I’ve spent the last few weeks interviewing farmers, Extension specialists and ag professionals about the high-tech world of water management in preparation for our Irrigation issue. It’s fascinating to learn the many ways our industry is using science and technology to conserve water, save money and improve yields. From sensors buried beneath the ground that measure soil moisture, and in some cases automatically trigger waterings, to Earth-orbiting satellites that can capture images of such high quality that they can detect a single clogged nozzle on a pivot in Jonesboro, Ark.  

While the research-based advancements in water management are certainly impressive, I couldn’t help but be sidetracked last Tuesday when I ran across a news article titled, “Water witches in high demand amid California drought.”  

If you don’t know, a water witch, or a water dowser, is an individual who can locate underground water sources using nothing more than a forked branch and a gift of unique intuition. It may sound a little “out there,” but apparently farmers and ranchers in drought-ridden California are so desperate to find new water sources that in the year of our Lord, two thousand and twenty-two they are turning to water witches to divine working wells.  

I can’t say that I blame them. A California dowser will witch a well for a fraction of the cost of a hydrologist, and their accuracy levels are pretty high — 90% according to the article. For growers already operating on razor thin margins, maybe you gamble on the supernatural. 

I have another reason for siding with the dowsers. File it under, "Seeing is Believing." 

You see, my grandfather had the gift of finding water. He never called it water witching, instead preferring the term “water switching” because, as he put it, “I’m no witch.” 

He discovered he had the talent when he was a young boy. He picked up the discarded branch where a dowser had been working and quickly realized he, too, could feel the strong magnetic pull when he crossed over the underground water source. 

He was very good at finding water and traveled throughout Middle Tennessee helping farmers find the best spots for wells. With a y-shaped switch cut from a tree in his yard, he could not only locate where to drill, but he could come very close to depth and quantity. Considering this unique talent a gift from God, he never charged for his services. 

When standing next to him while he searched for water, you, too, could feel the magnetic resistance that signaled a find. But only when he was there. 

Skeptics will say the secret to dowsers’ success is the abundance of underground water — it would be hard to miss. Fair enough, but how to explain the magnetic force?  

My grandfather could never explain how it worked either, but then again, he was rarely wrong.