Water and weeds are top concerns for Nevada agriculture producers, finds a statewide survey conducted by University of Nevada Cooperative Extension.
Lyon County Extension Educator and university professor Loretta Singletary conducted the survey and analyzed the results, which were unveiled last weekend at the annual conference of the Nevada Cattlemen's Association.
Ranchers' and farmers' priorities in order of importance were:
* Legal considerations for water rights protection (91 percent)
* Impacts of water transfers within and outside basins (89 percent)
* Impacts of water rights sales (87 percent)
* Impacts of environmental regulations on water use (83 percent)
* Noxious weed identification and control (83 percent)
The four-page survey was mailed to 2,486 agriculture producers who earn at least $1,000 annually from agriculture.
"The response rate was 23 percent, which is considered fairly robust for a postal mail survey, given that no efforts were made to track individual respondents," according to Singletary.
