NEWTON, Utah — A new study suggests some deep cuts need to be made in alfalfa and hay production in Utah to help bring the Great Salt Lake back to a sustainable level.
The study, published Tuesday morning in the journal Environmental Challenges, argues that more water is being depleted in the Great Salt Lake Basin than is being replenished. The study's authors said that to replenish the lake, everyone in northern Utah (residential, municipal, industrial and agriculture) needs to cut water use.
"All in all, we're suggesting that more than a third of the water that's being consumed in the basin, you know, is, needed to be conserved now," Brian Richter, the president of the group Sustainable Waters and one of the study's authors, told FOX 13 News in a recent interview.
Richter said when it comes to water conservation, "it's really important that everybody takes responsibility for something like this." The Great Salt Lake dropped to a historic low in 2022 as a result of water diversions, drought and impacts from climate change, sparking alarm from the public and policymakers. On Utah's Capitol Hill, lawmakers rushed to pass a number of bills and spent about $1 billion on conservation measures.
But the Environmental Challenges study also focused on agriculture, which is Utah's top water user. It specifically focused on two water-intensive crops: alfalfa and hay. Farmers and ranchers are growing those crops because of increasing demands by consumers for dairy — specifically, yogurt and cheese.
"Cattle-feed farmers within the GSL [Basin] produce enough feed to meet virtually all (94%) of the demands of dairy and beef cattle in the basin. However, not all cattle feed produced in the basin is consumed internally. We estimate that only 38% of all cattle-feed crops grown within the GSL are consumed within the basin, and very little (<1%) is consumed elsewhere in the state of Utah," the study said. "One fourth of all cattle feed produced in the GSL is exported to the Snake River basin in Idaho, and 13% goes to California. California is the leading milk producer in the US, and Idaho is the third largest producer An estimated 17% of GSL cattle feed is exported internationally, primarily to China and the Middle East."
The study offers some proposed policy solutions for lawmakers, including cuts to alfalfa and hay production in Utah and importing more of it.
"Because the cattle feed crops account for so much of that farm water use, we looked at various ways that you could adjust the production of those," Richter said. "Essentially, our conclusion is that you have to reduce the production of those cattle feed crops by a minimum of 50%. We have to figure out some way to essentially retire either permanently or temporarily, half of that production in order to save the lake."
The study suggests that Utah policymakers consider "fallowing," which is paying agriculture producers to not grow crops and conserve water. The study calculates that in order to effectively do that, it would cost every single Utah resident at least $29 a year to compensate farmers and ranchers. Richter said it would cost the state of Utah a minimum of $100 million per year to successfully do a fallowing operation.
Richter insisted the study was not seeking to vilify farmers and ranchers, whom he called "really hardworking individuals" who often work second jobs to make ends meet.
"They have limited options and they're making the best business decisions that they can make, to produce the food that we all are all asking them to produce," he said, citing the low profit margins that agriculture producers often live on.
"We have to respect those difficult situations and I'd like to think that we can figure out a mix of solutions that really helps those farmers and ranchers financially, gets them out of some of the binds that they're in, and also enables them to be the heroes that are going to save this lake," he said.
One alfalfa farmer that FOX 13 News spoke with said he's concerned about the Great Salt Lake and he has made changes on his farm to use less water. ValJay Rigby, who farms in the Cache County town of Newton, said he has covered open canals and ditches, putting water in pressurized pipes to save water. He and other farmers have also explored changing irrigation systems, but that's expensive.
But he defended his crop, pointing out the consumer demand for what comes of it.
"Alfalfa is food. We're taking this alfalfa and we're feeding it to livestock. We're adding value to it, and we're able to stay on the land and keep producing because the other option is put asphalt here in houses," Rigby, who is also the president of the Utah Farm Bureau Federation, said.
On the proposal for fallowing, Rigby said it was something that could be considered. But he believed it also came with a cost.
"We have to decide if we can handle that cost, because there's a big environmental cost to that," he said, pointing to a hillside behind him.
"If I were to take that ground and just fallow it, leave it bare dirt, fallow, we all know what would happen when we have those summer storms. All of that comes off. So then the alternatives we plant into a low value crop that can sit there and maintain the soil, but then I don't have anything income to feed my family with," Rigby said. "And so there's a there's some trade offs there that we have to have a solution that works for all of us, so that we can do better at managing our environment."
Rigby and the Utah Farm Bureau are supportive of a policy enacted by the legislature to offer money to help farmers switch to new water-saving technologies. The program has been a big success, and the Utah Department of Agriculture & Food is seeking more money to get more farmers to try it.
The data collected by the Environmental Challenges study has been shared with the Great Salt Lake Commissioner's Office, which is tasked with coming up with a plan to save the lake. It may also become a discussion in the 2025 Utah State Legislature, which begins later this month.
"We know it's not an easy task to save the lake and recognize it will take everyone conserving, dedicating and delivering water to achieve healthy levels. We need to work closely with all Utahns, including the agricultural community, businesses, cities and water districts to shift the long-term downward trend of the lake," Brian Steed, the Great Salt Lake Commissioner, said in a statement.
Reacting to the study on Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, told FOX 13 News he would not support fallowing as a policy, concerned it would drive up the cost of food.
"I don’t think so," said the Speaker, who grew up on a dairy farm and still ranches near Croydon. "We need to eat. We need food on our tables. Everything they just suggested is food on our tables. If we cut use here, then we rely on other places like California and other parts of the country and other parts of the world to produce our food when we have the ability to produce it right here at home."
Richter said people should not "blame and shame" farmers, who are growing a crop that ultimately is used to satisfy consumer demands.
"Let's work with them to see whether or not we can't figure out how to do this together and do it with a mix of urban conservation, industrial conservation," he said. "And really figure out a solution that works for the farmers and ranchers, to enable them to do the level of conservation that's going to be necessary."
This article is published through the Great Salt Lake Collaborative, a solutions journalism initiative that partners news, education and media organizations to help inform people about the plight of the Great Salt Lake—and what can be done to make a difference before it is too late. Read all of our stories at greatsaltlakenews.org.
