By: Ernest Gurulé
Every year Colorado provides the nation and the world with more than $2 billion in agricultural products. Colorado beef, pork and lamb is on dinner tables in nearly every time zone in the world. Our state is also where countless countries get their wheat, corn, dairy and fruits, from melons to peaches. But that’s only a couple of slices of the ‘ag pie.’
Agriculture is also a major driver in the state’s overall economy. The nearly 40 thousand farms and ranches spread across 32 million acres also employ nearly 200 thousand men and women. Adding everything together, Colorado agriculture supercharges the state economy to the tune of $47 billion annually.
But meeting these benchmarks each year is dependent on weather. Good moisture years are a bonanza for state agriculture. Bad ones, years in drought, skew the equation. Right now, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, much of Colorado is in drought and no region of the state is dryer than southeastern Colorado.
According to NOAA, Prowers County, a 200 mile drive from Denver is mired in drought. The month of April was the driest it’s been in 128 years, down 1.29 inches from normal moisture levels. The period from January to April is the 26th dries since records began being kept. Late May brought much needed rain to southeastern Colorado, but perhaps too little to make up for the shortfall, said the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “Despite the moisture, most of Baca County and a portion of Prowers County remain under exceptional drought conditions,” said the agency.
Fortunately, said Michaela Mattes, Area Extension Agent for Agronomy, “The crops down here don’t need a lot of water.” Milo, a feed grain, sunflowers and wheat are three of the region’s big crops. “Everybody,” said Mattes, “has their fingers crossed.”
While Colorado’s southeastern counties are waiting for moisture, farther west, in Pueblo County, things are not nearly as bad. “We had an almost average snowpack in the Arkansas River Valley,” said CSU agronomy agent Kristi Bartolo. “That means there’s just a little more water flowing down the ditch.” The region’s insurance is the Pueblo Reservoir, a body of water that serves “Pueblo, Pueblo West and the St. Charles Mesa down to Avondale. Everybody depends on it.” Right now, the Arkansas River, the source for much of southern Colorado’s water, is benefitting from the melting snowpack and flowing well.
Pueblo, known for its bountiful chile crop—locals call it the best in the nation—is just one cash crop sprouting in the region. According to the USDA, the county’s more than 900 farms spread over 895,000 acres also produces “pumpkins, winter squash, watermelon, cantaloupe, alfalfa, corn and dried beans.”
County officials say water availability is not yet a major concern and they expect a good growing season.
They says moisture levels in the soil—top and bottom— are good. They say that with adequate water availability combined with the region’s “hot days, cool nights and cold winters that kill insects,” crop yields will be good.
Interestingly, one of the county’s newest cash crops, cannabis—marijuana—has been shown to use a significantly higher volume of water than “commodity crops.” An Illinois State University study found that cannabis requires “nearly double” the amount of water as traditional crops. Still, despite using a disproportionate amount of water, the area’s newest cash crop has not yet upset the aquatic equation.
Insects, an annual concern in the farming industry, have so far not been detected in the county. One bug that can ruin a crop, not to mention, crash a farm economy, is aphids. “They can spread disease and are hard to control,” said Bartolo.
Farther south, in the San Luis Valley, the USDA reports that things are moving along well. The region is known for its potatoes, barley and alfalfa. The agency reports that “with the help of irrigation,” things are progressing well and crop yields are expected to be normal.
Still, with 90 percent of the state under drought conditions and “extreme drought conditions affecting nearly one fifth of Colorado, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, farmers and ranchers are waiting for rain. If it doesn’t come, livestock will hit the auction and huge investments will be lost.
