Local irrigation districts are planning to deliver water around the customary time, although it appears farmers are planting a mite early.

The Shoshone Irrigation District tentatively has scheduled Sunday as the day they’ll begin running water through the Garland Canal, according to the district’s manager, Bryant Startin.

Typically, Shoshone’s start date is around April 15, but the last two springs have received plenty of precipitation and irrigation water was unnecessary until around April 20. This year is the opposite. “(Farmers) are going to be ready for water if we don’t get rain,” Startin said.

It takes a couple days to fill the irrigation delivery system, so the scheduled start date would allow water to be available by April 15. “That’s the goal right now,” said Bill Cox, president of the Shoshone Irrigation District Board of Directors. Cox also is a farmer and represents Shoshone Irrigation District 1.

Startin said no farmers were calling for irrigation water.

None of his users are asking for water, said Gary Kellogg, the Heart Mountain Irrigation district manager.

“They’re all saying how dry it is,” Kellogg said. “We all are.”

Kellogg said his district will probably start around April 15, which is the traditional date, give or take a day or two.

Seeds are going into the ground. Startin said he believes farmers are planting barley now.

“I think they’re getting their barley in,” Kellogg said.

Plenty of tractors can be seen traversing fields in the Willwood area. Tom Walker, manager of the Willwood Irrigation District, said he believes all the barley is planted in his district. “That’s the early crop.”

Tentatively, Willwood Irrigation District will start Monday. “It’s always around the middle of April,” Walker said.

Walker said it appeared as though farmers were cutting furrows for beets.

On March 31, Fred Hopkin said he was finishing barley planting and was planning to begin sowing alfalfa seed by mid-week and beets by the weekend. 

He is about two weeks ahead of his typical spring planting schedule. He is a little worried about frost, but the ground is so dry it probably will not be an issue until the land is irrigated, Hopkin said.

Hopkin farms near Penrose Dam, but his irrigation water is Elk Water Users Association, with water diverted from the Mormon Dam. That water probably will be online around April 15, Hopkin said. 

It is dry, and powerful winds on March 28 tossed a lot of dirt into the air.

“Last Saturday’s dust bowl didn’t do anything to help that,” Hopkin said. “It was ugly.”

Corey Forman, who farms in the Heart Mountain area, was planting oats on March 31.

Forman said he was a little ahead of schedule, but not really early.

He is a little worried about a possible spring frost, but weather is hard to predict. It will likely get colder and wetter, but a little wet wouldn’t be bad. Some precipitation would help grain crops and hay get going in the Heart Mountain area. “Moisture would help a great deal right now,” Forman said.

Cox is concerned about about a possible hard freeze hitting beets, but not too much, because it is very dry. “If they’re sitting in dry dirt, they’ll be fine,” he said.

“We just finished planting our barley, and we’re going to start beets in a couple of days,” Cox said.

Buffalo Bill Reservoir was a little more than 21 feet short of full Monday, according to Bureau of Reclamation data.

The district is lucky because its reservoir is nearly full, Cox said.

One good snowstorm could immensely improve snowpack in the mountains that feed Buffalo Bill, but he hasn’t seen any forecasts predicting a big storm. “You just deal with what Mother Nature gives you,” Cox said.