--- title: California Drought: Farmers Hire Dowsers Water Witches to Find Water description: Desperate times call for desperate measures? canonical: https://time.com/11462/california-farmers-are-using-water-witches-to-make-your-two-buck-chuck/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-03T16:23:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:07:24.086Z og:title: California Drought: Farmers Hire Dowsers Water Witches to Find Water og:description: Desperate times call for desperate measures? og:url: https://time.com/11462/california-farmers-are-using-water-witches-to-make-your-two-buck-chuck/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd6379e061d587463/6986837fe53aba33c44d1400/california-drought.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: california-drought og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: California Drought: Farmers Hire Dowsers Water Witches to Find Water twitter:description: Desperate times call for desperate measures? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd6379e061d587463/6986837fe53aba33c44d1400/california-drought.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # California Farmers Are Using 'Water Witches' to Make Your Two Buck Chuck > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=b6037c5d-3047-4d99-8d1f-7f8c5a255ba7&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Mar 3, 2014 4:23 PM UTC  Proprietor Marc Mondavi demonstrates dowsing with "diving rods" to locate water at the Charles Krug winery in St. Helena, Calif. Proprietor Marc Mondavi demonstrates dowsing with "diving rods" to locate water at the Charles Krug winery in St. Helena, Calif. Eric Risberg—AP  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Mar 3, 2014 4:23 PM UTC In the middle of a record drought, some California farmers have hired dowsers — also known as “water witches” — to use uncommon techniques to find underground water, The Associated Press [reports](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/02/water-witches-california-drought%5Fn%5F4885092.html?utm%5Fhp%5Fref=green). [Dowsers](http://dowsers.org/dowsing/articles/water-dowsing) extend copper or wooden sticks called “divining rods” over the ground to find new wells. Bronco Wine Co., the fourth largest winemaker in the U.S. (and the maker of [Two Buck Chuck](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles%5FShaw%5Fwine)), employs dowsers on its 40,000-acre property, according to the AP. The [AP](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/02/water-witches-california-drought%5Fn%5F4885092.html?utm%5Fhp%5Fref=green) reports Napa Valley’s best-known “water witch” is winemaker [Marc Mondavi](http://www.thediviningrod.com/default.aspx), who charges as much as $500 per visit. The state’s Department of Water Resources and the U.S. Geological Survey do not endorse the practice, arguing that there is no scientific basis to it. **MORE:** [California Set to Get Rain, But It Won’t Quench The Drought](http://science.time.com/2014/02/24/california-rainfall-wont-end-drought/) **MORE:** [California Farmers Need Water: Is Desalination The Answer? ](http://science.time.com/2014/02/14/california-drought-debate-over-desalination/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/11462/california-farmers-are-using-water-witches-to-make-your-two-buck-chuck/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/11462/california-farmers-are-using-water-witches-to-make-your-two-buck-chuck/"},"headline":"California Farmers Are Using 'Water Witches' to Make Your Two Buck Chuck","datePublished":"2014-03-03T16:23:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:07:24.086Z","description":"Desperate times call for desperate measures?","url":"https://time.com/11462/california-farmers-are-using-water-witches-to-make-your-two-buck-chuck/","keywords":["Newsfeed","California","Environment","Food & Drink","Agriculture","Drought"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd6379e061d587463/6986837fe53aba33c44d1400/california-drought.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. 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