California Farms Adjust to Drought.
Published in ARE Update, 2021
Recommended citation: Sumner, Daniel A., Carlyn Marsh, Quaid Moore, Scott Somerville and Josué Medellín-Azuara. 2021. “California Farms Adjust to Drought.” ARE Update 25(1): 6–9. University of California Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics. https://s.giannini.ucop.edu/uploads/pub/2021/10/28/v25n1_3.pdf
During droughts, California farms shift scarce irrigation water to crops with higher payoffs such as vegetables or to orchards and vineyards to maintain asset values. With less forage available from pasture or hay and silage, livestock producers cull herds and shift livestock out of state.