all there is!" "They're gonna have to make some drastic decisions that will impact the bottom line for farms and ranches here," said Stacy Emm, with Agriculture Extension at the University of Nevada. "They'll utilize all the water they can as early as they can and grow whatever they can," said Lynne Hettrick with the Nevada Department of Agriculture. "And then they'll have to shut it down for the year." For ranchers like Wade Workman it will mean leaving land out of production. He'll only be growing 50 of his 112 acres. "The drop in pay will be horrible," Workman said. And it's expected to ripple into the other big industry in Fallon; dairies...more