Columnist Susan Snyder: Drought has farmers at a loss

Monday, Nov. 10, 2003 | 8:18 a.m.

As the nation's eyes watched Californians emerge from the ashes of devastating wildfires, federal officials quietly declared Nevada a disaster area for Varlin Higbee.

The 43-year-old Alamo man's family has run cattle in central Lincoln County for five generations. But ranching looks bleak for a sixth generation because of a yearslong drought that has devastated the range.

Last week U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman granted Gov. Kenny Guinn's request to designate all 17 of Nevada's counties disaster areas because of widespread farmers' losses.

"A lot of our neighbors just flat went out of the business or cut their herds," Higbee said days after the federal decision. "One neighbor cut his herd from 80 head to 40 head and was able to stay in business. But that's a 50 percent cut of their herd."

Ranchers, onion farmers, those who grow garlic or alfalfa for cattle or seed -- anyone who grows crops or raises livestock has been affected, Don Henderson, state agriculture director, said.

"It's a lack of irrigation water. So much of the crop production in Nevada depends on irrigation water," he said.

Lovelock-area farmers who depend on the Rye Patch Reservoir were hit especially hard. Water levels are so low most people just say it's empty.

"Some of them only planted part of their fields and just let the rest go fallow," Henderson said.

Nevada's total crop production amounts to $450 to $500 million annually. An exact dollar figure on this year's losses hasn't been tallied, but Henderson said it "runs in the millions."

Connie Simkins, 60, says her family has been raising cattle in Lincoln County for four generations. Simkins, who still raises a handful of cows, owns the Lincoln County Record newspaper in Caliente and sits on the Farm Services Agency Committee for Lincoln and White Pine counties.

Her committee helps keep track of water, range conditions and other resource issues. This year's numbers look pretty bad, she said. Ranchers in the two counties are facing a 75 to 80 percent loss of water and forage for their animals.

"Every one of us has been immeasurably changed. We've had people who had to sell cows because they didn't have anything to eat," Simkins said. "They work all their lives to get the breeding of the cows to where the cows know where the water and the good feed is. But if there's no forage, they can't put them out there.

"So they go to market with the cows and cry all the way home," she said.

Higbee, his brother, their father and the brother's sons have 300 cows among them. In summer they move the herd to land outside of Wells, about 120 miles east of Elko. The rest of the year they keep the cattle closer to home and truck water to them.

"There are parts of our range that have never been used before because there isn't any water on it," Higbee said. "It's expensive to haul water."

Nevada farmers are now eligible to apply for emergency loans with low interest rates. A federal cost-sharing program helped the Higbees obtain a water truck last year. But some snow or rain would be better than a loan.

Higbee remains hopeful.

"This drought's got to end someday," he said. "It can't last forever."