Continuing a Family Tradition of Conservation

The Rominger Brothers belong to a family long-recognized as conservation leaders in Yolo County. Their ranch is dotted with ponds and corners for wildlife habitat. They manage their fields with a variety of soil management techniques that promise to reduce inputs, maintain or boost productivity, and sustain their farm’s viability for future generations. Over the years, members of the family have provided (and continue to provide) leadership for the Yolo County RCD, Yolo County Farm Bureau, Yolo County Flood Control and Water Conservation District, UC Davis agricultural programs, the California Department of Food and Agriculture, and the US Department of Agriculture.

Bruce Rominger is a fifth generation member of this legacy. Recently, Bruce spoke about his family’s operation, motivations, and methods for pioneering local conservation on their ranches.  According to Bruce, the Romingers learned about conservation just as other farmers might, such as word of mouth, observing neighbors’ activities, and attending workshops.

The range of products the Romingers grow, which includes row and field crops, rice, and wine grapes, affords them opportunities to experiment with a number of different conservation methods.

Hedgerows and Perennial Grasses
When the Romingers started growing organic vegetables at the request of a processor, they had to stop using herbicides near their organic fields. As Bruce explained, “We thought we would plant perennial grasses with insectary shrubs to control erosion on the hill and [to eliminate] spray[ing] and disk[ing] to keep the weeds down.” This method has also been successful in other areas of their land that are difficult to reach with tractors and that would require frequent hoeing. Using native plants has been very useful for the Romingers and has enabled them to maintain their organic produce in an efficient and ecological fashion.

Hedgerows are another key component of the Romingers’ conservation farming methods. Hedgerows can provide valuable habitat for beneficial insects and small wildlife and can be a particularly good weed defense along a roadside. Even though this goes against the “clean farming” approach that many producers learned, establishing native plants on non-arable land can be a much more effective method of weed suppression than continual disking and spraying.

Ponds
Even before it became a recognized practice, the Romingers constructed multi-purpose stock and tailwater ponds. “Originally the stock ponds were for the sheep we ran in the hills,” says Bruce, “but they also had good water for deer and ducks.” The ponds also provide local groundwater recharge and winter runoff attenuation that Charlie estimated could provide significant downstream flood protection if enough ponds were constructed. The tailwater ponds have proved to be extremely valuable for capturing sediment and water so that both can be reapplied on the ranch instead of lost to the nearest agricultural ditch.

Conservation Tillage and No-Till
The Romingers are also adapting and refining conservation tillage and no-till practices developed in the Midwest to the realities of farming in the Sacramento Valley. Bruce points out that the equipment is transferable, but irrigation methods are different. “We have compaction problems they don’t have because we have clay-rich soils and we don’t have freezing and thawing to break up the soil,” explained Bruce. He added that one of the big problems he faces is trying to fit tomatoes into the rotation because they are extremely sensitive to irrigation quantity and the equipment used to harvest them requires level ground. Therefore, no-till tomatoes are still a dream to Bruce, although he and his brothers have been experimenting with various degrees of working up the ground, “we’ve done some experimenting with the tomatoes over the last couple of years but I can’t say that I have it  figured out.”

Carbon Sequestration
One important benefits of no-till is that untilled soil (and its organic matter) does not contribute to global warming. Untilled soil is not exposed to oxygen and consequently doesn’t release broken down carbon into the atmosphere to cause a greenhouse gas (the cause of global warming).  Bruce believes that “agricultural and forestry practices may be some of the solution” to preventing the buildup of greenhouse gasses and attendant global warming. Whether it’s in the atmosphere, a tree, a stalk of wheat, or a fragment of organic matter in the soil, it is “all the same carbon.” The benefits of conservation can reach far beyond any given farm, and agricultural conservation can have a major effect on something as seemingly unrelated as global warming.

The Local-to-Global Connection
From on-the-ground practices such as native plantings, ponds, and carbon sequestration to leadership in local conservation organizations, Bruce Rominger and his brothers run a farm that is a study in active, inquisitive, and successful conservation.

Article by Kate Laddish & Paul Robins for the Yolo County RCD "Conservation Quarterly, Volume 7, Issue 2, Spring 2003.