‘Big Four’ anchor Colorado’s agricultural crops

Hay, corn, wheat and potatoes consistently rank in the top four of Colorado’s chief field crops, accounting for about 90 percent of the production value of all state crops, a list that includes barley, dry edible beans, proso millet, sunflowers, grain and silage sorghum and oats.

The combined production value of all Colorado crops in 2003 was estimated at $1.18 billion, according to the 2004 crop review published by the state agricultural statistics service. In 2003, Colorado’s top four crops accounted for 92.2 percent – $1.08 billion – of that total value.

Weather and climate, markets and consumer demand and changing farm practices all can yield trends that affect this, say ag experts.

Evidence that the drought of recent years has loosened its grip is apparent in state crop statistics. Wheat, for example, typically a dryland crop, moved from fourth to third place in 2003. Total production value that year was $262.2 million, nearly double the $139.7 million the 2002 harvest brought, which occurred during the peak of the drought.

“Colorado winter wheat this year is forecast 87 percent above last year’s production,´ said Tim Larsen, international marketing specialist for the Colorado Department of Agriculture. “It’s amazing what a little rain can do.”

Colorado weather conditions aren’t the only climate factors that the state’s wheat farmers face, however. “The wheat industry says most of our wheat is exported,” Larsen said. “Eighty percent of all the wheat we grow in Colorado is ultimately exported outside the United States.”

Thus, weather conditions in Canada and even far-off Ukraine can play a role in the market price of wheat in Weld County.

Larsen noted that in many cases, producers are seeking to take control of their destinies through market orders. “One thing I’ve always admired is agriculture’s commitment to long-term development.”

Take wheat, for example. The Wheat Administrative Committee collects about a penny per bushel of wheat produced. That money is used to grow the market for wheat.

“Our competition is not Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma” Larsen said. “Wheat is competing on the dinner plate against alternative starches such as rice or potatoes.”

Then of course, producers often face food fads such as the low-carbohydrate, no-carbohydrate diets of recent years. Larsen expressed guarded optimism that the popularity of such diets may be waning.

“One thing we know for sure in the U.S. is fads are just that, they’re fads,” he said.

Corn, too, has a check-off program that helps pay to market the commodity. Bernie Lange, communications and marketing director for Colorado Corn, said that ethanol is likely to be the next big market for corn producers.

Thanks to ethanol’s potential to boost demand for corn, the crop isn’t likely to relinquish its spot on the list of top crops.

Right now, corn in Colorado is grown primarily for livestock feed, Lange said. In fact, he noted, Colorado is a corn deficit state, meaning it must import some corn to meet its needs.

Corn production in Colorado probably won’t increase as the crop faces increasing competition for water and farmland from the state’s growing population. At this time, corn acreage is holding steady, he said.

 Trends in declining water and farmland are challenges that engage ag researchers in Colorado. “The challenge for Colorado State University is to try to find crops and cropping systems that require lower amounts of irrigation or less water requirements and still maintain economically viable cropping systems,´ said Jerry Johnson, CSU extension specialist in crop production.

Water is a recurring theme when ag experts discuss crop trends, and no doubt a factor in recurring nightmares for farmers.

As water becomes scarcer in Colorado, production levels of irrigated crops are likely to decline in response, they point out.

Some Colorado producers are working to cultivate higher returns by producing high-value crops, such as organic vegetables, or selling their vegetable crops direct to consumers via farmers markets.

Both areas represent growing niches in Colorado, Larsen said. And both those trends are in evidence in Northern Colorado, where most communities have seasonal farmers markets and many have outlets for organic foods.

“Farmers markets have been rocketing up in success,” Larsen observed. “Frankly, sometimes I think we don’t have enough farmers to staff the number of markets communities want to have.”

While there are trade-offs in terms of transportation and labor costs, farmers can collect much more for their harvests by selling at retail at farmers markets than wholesale, Larsen said.

The line-up of top crops regionally looks a bit different than the statewide list. Larimer County ranked seventh in the state for its production of barley, sugar beets and spring wheat in 2003. Its production of alfalfa hay ranked No. 14, other hay No. 11, corn for grain No. 19 and winter wheat No. 18. Potato production in Larimer County was not ranked in 2003.

Weld County, meanwhile, was the top county for alfalfa hay production in 2003. It was the top sugar beet-producing county in 2003, No. 2 for dry beans and other hay, No. 3 in barley and sunflower production.

Nationwide, Colorado’s top four crops rank somewhat lower. Colorado ranks No. 20 for hay production, No. 15 for corn for grain, No. 16 for corn for silage, and No. 11 for wheat.

The state is the nation’s top producer of proso millet, a type of birdseed. In 2003, Colorado ranked No. 3 in production of carrots, lettuce and summer potatoes; fourth in non-oil sunflower varieties and five for fall potatoes, storage onions, spinach, sunflowers for oil and fall potatoes.

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