Moura Ranch is more famous than ever since the family farm was awarded the Nevada Centennial Ranch and Farm Award last month. The 102-year-old operation was recognized during the Nevada Cattlemen’s Association Conference Awards Banquet in Winnemucca.
Nevada farmers and ranchers are eligible for the award if their operations have been owned by the same family for at least a century and be at least 160 acres in size or, if smaller than 160 acres, produce gross revenues of at least $1,000 per year.
Since the awards started in 2004, 52 farms and ranches have been recognized. Other recipients of the 2018 awards are the Miller Ranch in Paradise Valley and Pursel Farms in Yerington.
Tom Moura nominated his farm to honor his grandparents who started the family tradition.
Manuel and Maria Moreira immigrated to America in the late 1890’s from Santa Maria Island in the Azores, a mid-Atlantic, Portuguese archipelago. In 1916, the couple bought 80 acres in the Upper Lovelock Valley to grow alfalfa and, in 1910, they had a daughter named Virginia.
In 1942, Virginia married Manuel Moura who, at the age of 18, also immigrated with his family from Santa Maria Island. The couple purchased her family’s farm in 1945 and expanded the operation. Their son Thomas Moura now operates Moura Ranch along with his wife Darlene, their son Anthony, daughter-in-law Lisa and grandchildren Daralyn and Devin. Their son Mark Moura and his wife Cody help operate a cattle ranch in Cambridge, Idaho while their daughter Amy Moura Blanchard is married to Federal Truckee River Water Master Chad Blanchard.
Moura Ranch is now more than 800 acres with increased production of alfalfa, grains and cattle with Humboldt River water and treated groundwater used for flood irrigation. A well has helped the ranch survive droughts that have threatened farms and livelihoods in the Lovelock Valley.
Open to innovation, Tom and Anthony Moura use water-saving hydroponics to sprouts barley into livestock fodder. With uncertain irrigation allotments, Moura is still considering pivot irrigation that’s more efficient than flood irrigation with less runoff water lost to drain ditches.
“Our water supply is so iffy that I can’t see us not doing anything about that,” Tom Moura said. “The world is on sprinklers. Every horticulture magazine you pick up, it’s sprinklers, sprinklers. They get increased and consistent yields which is important.”
As for the cost of a pivot, It’s not much more than other farm machinery but there’s substantial costs in pumping stations and transmission lines to get water from canals to the pivots, he said.
“A pivot is not bad. It’s cheaper than a tractor, for crying out loud,” Moura said. “The pipelines, that’s the costly part. I would like to see us try one in the next five years, before I die. With sprinkler irrigation, you eliminate ditches, you eliminate levies and you could probably do 25 to 30 percent more (production) with sprinkler irrigation.”
Pivots not only save water but would also help save the soil, Moura said.
“My pet peeve has always been leveling fields because our soil has got fine texture, it powders up so quickly that we destroy our organic matter,” he explained. “With sprinkler irrigation, you wouldn’t have to disturb the soil whatsoever. I think it would be win-win situation for everybody.”
Moura said he supports the idea of raising the Rye Patch Dam. that holds irrigation water.
“”No question,” he said. “That would maybe give us another of storage up there and that would help with this valley a lot,” he said.
There were skirmishes over water in the early days, Moura said. Now, there’s a much wider war involving the entire Humboldt River Basin. The surface-ground water connection has been accepted so Moura believes ground and surface water rights should both be cut during drought.
“What are you going to do about it? Are you going to shut off some pumpers that are perhaps overdrawing a basin where the perennial yield is down,” he said. “Why can’t we use the same allotment to goes to surface water rights for groundwater rights? If there’s only a 50 percent snowpack, it should be consistent. The pumpers should not be allowed to pump four feet.”
Moura thinks the state requirement for flow meters on all commercial wells has had an impact.
“Our stream flow was not great but I think the meters have had an effect because the river is still running,” he said. “There’s still water in the river- it’s not much but it’s better than a dry river. You don’t have to bring that system up when the next water comes down the river.”
The Mouras celebrate their heritage by continuing the annual Portuguese Festa. The 84-year-old event was initiated by his grandparents and other members of the Portuguese immigrant community. A parade features decorated bulls pulling squealing carts loaded with Saint Anthony’s bread and wine to St. John the Baptist Catholic Church. After church, there’s no charge for a public feast of local beef and sopas, an Azorean cabbage, beef and bread soup.
“We feed about 350 to 400 people a year,” Tom Moura said. “We have an auction for which people donate their hand-made goods. Through the auction, we’re able to keep it going.”
Long involvement with the Pershing County 4-H Club helps explain the family’s lasting commitment to agriculture. Tom Moura has served as a 4-H leader for 50 years, Darlene for 35 years, Anthony for 22 years and the club has “cinched” six grandchildren who all raise livestock.
“We are proud of our agricultural heritage, our community participation and our ability to worship at our Catholic Church,” states a family history that ends with a quote from Ronald Reagan: “Freedom (farming-ranching) is never more than one generation away from extinction. We don’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected and handed on...”
The centennial farm and ranch awards program is sponsored by the Nevada Farm Bureau, the Nevada Cattlemen’s Association, the Nevada Agricultural Foundation, the Nevada Department of Agriculture and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Applications for the 2019 award are available on the Nevada Department of Agriculture website. For more information, contact Ciera Ressel at 775-353-3628 or email cressel@agri.nv,gov.
