Corrine: What is your name?

Judd: Judd Roberts

Corrine: How long have you or your family been in ranching?

Judd: I’ve been ranching personally for about 20 years. Kind of on and off full time and not full time. Probably a four generational farmer though, for generations of farmers and ranchers.

Corrine: That’s awesome. What do you like most about your work?

Judd: I like that I’m providing an essential for people. I like to think of it as I’m feeling probably 1000 people a year with what I do. And other things too with with Hey, I feed other people’s animals that are part of their families as well. So just feeling like you’re what you do matters is pretty rewarding.

Corrine: for sure you like the most essential Person of the whole entire US. So the water right laws within Utah right now say that if a water right goes on us for seven years, it can be taken away and given to someone else creating a sort of use it or lose it mentality. Despite some recent low water years, do you often find yourself or the other ranchers using water that you wouldn’t otherwise necessarily need? To use to keep those rights in the

Judd: To use to keep those rights in the past, especially with farming full time, on a bigger operation, we would go out of our way to make sure we were farming places that we didn’t necessarily usually farm or needed to farm just to reserve those water rights and to make sure we’re using or we lose any type of a situation. So yeah, you’re exactly right. Like you do find yourself using them, just to not lose them.

Corrine: For sure. And then I’m sorry, I’ve explained this three times. Just gonna repeat it. So when I edit I know what I’m talking about Senate Bill 18, which just passed the Utah State House of Representatives enables farmers to sell extra water often found by water saving technologies after a seven year period of non use. If you had a surplus of water for seven year period, would you personally consider selling those water rights? Or would you keep it just in case of super low water years etc?

Judd: Me personally, I would keep them and I would probably recommend anyone to keep them just because I think it’s pretty essential that I think a lot of times the big money is usually in recreation, and that’s where those are the type of things that is going to get bought for things like golf courses and things like that. So I would hate to see water that could be used to feed people to be used for just recreation, non essential things so in the chance and with the way that the droughts have happened like we’ve we’ve been going through a drought, we last year was a recovery but the year before that, we were all scraping trying to figure out where to save and and we got cut back quite a bit. So I would say in for years like that you just want to hold on to.

Corrine: for sure. Yeah, that makes so much sense. And then even though you may not personally sell your water, would you support this bill which would enable farmers to sell their water?

Judd: I think it should be up to the farmer. It shouldn’t be something that the state or the government controls. It should be your choice. I do however, I don’t think it’s rad. it’s wise for Utah to sell our natural resources out of state like California or Nevada. I think it’s important that we keep those resources here. I would say if you are selling them say to support the Great Salt Lake, because it’s very important to our ecosystem. Like that’s something I can see myself. Say, Okay, it’s an S it’s a necessity for me to actually be able to have my place and my water if the Great Salt Lake thrive. So I could see me saying okay, there’s an essential there, and maybe more important than mine and maybe possibly selling it and I would recommend something like that, versus selling it to to California just to support their bad habits.

Corrine: That’s awesome. I was literally just about to go into that. So yeah, right now in the Salt Lake Valley or while I’m fairly low, especially after a portion of you snow year. Are you concerned that at some point that Dushane rewar will dry up or run dry to a point where you are or get to a point where you guys won’t

Judd: have to have water to farm? I think it’s always concerned when you see these drought patterns. Like I think that last drought we ran pretty severe and I think we’ve seen those in the past. So yeah, I think it’s always a concern. My bigger concern than our water drying up would be the government overreach to come in and say, Hey, we’re just going to take it because they did back in in 2022. They did actually say okay, we’re gonna assess this. We’re gonna assess, assess the new shade River, and we’re going to take from places that and so that’s my bigger concern and actual, the drought drying drying up the river because there are times to take from the reducing River and supply the Utah Valley with water. And a lot of times they take more than they should. So that’s my bigger concern than actual drought. For sure.

Corrine: You already touched on this perfect What would you like Utah know about water rights or lawmakers that are going to be passing bills regarding waterrights.

Judd: I think it’s important for us to realize that essentials are should always be priority. And farming is essential. Like it’s not just essential for me to make money but if it farming and farming, the land is actually decreasing all the time like populations are growing. And so there’s they’re becoming a an issue where you need to have these farms have to survive. And so if we lose the water, the land is really not gonna provide us anything. So I think it’s important for Utahns and legislature to know that you have to prioritize the rural areas and make sure that they have the water to continue to to feed people.