Touring the valley’s lifeline

The U.S. Department of Agriculture deputy secretary and representatives of agencies that serve Northern Nevada visited the Lahontan Valley on Aug. 26 to highlight the USDA’s investments that support producers who face uncertainty with water in the West.

Deputy Secretary Xochiti Torres Small met the Schank family, who own and operate the largest farm in the Lahontan Valley, and with the Truckee Carson Irrigation District, which operates the Lahontan Reservoir Dam and a canal system that brings water to growers in Churchill and Lyon counties.

Small received a tour of the Schank farm which straddles U.S. Highway 50 east of the Fallon city line. The Schank farm totals almost 1,000 acres, and Small said the farm is receiving funding as part of the agency’s new $400 million investment plan.

According to the USDA, the “investment will help farmers continue commodity production, conserve water, increase efficiency of water use, upgrade existing infrastructure and overall strengthen water security.”

In 1939, L.C. Schank bought a small farm in Fallon and, several years later, Cyril Schank began a small dairy on that farm. Ernie Schank’s father, Cyril, bought the ranch in the 1940s and over the years, the family bought additional land. Water, though, was the topic at the forefront of discussion.

“In the West, we are seeing more and more drought, and farmers are doing everything they can do to adapt to that,” Small said after spending several hours at Abe’s Hay ’n’ Feed on the Austin Highway.

Small said the USDA is investing in unique situations and working directly with irrigation districts such as TCID that support agriculture projects and water conservation. She added the agency is investing more than $300 million across 12 western states to introduce new technology and innovations for farm operations to save money.

“Part of the way to select irrigation districts is looking at where a drought is occurring,” Small said.

Additionally, she said the irrigation districts have an interest in those programs and partner with the USDA to find ways to support farmers.

“She was very personal, very reactive to the concerns we were raising concerning the funding program they’re putting out right now,” said Ben Shawcroft, TCID general manager. “She really understands what’s really happening in our local area. With that type of reaction, I think we will be able to make some positive things happen with the funding that’s available to TCID.”

Ernie Schank, a former chairman of the TCID Board of Directors, said drought conditions have faced the Lahontan Valley, especially during the past decade. The region experienced heavy snowfall and an overabundance of water in 2017 to erase drought conditions. For the next five years, though, average or below-average water conditions caused the area to have some degree of drought according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

The National Weather Service reported record snowfall and excessive water during the fall of 2022 and then during the winter months. Western Nevada and the Sierra Nevada also had a good snowpack in 2023-24, but the area remains dry but not in a drought situation as of Aug. 20.

Small, members of the government agencies and water stakeholders toured the Schank farm and learned about the overall operation and watering of crops. The Schank farm is a father-son operation.

“Abe lives on the farm,” said his mother, Carmen Schank, a retired teacher who recently finished her final term on the Churchill County School Board. “A farmer is not any good unless he lives on it and works it.”

Carmen and her husband Ernie said their son had to earn a college degree before coming back to operate the farm. Her tour of the ranch included the ditch canals, planted fields, old buildings used to house workers and a hay barn facing U.S. 50 near Indian Lakes Road.

Small noted USDA is also looking at the water delivery system whether they’re located on the farm or the water's delivered in one of the canals that crisscross central Churchill County. She said other thoughts include moving water faster to the crops or changing the direction of the fields to receive more water.

Carmen Schank explained the Navy’s Readiness and Environment Protection Integration program that ensures land surrounding Naval Air Station Fallon remains agricultural and the air station doesn’t become a victim of encroachment like some bases in California.

A program to implement conservation easements began 16 years ago when a former county manager asked ranchers if they would work with the Navy by selling their development rights while maintaining land ownership.

The Schanks became the first in Churchill County to enter into the Navy’s conservation easement program. The program allows older farmers to keep their land in the family for future agricultural production. When Ernie and Abe Schank purchased land on the northeast corner of Rio Vista Drive and U.S. Highway 50 almost eight years ago, the county approved a conservation easement.

Abe Schank said the tour gave him an opportunity to gauge what the USDA wants.

“They are trying to figure out how they can use funds that have been allocated to apply to water — like true water savings,” he said.

Abe Schank said their farm is a typical indicator.

“We don’t have a lot of updated features on our farm,” he pointed out. “We have some, but they’re pretty old. Most of our irrigated acres are from dirt ditches.”

Schank, though, said he doesn’t know the percentage of water use is undertaken by the other area farmers.

“I think we are a pretty good representation as a whole,” he added.

Small said USDA will concentrate on the local water district but didn’t rule out looking at the other water districts in the future.