Montezuma County farmers got some good news in late May when they were told to expect 21 inches of irrigation water per acre, thanks to El Niño-driven rains in late spring.
Low winter snowpack had led forecasters to believe that the reservoir would not fill enough for a full irrigation supply and just a few weeks earlier farmers were told they would receive just 10 inches per acre, less than half their full allocation of 22 inches.
While most agree that the rains are better late than never, their tardiness has thrown off planting schedules for dryland farmers to the north of Cortez and for hay farmers around the county eager to make their first cuts of the season.
“When you have irrigating water its easier, but cutting is easier if you don’t have rain, so the rain was kind of mixed blessing,” said Danny Decker, of Decker Hay Farms in Cortez. Decker says he usually gets started cutting hay the first week of June, but the rain threw the timeline off by two weeks.
“It rained like this 20 years ago … the rest of the season will be OK as long as we can get everything baled up, and it stays dry. The rain has hurt a lot of guys in north Cortez that haven’t been able get in field on time. Now they’re trying to figure out what crops to plant,” Decker said.
Gus Westerman, of the CSU Extension Office in Dove Creek, says the abundance of rain is definitely better than being bone-dry, but its timing could be better. A series of dry days last week, however, provided enough reprieve for many to get a late start, he said.
“With all of the moisture we’ve received, we haven’t been able to get in the field and start planting. We normally plant the first week of June, and it’s pretty far beyond that at this point, but it’s just drying out enough now that we can get out there,” said Westerman.
He notes that the late planting will likely push back the harvest date but it doesn’t mean a spoiled season.
“There’s a pretty good chance depending that it will push back the harvest date, and if you go back and look at some historical records, it’s not the first time this has happened where it has (planting) been pushed back this late… sometimes you hear stories that there’s been good years when it’s happened,” said Westerman.