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["Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>]

One of the problems with this discussion is that Bill has this obsessional 
hatred for all things California.  Rational and facts don't enter into the 
equation, just pure hatred.  The other problem is that there is no 
"California." <g>

O.K., now are y'all confused <g>  Take where I live which is 3.5 hours from 
the coast (111 miles inland) but NOT the central valley he keeps mentioning. 
I live in a combination forest area with Ponderosa pines, Gray/Digger Pines, 
Sugar Pines, oak (about 6 varieties but mostly black and white oak), madrone 
and several dozen other smaller trees like alder, dogwood, etc..  In the 
whole county there is only one area that is really level, the Hayfork 
Valley.  The rest of the land is hills, mountains and small little "glens." 
We have lots of rivers, creeks and lakes and a few places with ground water 
but, believe it or not, it is harder'n hell to drill a well and get any 
water.  We have four seasons--long winter with snow (some parts have REAL 
snow), a spring that you'll blink and miss, a HOT, dry summer, and a short 
blink and miss it fall.  There are no dairies.  There are several very large 
cattle ranches and a number of them turn the cattle out in the early spring, 
pull them and let the grass grow, cut the hay and bale it and then turn the 
cattle back out on it.  I'll have to get a picture of the two big fields on 
the way into town.  They still have green areas in them and they've been 
grazed, hayed and grazed again!

Head west to the next county over and there are tons of dairies, both cow 
and goat.  Now that county has 7 rivers and more creeks than anyone has ever 
counted.  However, there are parts that are the same as my current local and 
parts that have over 300 growing days a year and the temp rarely varies more 
than 10 degrees from 60 winter or summer.  That part includes places like 
Ferndale and the Arcata Bottoms which are reknown for their dairies.  A few 
irrigate (that would be either the move them manually sprinkler systems with 
rainbirds or the "walking" sprinkler systems) but many don't have to because 
of the climate.  Lots of rain, lots of fog, lots of ground water.  Parts of 
Humboldt County are green 12 months of the year and there are quite a few 
folks who have immigrated from Ireland because they feel at home there.

Now, you get down in the valley (central CA) and you get flood irrigation. 
Lots of big corporate farm dairies down there.  Or you can go to Sonoma 
County (again with the sprinkler irrigation) and they have some big, but 
still locally owned dairies (Clover Milk who was sued by Jacque Cousteau's 
family for their ads is in Sonoma County).

When you get to Southern California and you get a whole other bunch of stuff 
going on and several areas that have climates that aren't even vaguely 
related to the rest of California.  Or if you can go northeast of where I am 
and get high desert where they are already down in the single digit temps at 
night.  Then we have the Truckee area where the Donner Party had their BBQ. 
Go to the Delta and another whole climate area.  San Francisco has its own 
climate.

So, in other words, there is no "that's the climate in California" and 
anyone alluding to "THE" climate in California or "all the hills are brown 
and won't support livestock" are delusional!

Lynda

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "clhw" <clhw AT InfoAve.Net>


> Although I know several hundred dairy farmers, I don't know of any who
> irrigate unless you call those spray rigs which creep along spraying out
> water as irrigation. Usually, the water source would be underground wells.
> I really don't know what irrigation is. When we went to Montana several
> years back was the first time I remember seeing irrigation rigs in
> operation, although I may have seen them years before in Alabama,
> Mississippi, etc. and not realized what I was seeing.
>
> Most dairy farmers around here raise very little of their own feed crops,
> preferring to buy them rather than hire non-existant labor. We raised hay
> and silage but bought grain and additional hay. We relied on rain and if 
> it
> was a drought year, we bought more.
>
> Putting our cattle out to pasture was mostly for their exercise. There was
> very little grazing available. The size of dairy farms here is not much. 
> We
> were renting one which was less than 300 acres for 250 head.
>
> >To resolve the question is easy.  Are eastern dairy farms usually
> > irrigated?  Ours are all irrigated here, in this part of the "Pacific
> > Northwest".  That's because there's no forage otherwise after June.
> >
> > Bill
>
>
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