I thought I had heard and read everything about the drought and our need to conserve water. But with each passing day I stumble upon yet another excuse for why we're in such a state of affairs. Apparently now it's the cow's fault. Seems that the “beef” grazing the hillsides and waddling through the pastures “takes 11 times more water for irrigation” than other animal proteins.  

So what does that mean for California's cows (Bovinae)?  I certainly don't want to forfeit a juicy hamburger now and then for a steady diet of eggplant. My garden won't take kindly to giving up its blanket of steer manure this winter. Aged manure atop compost slowly releases nitrogen, enables decomposition of organic material and also reduces soil erosion during rainy months. 

Perhaps one of the reasons people are now blaming the cow is these larger than life domestic animals are big targets. I mean, Angus and Hereford bulls can weigh as much as 3000 pounds. I know. My uncle raised cattle on his small Nebraska farm. During visits I saw first hand how much they contribute to our lives. I drank the milk, ate the cheese and savored my aunt's chicken-fried beef steaks with gravy. I also stepped in dung patties that became fertilizer for alfalfa and field corn. Today I'm wearing sandals made from cowhide. For many a spring, I've enjoyed gazing at the herd atop the open space at the end of a Vacaville cul-de-sac. These mammoth "weed abaters" lower the fire danger in dry sizzling summers like this one. 

Cows are as much a part of America's agricultural and horticultural landscape as the pioneers who hitched them to the back of their wagons and moved them west to feed their families and to graze the rangeland unsuitable for crops. How can anyone look into those big beautiful brown eyes in the photo below and badmouth the cow when there's plenty of blame to go around? 

Here, in Solano County, we get the seriousness of this drought. Who among us wants to dole out $500 for wasting a drop? After all, we are witnesses to the receding waterline at Lake Berryessa and lowering ground water levels. Local farmers are foregoing certain crops and rethinking orchards. Residential gardeners are reconfiguring sprinkler systems. Many of us are ripping out lawns. The rest of us are watching sod morph into straw and plants wither. And several of us are still speaking to friends in Southern California who have never rationed water a day in their lives. In fact, I wonder if some communities in the state even intend to shut off the faucet, if May's water usage for Orange County is any indication — up 63.6 percent. 

Oops, I ‘gotta go check the water shooting out of the flowerbed drip system and turn off the hose I left on in the vegetable patch.

Endnotes:
 1. “Compared with other animal proteins, beef produces five times more heat-trapping gasses per calorie, puts out six times as much water-polluting nitrogen, takes 11 times more water for irrigation, and uses 28 times the land, according to the study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.” (Source: The Reporter, A-7, Tuesday, July 22, 2014, “Beef pollutes more than pork, poultry, study says,” by Seth Borenstein of The Associated Press) 

2. “Dealing with drought is everyone's duty,” from Chico Enterprise-Record. (Source: The Reporter, B-4, July 22, 2014)