{"id":468,"date":"2026-06-07T10:03:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T10:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coloradorelocationreport.com\/?p=468"},"modified":"2026-06-07T10:03:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T10:03:20","slug":"are-less-thirsty-crops-a-solution-to-colorados-growing-water-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coloradorelocationreport.com\/?p=468","title":{"rendered":"Are less-thirsty crops a solution to Colorado\u2019s growing water problems?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Colorado State University\u2019s crop-testing station near Akron grows varieties of black-eyed peas, testing for drought tolerance, fertilizer needs and more. (Michael Booth, The Colorado Sun)<\/p>\n

Read more Watch: The Colorado Sun discusses the challenges and solutions for an aging population at Colorado SunFest 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

\nEditor\u2019s note<\/summary>\n
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Where Colorado will find the water it needs to thrive is a more urgent question than ever amid historic drought, undeniable climate change and unprecedented interstate conflicts over limited river supplies.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is embarking on a \u201csolutions journalism\u201d series asking who in the state is doing their share to save precious water. Our solutions-oriented reporting will assess whether specific water conservation projects can free up water at a large scale, or whether local conservation is always overwhelmed by uncontrollable natural conditions or immovable market realities.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun series \u201cCan Colorado do more with less water?\u201d<\/strong> will create a body of work showcasing what may or may not be possible in creating water solutions across the state. From Akron to Aspen, we\u2019re looking for signs of success or failure that will help lead us to water security.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/details>\n

AKRON<\/strong><\/p>\n

Surveying miles of sprouting Eastern Plains farm fields, the logic around Colorado\u2019s deepening water crisis might sound simple.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Colorado each year sinks deeper and deeper into a crisis of water shortages.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Up to 90% of the water available in the state each year is used for agriculture.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It takes 44 inches of water a year in Burlington to grow alfalfa. Only about 10 inches of water drops on Burlington in a year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It only takes 15 inches of water to grow a healthy crop of black-eyed peas in Burlington.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So.<\/p>\n

The numbers point to seemingly obvious questions: Why couldn\u2019t a lot of eastern Colorado farmers switch crops to black-eyed peas, and sell their saved irrigation water to thirsty Front Range cities, or get paid to leave it in the Colorado and South Platte rivers for others to use?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Could that help calm the intensifying\u00a0 interstate and urban-rural wars over shrinking water supplies?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Expand the questions across Colorado: Could Mesa County farmers leave more water in the Gunnison River by growing obscure but nutritious sainfoin as cattle forage? Would San Luis Valley farmers try easily quenched rye grass to help the dwindling Rio Grande and hold the soil against unhealthy winter dust storms? Can they grow camelina for bio jet fuel in Fruita? Take advantage of oil-producing sunflower varieties that thrive like weeds in Lincoln County?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yes.<\/p>\n

But.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s farmers can and do grow anything and everything across the state\u2019s wide range of climate and precipitation. They will experiment with any crop and adapt on the fly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But they need a market come fall. A farmer adventuring with black-eyed peas in April needs to know that a bumper crop from one farm won\u2019t blow the whole limited market for the nutritious legume most popular in the American South and Middle East. Dairy farmers in Texas want more alfalfa than sainfoin. Some Colorado farmers still have unwanted hemp bales sitting in barns from a years-ago fad.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThese folks are ready, they\u2019re hungry for a solution, because using less water and recovering our aquifers in the San Luis Valley, it\u2019s required, but it\u2019s also our future. We don\u2019t have a future if we can\u2019t recover these aquifers,\u201d said Heather Dutton, manager of the San Luis Valley Water Conservancy District and a\u00a0fifth-generation farm kid who grew up in the valley. \u201cSo there\u2019s no fighting alternate crops down here. It\u2019s just waiting for these markets to be developed. We need them faster, we need them right now rather than tomorrow.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not magic \u2014 it\u2019s weather and agronomy and cash flow, Dutton said. Colorado\u2019s water solutions lie with alternative crops, and irrigation nozzles that save 2% of flows, and welcoming local food markets \u2026 all of the above.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no silver bullet, it\u2019s all silver BBs,\u201d Dutton said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have to do all of this. That\u2019s the long game.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun\u2019s Solutions Journalism project is launching today with the state farm economy because that\u2019s where the water is. That does not mean we are asking only farmers what their solution or sacrifice will be \u2014 far from it. In this series, we are heading to Aspen, Aurora, Akron, Alamosa and Adams County. Who is doing their part to save Colorado water? What are luxury homes doing? What are data centers doing? What are landscapers doing?\u00a0<\/p>\n

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This story first appeared in Colorado Sunday, a premium magazine newsletter for members. Experience the best in Colorado news at a slower pace, with thoughtful articles, unique adventures and a reading list that\u2019s perfect for Sunday morning.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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SUBSCRIBE<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

We start with farms because one of the most common reader questions goes like this: If we need to use less water, and farms are using up to 90% of the water, can\u2019t we just grow something else?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Colorado farmers, ranchers, researchers and economists are more than happy to discuss the answers, in detail, right after they point out an important fact: 100% of Coloradans eat food. It\u2019s a shared responsibility.\u00a0<\/p>\n

First, the problem:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Long-term climate change, shorter-term drought and continued growth in the Western U.S. are combining for a growing mismatch between our water demands and our annual water supply. Lake Powell, a key to the clean water plumbing system for 40 million people in seven states, will catch only 13% of its usual runoff this year. U.S. officials plan to release only 6 million acre-feet from Lake Powell for downstream states in 2026, down from 7 million to 9.25 million in prior years. Annual flows in the San Luis Valley\u2019s streams are down an average of 18% from 20 years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

(An acre-foot covers nearly a football field-size piece of land in 12 inches of water. It\u2019s nearly the equivalent of a year of natural precipitation on the Eastern Plains, or the consumption of two to four urban households for a year.)<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, cities like Aurora, Thornton, Colorado Springs and other growing Front Range cities, buy up farm water and spend years arguing with rural communities over whether taking that water will dry up local economies and irreparably alter a way of life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Colorado officials have tried a number of grant and mitigation programs to shift water from farm use to virtual water banks that could satisfy federal compacts with Lower Basin states. They\u2019ve also tried alternatives to traditional farm irrigation that would capture water savings to be used by willing city buyers while not permanently drying up the land.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing something different\u201d remains at the heart of many of those efforts.<\/p>\n

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LEFT:<\/strong> Michael Jones, owner of Jones Family Organics farm, monitors sifting of harvested rye berries on Sept. 6 in Alamosa County. RIGHT:<\/strong> Harvested rye berries sit in a sifter at Jones Organics farm. (Jeremy Sparig, Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Catching an answer in the rye\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The San Luis Valley is the southernmost snow-driven irrigation system in the Western Hemisphere, Dutton notes. Anyone making long-term economic plans in the valley needs to know how perilous that fact is, given how climate change has already cut into Colorado\u2019s snowpack. Meanwhile, the state engineer periodically shuts down wells in the valley in order to meet interstate compacts to raise depleted aquifer levels.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many farmers are well aware that a cereal grain like rye uses only a third to a half of the irrigation water required for other popular valley grains. Dutton joined forces with Sarah Jones of Jones Farms Organics in Hooper after a 2023 spring dust storm eroded topsoil and blanketed the valley. Jones Farms was trying rye as a winter cover crop that could hold down and enrich soil meant for potatoes in other seasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Add in Alamosa-based Colorado Malting Company, supplying grains to distillers and brewers, and now there was a team of experts who could apply to the Colorado Water Conservation Board for a water-saving grant. The board provided about $400,000 for education, marketing and other support.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe set out to work with 10 farmers and have them plant 1,200 acres of rye for the water savings, and the improvement to soil health and wind erosion,\u201d Dutton said. \u201cOf that, we said, we\u2019ll commit to selling 300 acres of harvest. And we will use some of the grant to grow the market.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Marketing rye means expanding possibilities beyond the tang of an intense marble rye soaking up mustard and pastrami at your local deli. Rye can be mixed with wheat flour to lighten the blend in bread, become the base flour for cookies and pastries, be distilled into whiskey, and more. Dutton and partners found 100 potential customers for a new local rye supply.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd farmers being farmers, the first year, right out of the gate, they grew over 4,000 acres, because they\u2019re like, wait a minute, this makes a ton of sense,\u201d Dutton said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Valley farmers were able to produce a healthy rye crop using about a third of the water usually applied to other popular crops. And when the Rye Resurgence Project went out to sell its committed share of the acreage, they averaged 62 cents a pound, when rye historically has sold at 30 to 40 cents a pound.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nonfarm citizens of the valley have also reaped some of the benefits of the slight change in mindset. They hear about water shortages and climate change in a sea of other world problems, Dutton said, and they wonder what to do. Buying a muffin made in Alamosa made from local rye flour is not everything, but it\u2019s more than nothing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the larger stage in this country, there\u2019s so much going on, and people feel overwhelmed in a lot of different ways,\u201d Dutton said. \u201cAnd so to recognize that as an individual we can make a difference. \u2026 It\u2019s really complicated, but it doesn\u2019t mean that it\u2019s impossible.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yes, they do know beans about it\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

For all the recent political and social drama about the urban\/rural divide, city and country Coloradans still have a few things in common when it comes to water and the land.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When it rains over the city, a homeowner looks gratefully at the sky and thinks, \u201cI can turn off my sprinklers for a week.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

When it rains over the plains, a farmer thinks the same.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Growing corn in Burlington takes 26.2 inches of water across a season. If it rains and snows the expected 8.1 inches by late summer, a farmer only has to add 18.1 inches of irrigation to raise a decent crop. Sugar beets, though, need a total of 33.7 inches.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Watch: The Colorado Sun discusses childcare at Colorado SunFest 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Eastern Colorado farmers know corn if they know anything, said Joel Schneekloth, who retired this spring from his longtime job as a crop and water specialist for the northeast at the Colorado State University Water Center. Between demand for corn as feed and silage, and as an ethanol fuel stock for plants in Nebraska and Colorado, farmers know in the spring that they are likely to at least have cash flow in the fall to get them through another year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So Schneekloth and his team face a bumper crop of questions when they suggest northeastern farmers try a less-thirsty, drought-resilient plant like black-eyed peas. Also known as cowpeas, the nutritious legume has been a staple in southern states, in Africa and in the dry Middle East.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Black-eyed peas get peak production with only 15 inches of total water in a season, Schneekloth\u2019s charts show.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just does not show water stress like other crops do,\u201d Schneekloth said. \u201cThey don\u2019t wilt in the heat of the day. Part of that is the genetics. They\u2019re a sub-Saharan crop.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Not only did they take less of the precious local water supply, but in theory it should be easier to get vital crop insurance on black-eyed pea stands, he added. Premiums could be cheaper because it\u2019s less likely a drought will force the farmer to cash in on the policy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Saves water, smoother taste than pinto beans (in Schneekloth\u2019s expert opinion), and gives farmers valuable risk options. \u2026 What\u2019s the limitation?\u00a0<\/p>\n

For one, said Schneekloth\u2019s colleague at the CSU Akron crop test station, Sally Jones-Diamond, the gears from hundreds of years of agriculture bureaucracy turn slowly. The U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s risk management office doesn\u2019t yet see black-eyed peas as a \u201ccommon\u201d crop, even though CSU is planting test patches of black-eyed peas from around the world right next to USDA experimental crops at their Akron shared station. Specialty crops require specialized written insurance agreements, Jones-Diamond said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOne day if they get their act together, and they get black-eyed peas added, then yes,\u201d she said, farmers could get a price break on their risk. \u201cBut not as of now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

For another hindrance, look at equally slow-turning markets.<\/p>\n

Many cultures have a tradition of a black-eyed pea stew for good luck on New Year\u2019s Eve, but the other 364 days of the year can be brutal. Peru grows a lot of cowpeas and because of cheap rural labor can ship it all over the Western Hemisphere at prices lower than what U.S. farmers need.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are 1.3 million acres of corn grown by Colorado farmers each year. If only a few thousand of those were switched to black-eyed peas, the small handful of buyers in Colorado and Kansas would be flooded.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could grow the heck out of them,\u201d Schneekloth said. \u201cAs the old saying goes, one pickup load meets the market. One pickup load plus a 5-gallon bucket tanks the market.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another farming wild card: Political whim\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Troy Waters can talk about alfalfa and winter wheat seeds all day. But one of his favorite conversation pieces in the back pocket of his Carhartts is a humble Mediterranean plant called false flax, which grows well at his multigeneration family farm in Fruita.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The hierarchy at the Waters farm, which has long made a better living by growing crops for seeds to sell to other farmers, starts with water watchdogs\u2019 favorite villain: alfalfa. The extremely nutritious and extremely thirsty bales can always raise welcome cash from local cattle ranchers or well-off dairy operations in Texas or Saudi Arabia. But Alfalfa can take up to 3 acre-feet of irrigation water in a season of multiple cuttings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Winter wheat takes significantly less water, and has added benefits of putting out roots to hold soil in damaging winds. But, like corn, it\u2019s an enormous commodity crop with international competition and razor-thin profit margins in a good year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

False flax is scientifically known as camelina. Run a healthy camelina crop through a press, and you get cattle forage, plus oil that can be mixed at 50% with kerosene to make a biodegradable and sustainable jet fuel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this valley, we could apply a little over an acre-foot of water less to camelina than we did to winter wheat,\u201d Waters said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Waters took a gamble in 2024 and planted 235 acres of camelina, to grow seed stock for a national renewable energy company called Vision Bioenergy Oilseeds, based in Idaho.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually stuck my neck out. I did find out, we can raise it in this county, it yields really good, and I found out it takes a lot less water than winter wheat to raise a good crop,\u201d Waters said. \u201cThe problem with it is, our current political climate changed a bit.\u201d Fast-moving economic waves also rock the planning.<\/p>\n

Major energy producers are now forming partnerships to grow camelina on large-scale farms, partly in response to growing demand from European nations mandating cleaner jet fuel mixes. But to plant camelina at scale, farmers need thousands of available acres, and expensive new equipment to handle camelina\u2019s tiny seeds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe seed company needs at least 2,000 acres to send out a train, otherwise it\u2019s not worth it,\u201d said Greg Peterson, director of the Colorado Ag Water Alliance. \u201cAnd OK, we need a weigh station in Fruita, we need storage in Fruita. You can\u2019t even go to a bank to get a loan for a grain silo anywhere, they\u2019re not interested in funding that.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the primary biofuel seedoil companies is backed by ExxonMobil, and the other is backed by Shell, Waters noted. \u201cYou tell me, with the price of oil right now, where are these companies going to throw their money? Drilling for more oil, or for a seed crop they\u2019re still trying to convince farmers to raise?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe company I contracted for was willing to come in here and contract for 5,000 acres, and that\u2019s a lot of acres in this valley for seed production,\u201d Waters said. \u201cBut the whole industry\u2019s kind of pulled back its horns a bit, and they don\u2019t need any more. They overproduced in 2024. It just doesn\u2019t pay.\u201d<\/p>\n

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LEFT:<\/strong> Colorado State University\u2019s Sally Jones-Diamond shows the scale of a black-eyed pea seed planted in a row of test plots at the Akron agricultural station. RIGHT:<\/strong> Corn shoots in a center-pivot irrigation field near Wiggins. Corn yields grow with added irrigation water, and some farmers want alternative crops that use less water. (Michael Booth, The Colorado Sun)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Widespread solutions will require deeper partnerships<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Short of a central, Soviet-style planned farm economy, Coloradans interested in saving agricultural water will have to continue seeking piecemeal demonstration projects and solutions.<\/p>\n

A typical, marginal Colorado farm this spring is facing fuel prices up 25%, fertilizer prices up more than that if they can get it at all, volatile tariffs playing havoc with international demand, and drought water allotments as low as 10% of normal. They need risk partners to try for the kinds of water savings the public tends to demand, said Peterson..\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to come off as doom and gloom,\u201d Peterson said. \u201cI\u2019m finding money to do alternative crop projects all the time. It\u2019s just that I need 10 more people like me helping.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

State agencies often have money for water experimentation, in $50,000 to $100,000 increments, Peterson noted. He helped a farmer in Conejos County find grant support to grow sainfoin as cattle forage in the southern end of the San Luis Valley instead of alfalfa.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That experiment happens to coincide with impacts of climate change mentioned in a recent Colorado School of Mines study, where higher spring temperatures mean snowpack runoff is happening earlier. That matches up well with when sainfoin needs its first water, Peterson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the saying with sainfoin is that year one, it sleeps; year two, it creeps; year three, it leaps,\u201d he added. \u201cUnless we figure out the economics right, you\u2019re going to have to subsidize it until then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s city water agencies have billions of dollars in revenue each year. Many Colorado counties facing buyups of their local agriculture water by cities are demanding more ethical treatment: Guarantees that dried-up land will be planted with sustainable local grasses, or requiring the city governments to backfill lost local tax revenues from unproductive land.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those water agencies will likely become more involved in the kind of water-saving partnerships that could give farmers the assurances they need to experiment, Peterson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t be surprised if in the next few years we\u2019re ready to start making those asks,\u201d Peterson said. \u201cWe have the data.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Fruita, Troy Waters and the son-in-law he hopes will continue the family farm are open to more options. What they are asking Front Range residents to understand is the basic economics of their lives.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe farmers don\u2019t farm just for the fun of it,\u201d Waters said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to make a living. So we can farm the next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Why Taiwan moved its regional \u201cconsulate\u201d to Denver \u2014\u00a0and what it hopes to accomplish here<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The state\u2019s resilient, adaptable farmers can raise just about anything and use less water doing it. 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