California’s ‘most sustainable’ dairy is doing what’s best for business
[Some environmentalists and academic experts] say the only real way to keep dairy farming from warming the planet is to stop the practice altogether. … With so much cropland and a herd that needs to be kept hydrated and cool, [Steve] Shehadey’s farm [Bar 20 Dairy Farms] uses more than two and a half acre-feet of water per day, more than 800,000 gallons. The fresh water comes straight from the San Joaquin River, which has dried up near the farm but still runs into late summer closer to the Sierra Nevada mountains. … Water, Shehdaey thinks, will be the next area of his business he’ll have to overhaul in response to regulations and shortages. While he has installed drip irrigation, a more precise water application method, on 400 acres of his cropland, most of it is managed with flood irrigation, which lets more water evaporate and contaminates groundwater faster.