The North Unit Irrigation District officially ended the 2026 irrigation season on October 9, turning off the headgates that deliver Deschutes and Crooked River water to farms across Jefferson County. The on-schedule shutdown marked the close of a difficult growing season that forced ranchers and growers to plan around the tightest water allotments in recent memory.

The district's board set reduced allotments in March — 1.30 acre-feet per acre from the Deschutes River system and just 0.65 acre-feet per acre from the Crooked River — after a dry winter raised concerns about storage levels in Wickiup Reservoir. Those cuts represented a significant reduction from previous years, squeezing operations for the potato, wheat, and hay farmers who rely on the district's roughly 58,000 acres of irrigated ground in Jefferson County.

A Relative Bright Spot at Season's End

Despite the spring anxiety, water managers were able to report in September that the season would conclude on schedule without additional emergency cutbacks. The Wickiup Reservoir, while not at full pool, held enough storage to carry farmers through the season — a relative bright spot after months of uncertainty for growers who had already locked in input costs and planting decisions based on the lower allocations.

Still, that the season finished on schedule doesn't mean it was easy. For many Jefferson County operations, farming against reduced allotments meant leaving some ground fallow, cutting hay harvest cycles, or making tough calls about which fields to prioritize — choices that ripple through the local economy in ways that don't always show up in headlines.

The Long-Term Picture

The underlying water supply picture in the Upper Deschutes watershed remains a persistent long-term concern. Conservation researchers and state water managers point to more than a century of data showing the watershed drying over time, with evaporation and soil absorption accounting for significant transmission losses before water ever reaches farm fields. Farm income in Jefferson County has declined substantially over the past decade as water reliability has become less certain — a trend that affects not just large irrigated operations, but also dry-land wheat farms, ranching families, and tribal agricultural lands in Warm Springs.

What Farmers Are Watching This Winter

The NUID board will meet this winter to begin reviewing reservoir conditions and setting preliminary allotment guidance for the 2027 season. Early snowpack forecasts for the Oregon Cascades will be critical — a La Niña pattern that emerged this fall could bring above-average precipitation to the Pacific Northwest, though forecasters caution that mountain snowpack in Oregon has become increasingly variable and difficult to predict season over season.

  • 2026 water allotments: 1.30 ac-ft/acre (Deschutes system) | 0.65 ac-ft/acre (Crooked River)
  • Irrigation shutoff date: October 9, 2026
  • District coverage: Approximately 58,000 irrigated acres across Jefferson County

Farmers and water users who want to track the NUID board's winter deliberations can find meeting schedules and agendas at northunitidor.gov.