Two storms are leaving the Central Coast soaked this week.
As the ongoing drought continues, the rain has assisted farmers in the county who are growing crops in the winter season.
“This is a lifesaver,” said Kienun Kocan, a dry farmer and rancher at Edna Valley Farming. “I think I can speak as a community. I think a lot of people as dry farmers rely on the rain for our cattle pastures and for our hay ground or, you know, grain crops or anything. We were all getting pretty nervous.”
Kocan grows hay throughout San Luis Obispo County and runs a calf-cow operation at Johnson Ranch.
After growing hay late last year, he became worried his crops weren’t going to make it this season.
"We usually get a lot of rain in January, you know, and usually a pretty wet month,” said Kocan. “We planted everything. It all germinated and started growing and started growing. You know, no rain, no rain and I got nervous it was all going to die, and I was going to have to replant everything.”
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, the drought is moderate in some areas of San Luis Obispo County.
KSBY Chief Meteorologist Dave Hovde says that areas of Santa Barbara County are now experiencing extreme drought.
“Santa Barbara and the South Coast got elevated to D3 drought status. They do that assessment prior to the rains, so the rain is going to help but not wipe things out,” said Hovde. “On the Central Coast, we tend to get rain in these big shots sometimes, so it can absolutely be wiped out by an active week or two. But if you look down the road after the system is down, it gets quiet for a while. Then we get into next week. There's another opportunity mid to late next week. But is it a big one is the question.”
Ryan Talley, the vice president of Talley Farms, says a heavy downpour would not be easily absorbed in the soil.
“It’s best when it’s soft kind of gentle rain like these have been and as opposed to just a real strong sudden downpour,” said Talley. “When we get the downpours, it's just not able to absorb into the soil like I like the soft rains that we've been getting over these past two storms.”
Talley says they are currently growing lettuce, strawberries, cilantro, avocados, and several other organic crops.
He says the rain helps cut costs.
“This rain — it just comes at a perfect time,” said Talley. “We don't have to irrigate, through our wells and we can just enjoy some free irrigation and then don't have to pay for pumping costs to run our wells. And so we are looking forward to more rain.”
