Jefferson County’s agricultural community is grinding through one of the driest, most stressful summers in recent memory. A winter that brought record-low snowpack, followed by months of below-average precipitation and above-average temperatures, has left irrigation water in critically short supply across the county heading into the heart of August.

As of early August, as much as 86 percent of Oregon is in some form of drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Jefferson County was included in Governor Tina Kotek’s second drought emergency declaration of 2026, signed in late April through Executive Order 26-07, alongside Crook, Grant, Jackson, Morrow, and Wallowa counties.

North Unit Cuts Allotments

The practical effects hit early. In late March, the North Unit Irrigation District — which serves a large swath of Jefferson County farmland — approved reduced water allotments for the 2026 growing season, setting limits of 1.30 acre-feet per acre from the Deschutes River and just 0.65 acre-feet per acre from the Crooked River. For farmers accustomed to more generous allocations, the cuts have forced hard choices about which fields to irrigate and which to let go.

State hydrologist Cameron Greenwood with the Oregon Water Resources Department has described conditions statewide as deeply concerning. “Pretty much statewide, conditions are not looking good,” Greenwood told OPB in early July. “And a lot of that can be attributed to the well below normal snowpack that we saw this winter.”

River stream flows across most of Oregon’s basins remain well below normal for this time of year, with the little snowpack that did accumulate melting weeks earlier than typical — eliminating the natural reservoir effect that Central Oregon growers rely on to sustain mid- and late-summer flows.

Mid-Season Realities

For Jefferson County’s potato and grain farmers, livestock operators, and hay producers, the mid-August heat and smoke compound an already difficult season. Pasture conditions have degraded significantly across the county, pushing some ranchers to reduce herd sizes or purchase supplemental feed at elevated prices.

In some parts of Central Oregon, irrigation water has been curtailed for the first time in recorded history for certain water rights holders, as the Oregon Water Resources Department enforces prior appropriation rules — meaning junior water rights are cut first when supplies run short.

Assistance Programs

Farmers and ranchers in Jefferson County experiencing hardship related to the drought may be eligible for programs through the USDA Farm Service Agency. The Madras FSA office can be reached at 541-475-3884. The Oregon Department of Agriculture’s drought response page also lists available state resources.

With no significant precipitation forecast in the near term and temperatures remaining well above normal, the agricultural community is bracing for a difficult final stretch of the 2026 growing season. As one longtime Jefferson County farmer put it: you adapt, you conserve, and you hope next winter brings the snowpack the land needs.