Finally rain. But is it enough?

It rains here and there, occasionally. After months of drought that is bad news for tourists, festival -goers and garden party guests, but nice for farmers, lawns and golf courses. « We are very happy, » says Bart van Dooren, one of the eight greenkeepers from the Brabant golf club Toxandra. « We have balanced on the edge, it has been very exciting here. » At the beginning of April, the golf club barely escaped a two -month ban, through the water board, to pump groundwater yourself. « If we are not allowed to irrigate for two months, that is the death blow. The drying out is huge. The grass cannot handle the drought. »

The trend in the current precipitation deficit is developing a little less extreme and now seems to be heading for the same size as it in the record year 1976. But how much rain will fall in the coming weeks? Arable farmer Hendrik Jan ten Cate of the Zeeland island of Tholen: « We have to wait for my region. For this weekend, twenty millimeters was predicted. That is little. The soil is so dry that they are absorbing the first ten millimeter without the roots of the crops being reached. We crave more rain. The need is very high in the whole. » At the moment in particular onions, grass seeds, early potatoes and wheat according to Ten Cate, director at agricultural organization ZLTO, can use a number of showers. According to ZLTO, one of the crops that also benefit from the dry spring is the asparagus. « For asparagus, the warm, sunny spring is a blessing. The harvest of asparagus is huge and they are very tasty, » said a spokesperson.

This is climate change before our eyes

Yellow grass, as if it is high summer

With the oldest and, according to some rankings, most beautiful golf course in the Netherlands, those of the Royal Haagsche Golf and Country Club in Wassenaar in the dunes, the grass is « as if it is high summer, » says club manager Marko Sterkenburg. « Brown. Yellowish. » In particular, the slopes that lie on the south have suffered a lot due to the sun and the lack of rain. « This is climate change before our eyes. » The club has been able to pump up groundwater and irrigate in the morning and in the evening, but mainly has the greens and the tees Being able to keep the parts of the golf course around the hole and at the exit green. The fairways and the rougheither the short pieces of the track and the rougher, longer overgrown parts around it, have dried out and have become hard in recent months. “As a result, golf has become more challenging: it is easier to the ball firm and fast to roll, but more difficult to let the ball stop on time on the green”, Says Sterkenburg. With the help of an agronomoma, the golf club has to investigate which grass types remain healthy during drought during drought and if it starts to rain during the heat, do not collapse by fungi. » As wine regions in France have to adjust by, for example, growing other grape varieties for champagne, we also adapt. « 

There are plenty of farmers who are already doing a lot to hold water. Reward these farmers for that

Spray or not

In areas where a ban has been on the irrigation of grassland with groundwater since April, such as in the Eindhoven area, by Water Board De Dommel, golf clubs broke a sigh of lighting. « We are very happy with the upcoming rain, » reports an employee of the Eindhovensche Golf, founded almost a hundred years ago by Anton Philips. How the club has succeeded in retaining the grass somewhat is not entirely clear. « We are not allowed to spray officially. The new green is yellow. » The De Dommel Water Board points out that although no groundwater may be pumped up, water can still be tapped in about half of the water board area, channels and rivers can be tapped. « As long as enough water still flows through the Dommel, we have no objection, » says drought coordinator Lonneke Schilte of the water board. Sports clubs that play on grass can of course also provide enough water by saving it in basins.

Each of the twenty -one water boards in the Netherlands can set irrigations themselves, although often, as in Brabant, consultation with neighboring water boards precedes this. Occasionally, the irrigation prohibitions sounds with the farmers; They believe that a little less prohibitions can be issued that apply to everyone, without distinction. Arable farmer Hendrik Jan ten Cate: « There are plenty of farmers who are already doing a lot to hold water. Reward these farmers for that. »

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