Farm Talk with Paul Ward: Liquid Gold

In today’s episode of Farm Talk, Paul discusses liquid gold (or water, as it’s known in California). Farm properties in California are all about water – not just the availability of water, but also the cost of water.

Here in Southern California, summer is the arid time of year and farming is completely reliant on transporting water long distances. So, how we value farm properties is largely based on the cost of water. Neighboring properties can have drastically different water costs. One property could be low and yet the property across the street could be twice, three times, or even four times as expensive!

So when people are looking for farms, one of the primary questions is “What is the source of water?”. If it is county water, it can be significantly more expensive than well water.

Paul explains in detail how the water costs vary, and he breaks it down so that it is very easy to understand things like “acre feet”, and what the water cost of each acre of your farm may be per year. Water can become so expensive on some properties that it makes certain properties better for equestrian use, rather than farming.

This is a very interesting episode full of excellent information. Tune in to learn more!