Drought boosts state’s thirst for irrigation systems

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MACHIAS – Recent rains and cooler nighttime temperatures are providing some relief for Maine’s blueberry and potato growers, but this summer’s drought is adding emphasis to a statewide interest in irrigation.

The use of artificial rain has been gaining popularity with Maine farmers for several years, but this is the first year federal funds are available to help pay for the expensive system.

In July, 88 growers applied for $197,000 in U.S. Department of Agriculture federal cost-share funds to install new irrigation systems or improve existing systems.

Applicants from 13 counties applied for the funds to irrigate just over 7,800 acres of potatoes, blueberries, strawberries, apples, vegetables, nurseries, pasture and turf. New systems accounted for 1,800 acres of the total.

“I suspect that’s only a fraction of real demand because we didn’t receive final approval for the funds until the very end of June and growers only had a month to apply,” said William Yamartino, assistant state conservationist for the Natural Resource Conservation Service.

NRCS is administering the $197,000 cost-share program for irrigation, which requires a 25 percent contribution from the grower.

The funds are part of the $329,000 Maine received for the Agricultural Management Assistance Program, which is geared toward soil and water conservation and reducing risks to farmers, Yamartino said.

Another 30 Washington County grant seekers – 28 blueberry growers and two cranberry growers – are waiting word on their applications for some of the $500,000 available under a 50-50 cost-share Sustainable Agriculture Water Management Program.

The funds from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation are targeted at moving irrigators out of the streams, rivers and tributaries of three Washington County rivers where wild Atlantic salmon are an endangered species.

“There are more applicants than money,” said David Garcelon, district conservationist for the Natural Resource Conservation Service in Washington County. “Irrigation is expensive.” To avoid direct withdrawal from salmon rivers or streams requires high-yield wells and impoundments.

Last year, The Wild Blueberry Commission of Maine submitted a bill to the Maine Legislature requesting $8.3 million in state funds to help blueberry growers in the salmon watershed identify alternative water sources and build irrigation wells and storage ponds.

At that time, the commission said irrigation water sources were estimated to cost $1,000 to $9,000 an acre, depending on the site.

Irrigation, currently out of reach for all but the largest growers, is credited with salvaging this year’s wild blueberry crop on the barrens of Washington County.

The barren lands account for at least 50 percent of Maine’s wild blueberry crop and most of the barrens acreage is under irrigation. This year’s crop was predicted to be 108 million pounds, but heat and lack of rain took its toll. The crop now is expected to come in below the five-year average of 75 million pounds.

But the recent rain – scant as it was – and cooler nights are helping, according to David Yarborough, University of Maine Cooperative Extension blueberry specialist.

“We’ve seen some recovery in the areas that got showers,” Yarborough said. “Some of the fruit that shriveled is beginning to come back because of the cooler nights and some growers are hoping to rake fields that they’d decided not to harvest.”

Yarborough said that in some areas, it’s getting to the point that growing blueberries requires irrigation.

Cherryfield Foods is Maine’s largest blueberry irrigator. Sid Reynolds, farm operations manager for Cherryfield Foods, said it appears the berries are coming back on a couple hundred acres of unirrigated barrens and the company will assess the situation next week.

“On our fields Down East, where there are heavier soils, the berries still look very good,” Reynolds said, referring to the nonbarren lands the company owns or manages for other growers.

Del Merrill of Merrill’s Blueberry Farms in Ellsworth said there are very few fields in Hancock County where it would make sense to irrigate, given the expense and the size of the fields.

He estimates that the Hancock County harvest will be between 40 percent and 50 percent of an average harvest.

But despite the loss, Merrill said he’s not sure that irrigation is required to save Maine’s blueberry industry.

“In my lifetime in the industry, I can only remember three times when we had a disaster because of the heat and lack of rain and one of those was in the early ’50s.” Merrill said.

In Aroostook County, potato growers are waiting to see what happens in the next week, according to Michael Corey, executive director of the Maine Potato Board.

Corey estimates that 18 percent to 20 percent of the 62,000 acres of Maine potatoes are under irrigation. Irrigation is expensive and most potato growers are using crop rotations to build up organic matter so their soils hold more water, he said.

But if there isn’t more rain in the next week, potato growers are looking at a harvest of less than 25,000 pounds to the acre, Corey said.

The average harvest is 27,500 pounds to the acre, but before this year’s drought the industry was estimating yields as high as 30,000 pounds to the acre, he said.

“Back in June, we were looking at our best yields ever,” Corey said.

State climatologist Greg Zielinski said this is the driest Maine summer since 1997, but the past six years of data do not indicate a trend toward drier summers.

Currently, Maine is experiencing what is referred to as moderate drought, and rainfall in the Bangor area is about 12 inches below average for the year, he said.