Irrigators cut off water to a huge portion of the Imperial Valley’s half-million acres of farmland earlier this month after the federal government approved a long-awaited program designed to bolster water levels on the Colorado River. The conservation agreement, authorized Aug. 12 by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the Imperial Irrigation District, pays farmers to stop irrigating forage crops such as alfalfa for a period during the summer. Farmers participating in the “deficit irrigation” program will be compensated to sacrifice one or two hay cuttings without—they hope—killing the perennial crops.