Local farmer hopes to bring new crop to the Arkansas Valley
Barbara Crimond | Jan 22, 2025 | Comments 0
Caleb and Zaiden Wertz with one of their harvested modules of cotton
One young, innovative local farmer has been interested in trying to find a new crop to use in his rotation – one that can grow in the hot, dry southeast Colorado summers and one that uses less water than traditional crops. Fortunately, for farmers in the Arkansas Valley, he may have found just the thing. Caleb Wertz of McClave had been researching the feasibility of growing cotton here for about 3 years and this past summer, he and his wife Zaiden “pulled the trigger” and planted an experimental 85 acres on their farmland near Ft. Lyon to test his theory. Caleb grew up in a farming family – two of his brothers and his father also farm locally – and he has always been interested in research and scientific experiments. As an aside, the young couple will be starting their own farming family in February with the arrival of their first son. “I always wanted to try new stuff” he said and had been looking for a broadleaf crop to use in rotation with his corn. Alfalfa was a possibility, but is more expensive to grow. Caleb has family in Texas who grow cotton (which is primarily grown in the southernmost states but also in western and southern Kansas, parts of Oklahoma and Texas) so he had people to bounce his ideas off and learn from. He told me that the weather in Texas and Oklahoma in the areas where cotton is grown is very similar to the Arkansas Valley’s, with the exception of elevation. He factored that into his calculations for growing it here, which included the time between first and last freeze (the higher the elevation, the shorter the growing period).
Freshly harvested modules in the experimental North field
The Wertz’s goal for this year first and foremost was to see whether or not it could actually grow here and then determine how much water would be needed to grow it and what the potential yield would be. “On paper it worked” he said, but until he actually tried it and could calculate his results, he wasn’t ready to call it a win. Caleb and Zaiden farm about 350 acres under pivot, so sacrificing 85 of those acres was a calculated risk on their part. The hope was to have a yield that produced the same revenue as corn with less water usage. The cost to plant cotton is similar to that of planting corn – approximately $70-100 per acre for seed. The cotton seeds are smaller than corn’s, “about the size of a few grains of rice” and are similarly coated with things like fertilizer, but the coatings depend on what the individual seed dealer decides to use.
Equipment from Texas working to get the crop harvested before winter
The acres his cotton was planted on last summer were divided between two fields – the “north” field that is visible just off Highway 50 at the intersection of County Road 15 and the “south” field that is closer to Fr. Lyon and County Road HH. Interestingly, the south field performe best in terms of yield. Wertz hoped it would be about 1,500 pounds per acre versus an estimated 750 pounds per acre for the north field. When asked why there was such a disparity, he told me the only difference was the number of weeds in each field, as both fields were farmed identically. Insects are not a problem here, but weeds are. The weeds in the north field “just got ahead of me this year” but in the future he knows how important that control will be. He has an implement for his tractor that he uses for weed control, as he says mechanical weed control seems to work better than chemical control does.
Since cotton has not been planted here before, the harvesting equipment had to be brought up from Texas after the fields there and in Oklahoma had been harvested, so the Wertz’s fields were harvested later than is usually expected . Caleb told me that it actually worked out well, as the extra time gave the cotton a chance to mature more and open up, which hopefully increased the yield. Another hurdle with growing it in Colorado is having the cotton ginned (or processed,) as the nearest cotton gin is in Moscow, Kansas. Caleb and Zaiden traveled to Moscow on New Year’s Day to see their cotton ginned and to get results on yield and quality, factors that will come into play for future plantings as well as the formal report Caleb will be compiling soon for other farmers wanting to try planting it on their land. Hopefully, if more farmers find it to be a suitable crop and enough acres here are planted, a local gin could be built – Caleb feels the proximity of railroads here would help in that endeavor as well and make a gin a profitable investment.
The results of the ginning process in Kansas showed that the combined yield of both of Wertz’s cotton fields was 780 pounds per acre. “It’s not a groundbreaking yield but not a bad one either” said Zaiden, adding “the ginning process was super interesting and definitely much different than any agricultural process most people around here have seen”. The cotton is cleaned mechanically by moving it through a set of tubes that use hot air to separate it from trash, leaves and seed before it can be further processed. The couple is still waiting on results of the quality of their product. While the profit potential for cotton appears to be the same as for corn, Caleb had to plant this year’s cotton without crop insurance, as it wasn’t available for a new crop such as cotton. He explained that the insurance company will provide him with a written agreement in the future that will cover his cotton and give him some financial peace of mind. When asked how many acres he plans to plant next year, he said “as many acres as the insurance company will let us”. He plans to plant half of his irrigated circles with corn and half with cotton next year, focusing the water on the corn and basically getting twice the yield for the same amount of water usage.
Caleb Wertz and the gin operations manager in Moscow, Kansas look at the finished cotton after it has been formed into 500-pound bales
The control room at gin which controls all machines and tubes in the facility, while measuring everything from moisture content to temperature
One observation Caleb has been able to make is that cotton needs to be sprayed more frequently than corn, as it needs to regularly be treated with a growth inhibitor to keep it from growing too tall. He said that if farmers don’t own their own sprayer, cotton might not be cost effective for them to grow, as custom spraying adds up quickly. He has found that cotton needs 6 to 10 spray passes per season. While cotton is technically a perennial plant, it is treated as an annual here due to freezing temperatures in the winter. Before harvesting in the fall, the crop is sprayed with a defoliant, as the plants need to be killed before the cotton can be harvested.
Things Caleb is confident about after this experimental season are that not only will cotton grow well here, it costs about the same to plant as corn, has so far shown to be much more water-sparing and drought resistant, and the yield appears to be good. “Everything is money for farmers – water, seed, chemicals – they all add up. I’m not saying it’s snake oil” he said, adding “I’m not telling everyone to go out and plant cotton”. However, he sincerely hopes he can be a trailblazer for other farmers in our area who are looking to save water and maintain or increase revenue. “I want ALL farmers in our valley to succeed” he said. “The only way to make it through the current economic slump is by sticking together”.
By Barbara Crimond
Filed Under: Agriculture • Featured • Water
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