I used to think any decreed water right was good enough when buying irrigated land. I changed my mind the hard way watching neighbors with 1960s priority dates get completely shut off while I kept irrigating under an 1890s decree during a drought year. The difference between a senior and junior right isn't just numbers on paper — it's the difference between running cattle and selling them off in August.
Before you buy any irrigated acreage, pull the actual water court decree and find the priority date. Then look up your local river basin's call history. If the basin goes on call regularly during July and August — which is peak irrigation season in most of the West — a junior right is nearly worthless in the years you'll need it most. Some sellers will tell you they've 'never been shorted.' Ask them what years they checked.
A 100-acre parcel with a senior right can outperform 500 acres with junior rights in any meaningful drought cycle.
Anyone here bought land with junior rights and found a workable strategy around the limitation, or do you think the risk is just priced into what you paid?
This is exactly right, and I'd add one more trap: leased irrigated land. I negotiated a summer plot with access to irrigation from a shared ditch only to discover mid-July that the landowner's right was junior to three upstream users. When the call hit, I had zero legal standing because the lease didn't specify water priority or what happens when delivery fails. If you're leasing irrigated acres, get the priority date in writing and define what constitutes a material breach if water access disappears.
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Deke Sorrell
0 minutes ago
Good point, and here's one more wrinkle people overlook — even a senior right can get complicated if there's a shared ditch or lateral between you and neighboring parcels. My uncle bought ground with a solid 1903 priority date, figured he was set. Turned out the upstream neighbor on that same ditch ran it dry through neglect and leaks before water ever reached his headgate. Senior right meant nothing when the infrastructure was the problem.