Looking past the near term

Presented at Irrigation district sustainability - strategies to meet the challenges: USCID irrigation district specialty conference held on June 3-6, 2009 in Reno, Nevada.Includes bibliographical references.This extended abstract proceeds from arguments previously made in the 2008 USCID Urbanization and Irrigation meeting (proceedings; presentation at https://ibs.colorado.edu/wiener/), and elsewhere (posted same place), taking a wider view of the issues facing irrigation in the urbanizing US West. Here, the purpose is to look beyond near-term stresses. Irrigation districts and ditch companies face serious hindrances to long-term planning, including re-allocation to match soils, water, farming abilities, and capitalization as well as the problems of defining the many interests affected by irrigation and acquiring their support in meaningful terms. Certainly, each district and ditch is unique, but some common problems suggest common potentials. Group action created the assets at risk, and group action is needed to sustain them. Given the increasing instability of climate as well as input and output markets within sharply increasing environmental pressures, the importance of agricultural productive capacity calls for careful self-defense. There is little help available, but a rationale for one approach is developed; "Five Capitals". Looking at the "five kinds of capital" (natural, built, financial, individual and social/organizational) in the future, one may see the need for pro-active assessment of all of the assets of the district or ditch. In 30 years, what would you like to have? What might you grudgingly agree to have in order to stabilize what you want? How can you get that? Irrigation districts, ditch companies and their allies must be the link between land use change and water management, and they may be the leading edge of progress toward sustainability

Drought, Climate Change, and Colorado\u27s Policy Discussion: Participation or Procrastination?

Water, drought and even climate change policy problems are attracting increasing attention, but actual response is not as clear. This presentation describes unease over the pace of discussion about rules of the game while play proceeds

Water banking in Colorado: an experiment in trouble?

Presented during the USCID water management conference held on October 13-16, 2004 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The theme of the conference was "Water rights and related water supply issues."Includes bibliographical references.This presentation reports on the progress and problems of the Arkansas River Basin Water Bank Pilot Program in Colorado. The term "water banking" has been used to describe a variety of ways of trading use of water; the legislature's choice in Colorado was a non-profit brokerage mechanism trading only stored surface water. This experiment in modifying traditional prior appropriation law reduces transactions costs and delays in transfers of water. to increase flexibility for the benefit of the holders of agricultural water. Such flexibility is expected to become increasingly desirable in conditions of scarcity and shifts from structural to non-structural approaches to supply. The Colorado experiment is described. to try to explain how a great theory with substantial appeal in principle has been so far socially unacceptable (as of the time of paper submission). The goal is to alert irrigation people to another case of social management being critical to success. regardless of technical charms.Proceedings sponsored by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Central Utah Project Completion Act Office and the U.S. Committee on Irrigation and Drainage

Changing allocation of irrigation water

Presented at Ground water and surface water under stress: competition, interaction, solutions: a USCID water management conference on October 25-28, 2006 in Boise, Idaho.Includes bibliographical references.Integrated water management in the Bear New forms of water transfer are beginning to appear, after decades of calls for increased flexibility in allocation as well as reduction of impacts from the traditional Western practice of "buy-and-dry" - moving water from farming to cities by ending irrigation forever on subject lands. Colorado's interest in improved water transfers increased with recent severe drought, continuing high growth rates of urban and ex-urban populations, and examination of needs for future water supply by the Statewide Water Supply Initiative (SWSI). Colorado does not want a state water plan, but has invested in improving water information and assessment of supply and demand. This study exposed potential shortfalls and may have accelerated competition for agricultural water. Colorado is experimenting with a water bank, but the first effort was severely limited in application and design, and normal agricultural innovation practices were not employed. Now, new forms are being developed in and out of the SWSI. The Statewide Water Supply Initiative "phase 2" technical roundtables narrowed several issues, including alternatives to "buy-and-dry". Three basic additional kinds of water transfers appear to meet demands, and a small set of principles for water transfers are recommended. This paper reviews the three forms and the principles, and the presentation will report preliminary results from further inquiry into potential problems from use of the more flexible transfer forms. Anticipation of problems is desirable to maximize the certainty and predictability of new transfer forms, in order to help make them attractive compared to "buy-and-dry", and to more accurately compare costs and benefits and their distribution

Taking Water From the Farm: A Framework for Considering Transfers From Irrigation

The three basic parts of the framework are (1) the range of issues relating to impacts on areas of origin caused by transfers, and kinds of information wanted to be able to adequately assess them; (2) the range of issues relating to opportunities for mitigation of impacts; and (3) the range of issues relating to ownership and resource management organization that may be desirable for improving economic efficiency and well-being by development of partnership arrangements

Genetic effects on coat colour in cattle: dilution of eumelanin and phaeomelanin pigments in an F2-Backcross Charolais × Holstein population

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In cattle, the gene coding for the melanocortin receptor 1 (<it>MC1R</it>) is known to be the main regulator of the switch between the two coat colour pigments: eumelanin (black pigment) and phaeomelanin (red pigment). Some breeds, such as Charolais and Simmental, exhibit a lightening of the original pigment over the whole body. The dilution mutation in Charolais (<it>Dc</it>) is responsible for the white coat colour of this breed. Using an F2-Backcross Charolais × Holstein population which includes animals with both pigment backgrounds, we present a linkage mapping study of the Charolais dilution locus.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A Charolais × Holstein crossbred population was investigated for genetic effects on coat colour dilution. Three different traits representing the dilution of the phaeomelanin, eumelanin, and non-pigment-specific dilution were defined. Highly significant genome-wide associations were detected on chromosome 5 for the three traits analysed in the marker interval [ETH10-DIK5248]. The <it>SILV </it>gene was examined as the strongest positional and functional candidate gene. A previously reported non-synonymous mutation in exon 1 of this gene, <it>SILV </it>c.64A>G, was associated with the coat colour dilution phenotype in this resource population. Although some discrepancies were identified between this mutation and the dilution phenotype, no convincing recombination events were found between the <it>SILV </it>c.64A>G mutation and the <it>Dc </it>locus. Further analysis identified a region on chromosome 28 influencing the variation in pigment intensity for a given coat colour category.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The present study has identified a region on bovine chromosome 5 that harbours the major locus responsible for the dilution of the eumelanin and phaeomelanin seen in Charolais crossbred cattle. In this study, no convincing evidence was found to exclude <it>SILV </it>c.64A>G as the causative mutation for the Charolais dilution phenotype, although other genetic effects may influence the coat colour variation in the population studied. A region on chromosome 28 influences the intensity of pigment within coat colour categories, and therefore may include a modifier of the <it>Dc </it>locus. A candidate gene for this effect, <it>LYST</it>, was identified.</p

Muscle-related traits in cattle: The role of the myostatin gene in the South Devon breed

In this paper, we examined the effects of an 11-bp mutation within the GDF-8 gene, originally identified in Belgian Blue cattle, in the South Devon breed. The mutation was found at moderate frequency (0.37) in the South Devon population. We quantified the effects of this mutation on growth, body composition and calving traits in South Devon cattle. We found that the mutation significantly increased muscle score and calving difficulty and decreased fat depth. The mutation did not significantly affect weight at 200 and 400 days or muscle depth. Its effect on muscle score and fat depth was additive while its effect on calving difficulty was recessive. The mutation accounted for a significant proportion of the phenotypic variance in muscle score and calving difficulty. There was an economic benefit of the mutation for this data set, however, calculations were sensitive to changes in the parameter values. Additional data would be required to refine these calculations