Southeastern Colorado farmers hope for better growing season after recent rains

Recent rains have brought some drought relief to farmers in southeastern Colorado as they prepare for the sorghum growing season. 

Laura Negley, a winter wheat and sorghum farmer in Eads, Colorado, says her sorghum crop was finally planted on June 6 after three inches of rain fell on her farm’s dry acres.

“We were wondering if we were going to be able to plant our sorghum,” Negley says. In order to qualify for crop insurance, she says the crop had to be planted by mid-June. 

Despite the delay in getting her sorghum in the ground, Negley says she’s grateful to have been blessed with moisture. Unfortunately, she says the moisture came too late for the winter wheat crop, but she’s hopeful the sorghum will do well this year.

The latest drought monitor map for Colorado shows that the less than 1% of the state that’s in D2 severe drought is in southeastern Colorado. Twelve percent of Colorado is in D1 moderate drought, 26% is abnormally dry, and the remaining 62% is free from drought stress.

Although there’s been recent rainfall, Negley says it’s been spotty. “Even with the rainfall we’ve gotten here,” Negley says, “it’s very localized. It’s a night and day difference just twelve miles down the road.”

The precipitation has helped with soil moisture supplies, though, Negley says. Before the recent rains, she says she measured her soil moisture, finding 50% capacity around 12 inches below the surface in some places. 

Negley says that, while she’d prefer to see 80% capacity at a depth of 16 inches, the soil moisture supplies are better than they’ve been in some years across the last 20 years on her farm.

Statewide, the USDA Crop Progress report for Colorado for the week ending June 2, shows that soil moisture supplies were predominantly adequate. Topsoil moisture supplies were 8% very short, 25% short, 56% adequate, and 11% surplus. Subsoil moisture supplies were 6% very short, 24% short, 63% adequate, and 7% surplus.

Reflecting on last year’s growing season, Negley says her sorghum experienced significant impacts due to weather events. Negley says the growing season in 2023 began as one of the wettest on record for her area.

Similar to this year, the rains came too late for her winter wheat crop, Negley says. “We had some decent wheat,” she says, “but then two-thirds of the wheat got hailed out last year.”

Regarding last year’s sorghum crop, Negley says she really expected a boom year because of all the moisture that fell in the spring. However, the crop was submerged in standing water as it began to emerge. 

“It came out of it, though,” Negley says. But then, she says hail impacted the crop. Luckily, though, Negley says the sorghum managed to tiller out before it “headed out nice.” 

This year, Negley says that, although farming in a drought is difficult, she prefers it over dealing with hail on her operation. “Hail is more immediately devastating,” she says. “You don’t just lose the crop; you lose equipment, homes, and livestock.”

After her sorghum headed out last year, though, rainfall completely stopped in southeastern Colorado. “It shut off dry,” Negley says. There was no precipitation throughout the month of August, Negley says, when the sorghum needed the moisture the most. 

Despite dealing with drought conditions for the majority of the past 20 years, Negley says she’s been able to make improvements to the land. “I’m very happy with how my grasses have responded to 20 years of management,” she says.

Alongside her sorghum and winter wheat, Negley runs a custom cattle business where she custom grazes other operator’s cattle from May to November on lots ranging between 40 to 160 acres.